🚨Systems Change! The Revolution Will be Monetised 🚨💸
Can we find new ways to reverse our extractive systems? Ones that are regenerative, profitable and enjoyable? It's already happening...
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BRiMM News Desk
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Our BRiMM Journal publishes a powerful new essay from Hardeep Kaur, editor of The Lissome: Visions of a Brave Regenerative World (more on this below).
Now booking: Join us for a screening of the new Woody Harrelson and Kiss the Ground team documentary, Common Ground. We will be at the Curzon, Soho, London on 23rd July, hosting a post film discussion with some of our amazing founders. Book tickets here. Move quick as there are only a few left.
This week’s theme is… 🚨Systems Change!🚨
We came up with this theme fresh off the back of a month that has been PACKED with events where positive change makers have come together to create real action. As one report put it: “It wasn’t just about talking. It was about what happens next.” Whether it was 10,000 commercially available solutions at Future Fabrics Expo, the tripling in size of Blue Earth Forum, (an event that matches impact investment with business innovation), or the thousands of farmers jumping around to Andy Cato’s Wednesday night set at Groundswell. It feels like at last, there is change in the air.
What is systems change exactly? As Systems Change Lab puts it:
“The world stands at a crossroads. We can continue to invest in yesterday’s economy — a decision that will intensify climate change, accelerate biodiversity loss and deepen socioeconomic inequities — or we can embark upon a new path toward a more sustainable, prosperous and just future. Limiting global temperature rise, conserving nature and building a fairer economy will require fundamental change across nearly all major systems, according to the world’s most authoritative scientific bodies on climate change [IPCC] and biodiversity [UN].”
Transforming structures, mindsets and power dynamics is hard work. (We know this at BRiMM towers 😅). It means negotiating complex networks and interconnectedness, with few short term wins in the pursuit of long-term goals. We love hearing the successes of the businesses we work with - whether its the growth of alternative energy networks (Yes Urban Chain!) healthier food (Yes Citizens of Soil!) or non toxic domestic products (bring it on Seep!). But the one issue everyone keeps coming back to is - growth. How do we define growth? What is prosperity?
For this we like to turn to Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics. Growth as we currently know it will not be exponential. We are consuming our resources at 1.7 times the rate we can afford. This is an endgame. We need to transition to systems that regenerate our natural and human resources. Kate says it better than us, but she prefers the word ‘thrive’ to ‘grow’.
While regenerative practise has sounded like theory for so long, there are now signs it is becoming reality: Groundswell, a regenerative agriculture conference that was started nine years ago by John Cherry and a handful of farmers in a barn, is now a 10,000 strong conference/festival of researchers, pioneers, retailers, scientists and brands. (and watch this space for a future event we’re hosting on John’s farm)
Is Groundswell the heart of the change? It could be, because so much starts with soil. Our landscape, our air, our clothes, our food, our home, our general wellbeing - the health of the environment determines it all. And while our post industrial systems have been focussed on extraction, depleting our land to devastating effect, the turnaround is coming: in the US, as the production teams behind Kiss the Ground and Common Ground have documented, (Join us for that film screening! Ed), in South America where brands like Veja have galvanised co-operatives of small farmers, in Europe, South Africa, Turkey and the UK. “There’s always a sense of collective action and movement,” said Alice Robinson of British Pasture Leather, “but this year it feels different. It’s really growing.”
And as these communities grow, the movement changes - it becomes more diverse. Whether that’s a Reform voting 6th generation farmer wanting to engage with a new way of practise, or the Chief Business Officer of a legacy brand looking for new foundations. Many of those who have toiled in the space for years are feeling a new rush of energy because these systems are beginning to get traction - change seems tangible. “The regenerative space feels so positive,” says Tamara Cincik, CEO of Fashion Roundtable. “We launched the Great British Wool Revival in September with the Kings Foundation and now we have over 200 brands signed up!”
Business is getting involved too. Oatly, Ecosia, Tony’s Chocoloney, Patagonia, Natura and Triodos Bank have come together to urge the EU to create a new regulatory framework in which regenerative business can flourish, where circularity is at the heart of industry. They are calling for an environmental crime directive, the promotion of sustainable food systems and a strengthening of corporate due diligence. These pioneering brands are examples of ‘growth businesses’ who are profitable whilst still retaining their purpose. Like House of Hackney, the lifestyle brand now crowd funding to buy out their private equity overlords so they can accelerate their ESG vision; “to go beyond ‘sustaining’ to instead actively creating measurable positive social and economic change,” they say.
