Dominique Hes and Chrisna du Plessis: Designing for hope: pathways to regenerative sustainability

Abstract

Can we increase and improve the quality of the earth’s natural capital, its organic storehouse and products, in an age when financial capital is such a heavy contributor to their depletion and spoilage? Dominique Hes and Chrisna du Plessis argue that we can, but only if we are prepared to change long-established mindsets and associated practices in our use of the earth and its resources. Our economic system, with its short-termism, competitive and possessive individualism and uncritical growth models, is one hurdle to overcome. Another is the doctrine of man’s dominion over nature, with its atavistic roots in the culture of our hunting and pastoralist forebears and its sanctification in the first book of Genesis in the Old Testament. So what is to be the way ahead; how are the changes to be effected and by whom? As architects, engineers, town planners—experts in the built environment—the authors start at home. They target the planning, development and regulatory community of the built environment. It needs to take a leap beyond the prevailing regime of ticking off boxes of ‘‘good practice’’ and marking projects and products on scales of green goodness. Useful as they have been in gaining a foothold these are now palliatives in territory too long marred by a mixture of misunderstandings about the impact of human activity on the natural environment and immediate profit. They no longer suffice as we lurch towards crisis. In their place, what is proposed is a clearing away of mental lumber and its replacement by what they and others term ‘‘regenerative sustainability’’. Just what this concept means and entails for action is explained in 10 rich and challenging chapters. Topics range from identifying failures of so-called sustainable development and flawed technological fixes to reflections on the spiritual, emotional and