🌍 What is regenerative living, actually?♻️
Plus orange chips, a rage-tinged motivation playlist and the JW Anderson podcast to listen to
Ahead of the launch of our founder membership (more on that soon) we’re gathering pictures of our original supporters – ie, you – to show to the world that we are a collective at heart, via a photo wall on our soon-to-be-launched site. If you would like to be featured, send over a lovely shot of you, being you (and including only you – with clothes on) that you're happy for us to use. Thanks in advance.
This week’s theme is… regenerative living ♻️
Happy Spring Equinox, for Thursday just gone. Yes, this is the first year we’ve said that. And yes, we had to look it up, too: as well as the official start of the season of blooms, energetic cupboard sort-outs and lighter, longer evenings (in the Northern Hemisphere at least – hello to our readers on the other side), it’s also the only time when both the north and south poles are lit by sunshine at the same time. A gorgeous thing to imagine.
All this sunny spring-flinging has got us feeling even more optimistic and upbeat than usual – and strong enough to consider the somewhat fluid but wonderfully hopeful and actually pretty essential notion of regenerative (henceforth ‘regen’) living. Why? Because, we – as in, humans – are getting to the point where just doing less harm isn't enough.
Take some of the stats laid out in the award-winning Woody Harrelson-narrated 2020 documentary, Kiss the Ground. Like the fact that 40 million people are displaced every year because of how our current food systems damage the soil and the resulting, wide-reaching issues (though it’s a positive watch overall, honest – and, by the way, we’re arranging a BRiMM cinema screening of the filmmakers’ follow-up, Common Ground; drop us a line if you’re interested in joining).
Our planet goals therefore have to progress beyond just doing less harm, towards leaving the best sort of footprint – breathing new life into biodiverse ecosystems so that we end up adding back more than we take; enabling Earth to regen herself again, after all the damage inflicted on her. Like Daniel Christian Wahl says on his still-stands-up 2017 Medium post, Sustainability is not enough: we need regenerative cultures.
Easy to write, but… this next-step in planet-positive thinking isn’t quite defined or measured yet. Or, as put more succinctly by disruptive regen bread, farming and flour crew Wildfarmed: everyone is still wondering ‘what the f*** regenerative agriculture is’. (Watch the neon-splashed, energetic 1 minute 49 second video to get a better idea fast.) Or, similarly, as travel site-mag Skift points out, we’re all still debating what regenerative tourism is.
So for starters, it seems we need to agree on how to measure whether something is truly regen or not, by asking lots of the right sorts of questions – like, what are biodiversity credits and how do they work anyway? And, are people already going about regen in the wrong way (Dartmoor hill farmer Cat Frampton believes so)? Then work out which brands and collectives to join or support in working towards making more of the new, right sort of impact happen (this Regenerative Business Case Database is one to bookmark) – alongside BRiMM of course.
But before all that, here, as a little amuse-bouche, is our pick of authentically regen brands we love, that we think you will too.
Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,
Team BRiMM
p.s. what are your fave podcasts? We’d love to know about the ones that inspire you to make a change, or make you happy – or both, so we can share them here.
p.p.s. did you like this email? Why not forward it to a friend?
The BRiMM life questionnaire: Laro
Beth Bisley, founder of conscious luxury oral-care brand Laro, shares her low-impact living reccos
The independent coffee shop that makes you happy
Saint Jean in Amsterdam. It’s a little bit viral-TikTok famous so don’t judge me, but the vibes, the most incredible vegan pastries (I literally don’t know how they do it without butter), the locally roasted coffee… all mean I always have just a little bit more of a spring in my step after a visit.
Favourite planet-positive products and why
Along the lines of elevating everyday life, I adore Kinfill. Anything that makes it a joy to clean has got my vote, but planet-positive impact too is a winner.
And walking route
Tarn Hows in the Lakes. It’s a really easy walk but so nostalgic of growing up with Lake District holidays every summer.
Watch out for the rest of Beth’s answers on our site, launching soon
Fancy doing our BRiMM Life Questionnaire yourself? Get in touch
FROM THE COLLECTIVE
Gwyneth put Earthfest in our diaries, a music, arts and everything event happening in King’s Cross in early June
Tiff says we should celebrate the end of JW Anderson’s stupendous reign at Loewe by listening to his discussion of perfection on Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis podcast
Shiraz is booking tix to see Massive Attack, also in early June, at Lido Festival, London’s first totally battery-powered lineup
We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with Becky
TOMORROW’S WORLD TODAY
This WIRED Japan piece (translated into English, don’t fear), together with design studio For Cities, spotlights existing regen cities – or neighbourhoods, or buildings – to forecast what more planet-conscious urban centres will look more like in future. Or, for a deep dive into how a nature-first, circular economy (a slightly different topic for another newsletter) could become an actual thing in Europe, read record-breaking round-the-world sailor and environmental Foundation founder Ellen Macarthur’s 2024 report, Building Prosperity.
→ READ MORE
OLIVE YOU SO MUCH
Thanks to a chance meeting on a ferry somewhere between Santorini and Crete, today a luscious, industry-challenging and beautifully presented – in a wine-like, refillable bottle with a cool label – olive oil is available for us to have in our homes. Together the boat buds – London-based Michael and Crete-dwelling Maria – launched Citizens of Soil; their mission to share the high-quality, Cretan kitchen essential beyond Greece, made using regen growing techniques and putting the farmers first at every turn. Another way to support regen companies through eating lush food is by trying the Kendal-made Northern Pasta Co, crafted from ancient, world-friendly grains.
REWILDING THE FUTURE
The Perennial Farmer popped up on Instagram – an actual farmer who’s restoring his 120 acres in Sussex using regen methods while growing “a bit of food/wine” and posting lyrical, insightful posts about it all – and led us to his collaborators, Conscious Landscape. The little team of designers, restorers and regenerators (there’s a job title) help landowners to ‘cultivate abundance, revive ecosystems, regenerate soils and water systems and create biodiverse habitats’. The results are also stunning – and some of them you can actually visit.
→ SEE MORE
FASHION’S COTTONING ON
Materra's not messing about. The UK- and India-based regen cotton and tech business is working with dozens of clothing labels (from Mango and H&M to Kering, owner of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and beyond) has a clear mission: to regenerate half a million hectares of land by 2030. How? By helping marry brands with regen cotton, and by supporting farmers – now including more than 4,000 in India – in growing it.
ORANGE CHIPS
Michelin-trained chef Poppy Cooks shares this very, very naughty recipe on TikTok, as well as in her new show shelf-worthy tome, The Potato Book.
→ MAKE THIS
MUSIC FOR RAGE-TINGED MOTIVATION
Kate’s playlist works really well for when “you're starting to wonder if you're the problem but realise it's them that's the problem, so you decide to become their problem 💃💃💃”.
Carbon maths
The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.