Stop checking boxes. Start repairing.

Regenerative isn’t a label. Here are five key levers to move beyond the “less bad” mindset and actively repair the living world—human and non-human—your company interacts with.

Based on

Vivre la Forêt by Jacques Tassin, Odile jacob 2025.

The time for tweaks is behind us. Continuing to “do better” within an extractive system boils down to treating symptoms while ignoring root causes. Regeneration isn’t a label or a reporting line. It’s a radical shift: move beyond “less bad” to actively repair the living world—human and non-human—your company engages with.

1 – Shift from “reducing impact” to “creating vitality”

Sustainable = damage control. Regenerative = rebuilding life.
That makes all the difference: the goal isn’t just carbon neutrality or reducing externalities, but actively generating ecosystem benefits—restoring living soils, revegetating landscapes, and rebuilding social ties.

What to do: identify one key impact area of your activity (soil, water, climate, culture, people) and define how you can regenerate it—not just reduce harm.

Source : Carol Sanford, “The Regenerative Business” (2017)

Published by Françoise Tollet

She spent 12 years in industry, working for Bolloré Technologies, among others. She co-founded Business Digest in 1992 and has been running the company since 1998. And she took the Internet plunge in 1996, even before coming on board as part of the BD team. 

Stop checking boxes. Start repairing.

1 – Shift from “reducing impact” to “creating vitality”

Optimized to the limit. What next? Learning from forests to regenerate.

From intent to action: the regenerative pivot

Ready to move from “less bad” to regenerative?