This course teaches concepts and tools for developing regenerative businesses. Regenerative businesses nourish the economic, natural, and social systems supporting individual and collective wellbeing. Their practices are based on the behavior of natural systems (e.g., forests), in which resources and information circulate in order for the system to thrive and regenerate itself in the future. Regenerative business represents a step beyond sustainable business, which have the more modest objective of maintaining systems without degrading them.
The course begins by developing a series of regenerative business principles drawn from the emergent field of regenerative economics. It then examines how these principles may be applied in the areas of organizational and leadership philosophy, ownership and governance, finance, operations, and organizational culture. Coverage of each area includes conceptual material, discussion of real-world structures and tools, and an illustrative case study or guest speaker presentation.
The course features a central experiential component. Student teams will advise local Maryland business on the development and implementation of regenerative business practices. Students will present their recommendations and conclusions in an end-of-term workshop session attended by client business representatives and external judges.