And we can do it too. Our power is in every decision we make, every journey we take, every transaction we undertake, every cause we choose to back. What will we choose? Legacy, extractive businesses, products and people? Or those part of these new systems of regeneration and rebirth? Let’s choose ones that add, not subtract.
Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,
BRiMM x
Threading together Visions of a Brave, Regenerative, World
In this beautiful, lyrical musing on the history of fibre, fashion and craft, storyteller Hardeep Kaur weaves together myth, history, culture and community to show how clothes have always been more than craft - they have been kinship. “Clothing was heirloom and habitat, not commodity,” she writes. The making of things was with The Seventh Generation Principle, the Indigenous wisdom that teaches us to weigh decisions against their impacts seven generations ahead. “It calls us to stewardship over ownership, responsible resource management, and care over consumption. How did we go from living with land to living against it?” she asks.
Your perfect Sunday morning read. Put the kettle on.
What are the bare necessities to kickstart your day? The Minimalist Bathroom Box is your answer. Soap, toothpaste, deodorant and moisturiser is all you need if each one delivers powerful, premium results and is a joy to use. For all those ultra-efficient minimalists who want to simply shower and head out the door, or those looking to switch their morning essentials to something of superior quality, here you go. This being BRiMM, you can rest assured the accreditations, supply chains, ingredients and manufacturing of each is planet first and best in class.
Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is less, but better.
The BRiMM Life Questionnaire
This week it’s the turn of Christabel Biella, the genius behind the curation of our BRiMM reset boxes. An OG of responsible product and buying, Christabel has cut her teeth at House of Fraser, Oddbox and Farmdrop, and is now the wise counsel in the BRiMM office.
Latest low-impact life reset that’s brought you joy
An old lemon, cut in half, rubbed over kitchen scale deposits in the kitchen. It melts the scale away! Try attaching it to the end of your kitchen tap with a rubber band and keeping it there for a few minutes to soak in
What’s your most joyful weekend moment
Taking time to prepare an amazing brunch with some kitchen dancing & really good coffee
The independent coffee shop that makes you happy
The original Gentlemen Baristas in London Bridge
Best second hand find
The arm warmers worn by Sarah Jessica Parker/Carrie in an early episode of Sex and the City. I got them in the ONLY Sex and the City wardrobe sale back in New York in 2004!
Which issue do you care about the most
Our health, livelihood, and earth’s future lies in the hands of us taking action now. The discoveries we are making in this lifetime give us a great privilege and a responsibility
Read more of Christabel’s reccos in our Journal here
FROM THE COLLECTIVE
Tamara is loving the More than Human exhibition at the Design Museum. “How we can create design not just for humans but nature and all of life. Go!”
Tiff says check out supermodel Astrid Munoz’s Curatoria collection. A social impact fashion brand changing craft systems
Becky’s all in for Belmond’s new Britannic rail explorer: not your average canteen carriage
We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with here
BRIMM LINKS
CHANGE YOUR TUNE
If you’re balking at the price of gigs and festivals these days, here’s a change model to get on board with. Earth Percent is the music industry’s self-styled climate foundation, inviting artists and labels to donate a small percentage of their income “to stand with the Earth on their creative journey”. Funding projects focus on just energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change and protecting nature. Look out for the festivals (Primal Gathering, Medicine) and artists (HAAi, Hot Chip) who have bought in. Founded by the great Brian Eno, of course.
SHEEP SCHOOL
Fibershed is a US non profit that promotes soil to soil textiles. Looking to bypass the petrochemical industrial complex, they fund and develop natural fibre systems that promote local economies, global climate, and healthy and diverse ecosystems. Join vocational training programs in land stewardship and shepherding, regenerative livestock management, beginner-level sheep handling, sheep shearing and even a live lambing and delivery class. One for the Plan B list.
TOURISTS WANTED
While sustainable travel recs are often limited to local, land based destinations, and some of the most popular spots in the Mediterranean are in active revolt from ‘over tourism’, here’s five exotic places that need tourists, now! Greenland, Sierra Leone, Panama, Georgia and Jordan are the places any adventurer can visit, knowing your visit is helping exactly where it is needed.
→ BOOK HERE
THE SYSTEM CHANGE SMOOTHIE
What system? Your system! You need one and a half cups of organic berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, frozen will do), half a cup of coconut milk and a heaped tablespoon of rolled oats. Whizz it up and glug it back for an antioxidant power punch. Plus healthy coconut fat to help you absorb all those vitamins.
REGGAE, REGGAE, REGGAE
It was either punk or reggae this week - what better soundtracks for systems change? We asked Bristol students Herbert and Sam to bring the beats, seeing as they know their way around a Jamaican back catalogue or two.
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