Having raised $200k of the $1M target through my construction syndicate to start our regenerative property portfolio, it’s a good enough start to begin thinking of our strategy for our combined goals. My only mandate from them is to make money, and mine is to activate system change through the investment… these are not mutually exclusive concepts, let me show you why
It might seem a little counter-intuitive to be securing the money before having a strategy, theory of change, or understanding targets of impact etc, though regenerative development is the process through which we deliver the work, and I’m using this syndicate as a Proof-of-Concept to future investors to see the real monetary value in thinking in new paradigms
Regenerative development from an investor perspective could come under the banners of impact or system change investing, though in truth, I just see it as the wisest and most de-risked form of investing in real estate development for market returns
High level explanation of sustainable build environment principles and how to triage your money for impact:
Operational energy trumps embodied carbon eg start with focussing on real building physics with Passive House principles and renewable energy
Next, embodied carbon through material choice, durable and adaptive design, circularity, and efficiencies, this is the Green Star and LEED thinking
On top of that, you would be going further into the on-side urban agriculture and biophilic design layers of Living Futures certification
Regenerative development is a developmental development model, meaning, our work isn’t solely focused on the development project as an isolated site, it’s a part of a larger ecosystem made up of both place and community
When seeing a project through this new lens, it’s easy to see the exponential benefit of working this way for your target impact metrics
Are you trying to reduce carbon emissions and thinking of your building’s energy, water, or material use?
It would be better to pour a massive block of concrete, jackhammer the shape of your building out and landfill the waste, if the money you saved could change the behaviours of the local community through more conscious purchasing, community urban agricultural programs, or reducing the meat in their diet by half. And where the building degrades through time and wastes more, the community grows through time, compounding impact
Is affordable housing important to you, and you are counting the number of people housed affordably?
Rather than lower returns through one affordable housing development or needing government handouts through planning, it would be better to develop luxury housing and use the increased profits to invest in creating a community land trust, which is a community-led not-for-profit that holds perpetually affordable property out of the speculative market and creating a vehicle for the community to determine their own future, which compounds through time
Modernity has framed our view of the world to think in problems and solutions, which blind us to the greater potential and reality of situations
The next step for this syndicate’s investment and others I will be putting together, including community equity through the work…
Working with Regen Places Network, having 30+ regenerative communities in the network, means working together compounds the impact, reduces operational costs, not double handling work, and helps activate communities in place as partners in the work
Starting with a Story of Place with the community is the first developmental step in the development process to understand the unique essence and potential of each region, developing the capacity and capability of community while empowering them toward self-actualisation
From there, the possibilities are endless, and this is not a colonial model of control and extraction or capitalisation, we will be working with community and with place once we understand it on a deeper level
Some high-level options include:
Buying an old house early and doing a short cycle development to generate returns while we are doing the deeper work with community to double the equity pool for the next larger development
Using the money to option land or joint venture with landowners and pay for the soft costs for development approvals of larger projects, and either sell at that stage or raise more with community to develop and recycle the capital into the next project
Finish Story of Place and after understanding what nodal point of intervention the bioregion or watershed could be activated through, secure land for a local bioregional learning centre as the first asset in the Bioregional Institute
Finish Story of Place, and instead of the learning centre, there might be a call for other land-based commercial businesses through regenerative tourism or agriculture
Bill Reed from Regensis Group has a great line that goes something like “Investors/developers have a right to a fair return but not the right to decide how a community develops”
This model of investing through regenerative development compounds and de-risks future developments in place when the entire chain is in harmony and each node respects and honours each other
There are always hard times, hard decision coming we cant see, problems after problems after problems… you can’t solve a problem without creating more problems, so why even start that chain of events with every new project?
Investors worked hard to create their pool of money but have a problem finding safe places to invest it in. Communities work hard often just to get through the day and have a problem with finding money to make that easier. Why on earth are we not all working together through a spirit of trust, mutual respect, and loyalty?
Regenerative development is a model that builds the humanness back into the idea of reciprocity, it puts the civil back in civilisation, and raises our thinking collectively to higher orders of potential in a conscious connection to the living world
And from my perspective… Why would you want to do it any other way?
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