Eiffel Over

Tag: thriving

  • COP29 x World Quality Week

    This week, world leaders are meeting in Azerbaijan for the COP 29 climate negotiations. Meanwhile, in the construction industry, we are marking World Quality Week. 

    What is world quality? 

    For me, in construction, it is a world that is thriving, both where we make and where we take. 

    Given the buildings and construction sector contribute 39% to global carbon emissions (according to the World Green Building Council), it feels like we need to think more about World Quality in construction

  • Harnessing waves in our work

    Harnessing waves in our work

    Today’s post picks up on yesterday’s theme of riding the waves of human energy in our work. The idea is to create a cycle of working that tunes in to our own and others’ level of available energy to create better thriving for all involved. 

    For the regenerative designer, the living world often gives us a good template for how to create thriving systems. And so, whether the wavelength we are designing for is a day, a month, a year or even a lifetime, here are some modes of working inspired by the changes that living systems cycle through. I have organised these into five touch points.

    1 – Start of a new cycle 

    • Associated with potential and possibilities.
    • Might be a dream-like state.
    • Might be quite slow or dormant – possibly no activity visible on the surface.
    • Gradually shifting into planning.
    • Darkness, low levels of light or energy.

    2 – Ascent 

    • Gathering momentum.
    • Plans transition into action.
    • Gaining confidence.
    • Work becomes visible.

    3 – Peak

    • Maximum output or yield. Possibly a launch phase.
    • Everything is visible, a point of recognition.
    • The brightest part of the cycle, associated with clarity.
    • Celebration of achievement and milestones.

    4 – Descent 

    • Harvest, where outputs are gathered, enjoyed and shared.
    • Reflection on work done, evaluation. 
    • Taking apart or shedding in readiness for the next cycle.
    • Gather resources for dormant phase.

    5 – Rest and renewal 

    • Recovery and restoring. 
    • Lower visibility.
    • Less action, slower movement.

    Of course, how we spend our time is a negotiation with others. The invitation here is to look for opportunities to acknowledge the cyclical ways in which we work. And to acknowledge more widely the cyclical pattern to the living systems that enable us to thrive.

  • Where we make but also where we take

    When it comes to regenerative design, it’s not just where we make but also where we take that matters.

    For the last two decades, engineers (and other humans) have become more conscious of reducing their impact. Of how energy efficient our buildings are. Of reducing pollution from our sites into the surrounding environment.

    These are ways of reducing our impact where we build buildings and infrastructure. In the places where we make.

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  • Four characteristics of regenerative systems

    Four characteristics of regenerative systems

    Work on regenerative thinking progresses on all fronts. Book writing with my friend James on Monday (read his excellent blog on this process), developing regenerative practice at Hazel Hill Wood Tuesday and short-listing candidates for the Regenerative Design Lab Wednesday. I love that all of these initiatives inform each other.

    To aid all three I have synthesised my understanding of how regenerative systems operate. This framing is informed in large-part by Donnella Meadows’s book ‘Thinking in Systems’, which is helping to understand the conversations are having across all these fronts.

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