Bioregional Development Skoll Awardee Profile Group

Organization Overview

Key Info

Social Entrepreneur Pooran Desai, Sue Riddlestone

Year Awarded 2009

Issue Area Addressed Environmental , Sustainable Markets

Sub Issue Area Addressed Clean Energy, Living Conditions, Responsible Supply Chains

Countries Served USA, Canada, Australia, China, France, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa, Tanzania,

Website http://www.bioregional.com

Twitter handle Bioregional

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/oneplanetliving

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/BioRegional About the Organization

Bioregional is an entrepreneurial charity that works with partners around the world to demonstrate that sustainable living can be easy, attractive, and affordable. Bioregional focuses on homes, construction, retail, and city-region and community eco-systems. The problem is our collective human Ecological Footprint. Wealthier nations and individuals are consuming more than the planet can replenish annually and producing more carbon emissions than the planet can absorb. Bioregional put it like this. If everyone lived like we do in the USA we would need five planets to support us. Bioregional’s vision is for One Planet Living where everyone lives happy, healthy lives within the natural limits of the planet, leaving space for wildlife and wilderness. How can you design your development to reduce its ecological footprint, ensure social responsibility, and foster a relationship with the local community? Where do the carbon impacts arise in your construction project and how can you minimize them? How do you create a credible, successful eco-product range? Bioregional helps with these questions and much more. Bioregional scales this work in two ways: Firstly, by telling the stories of these real-life examples and advocacy work to bring about system-change in policy and industry practices. Also by offering its One Planet Living framework and training to enable communities, companies, developers, and local authorities to develop practical, appropriate solutions for sustainable living.

Impact

4.4 million people live in cities and surrounding regions involved in Bioregional’s One Planet cities project. The One Planet Living framework has been used in more than $30bn of real estate developments, including for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Bioregional inspired B&Q (UK’s largest home improvement chain) to adopt One Planet Living as its guiding vision to improving its own operations, as well as providing customers with One Planet Home options for sustainable living. B&Q has saved £164m through its One Planet Home program due to better energy, transport, and waste management and slashed its absolute carbon footprint by 41% over 10 years.

Path to Scale

Demonstration, Policy Advocacy, and Replication Bioregional makes it planning tools available openly on the Web, advocates for policies that mandate or give advantage to , and works as consultants on influential demonstration projects.

Social Entrepreneur Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone, a husband and wife team, founded Bioregional in 1994. Pooran studied neuroscience at Oxford University, but had a passion for applying the lessons of natural systems and complexity theory to solving environmental problems. Sue trained as a nurse but, motivated by our negative impact on the natural world, wanted to introduce and sell lower impact products and services. They concluded that over-consumption was a fundamental cause of environmental problems and that sustainable alternatives were necessary. They shared the vision that the key to sustainable living relied on making more efficient use of local renewable and waste resources – in effect, creating an economy with a more circular flow of resources and a ‘metabolism’ similar to that of a local ecosystem. Based on this common belief, they founded Bioregional. For his services to sustainable development, Pooran was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England and made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Sue is a Schwab Awardee, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards winner, a former London Sustainable Development Commissioner, and was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen for her work on sustainable business and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sue is the current CEO, and Pooran remains the International Director of One Planet Communities.

Equilibrium Overview

Current Equilibrium

The world is currently in ecological overshoot. If everyone on Earth consumed as much as people in Western Europe, we would need three planets to support us, rising to five planets in the US. In contrast, in the developing world there is an urgent need to increase basic standards of living without overshooting a one-planet lifestyle. The problem is manifested in all aspects of life, from housing to food to business. These communities and businesses are not equipped to understand their ecological footprints and/or realize their ambitions to incorporate sustainability into their activities. Likewise, policymakers lack proven models for sustainability that they can champion for wider adoption through policy.

New Equilibrium

In the new equilibrium, people in all parts of the world live happy, healthy and abundant lives while living within a fair share of the Earth’s productive capacity. National and local governments, communities, businesses and individuals, recognize their need to live and operate within their means and are equipped with the knowledge and support to achieve those goals. Real estate developers understand their ecological footprints and the proven examples of how they can design sustainable communities. Policymakers, armed with proven models for sustainability, enact policies that enable broader adoption.

Innovation

Bioregional works with communities, corporations, developers, and governments around the world to invent and deliver practical solutions for sustainability, creating more efficient places for people to live, work, and do business. The organization's core innovation is the One Planet Living framework, a comprehensive global sustainability framework applicable across sectors that enables communities to live productively within the means of our one planet. Bioregional programs include: One Planet Living – Work with projects and organizations across different sectors including the built environment, municipal authorities, tourism and events to enable them to develop and implement sustainability plans based on the ten principles of One Planet Living. Creating innovative solutions where a fresh approach or business model is required. Recent innovations have focused on forestry management and timber supply chains and also on localized energy grid and storage solutions. Advisory Services – Work alongside retailers and the built environment sectors to help them develop, implement and report on ambitious sustainability strategies, including more focused work on energy, the circular economy, and the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Associated enterprises – Take forward Bioregional’s work, where it falls outside of Bioregional’s charitable mission. This includes real estate development company Bioregional Homes Ltd. A wholly owned subsidiary company established in 2018 to build Bioregional-led One Planet Communities, and which will covenant surpluses to the charity to support the mission. Policy and Practice – Once the effectiveness of the approach has been demonstrated, Bioregional champions its wider use with practitioners and policymakers for maximum impact. By becoming involved in the UN Rio+20 Sustainable Development process from 2011-2015, Bioregional was able to advocate for a set of simple, people-centred goals drawing on the one planet living approach, which informed became the Sustainable Development Goals. Bioregional then played a formal role as UN NGO global focal point for SCP to incorporate one planet living approaches into the SDGs. Sample Bioregional projects include: Working in partnership to develop the UK’s first large-scale, mixed use eco-community of BedZED in South London in 2002, voted one of the world’s most influential green buildings by the American Architects association, and the zero-carbon residential complex One Brighton.Writing the sustainability strategy for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and then working to deliver it, described as the ‘most sustainable modern games ever’Supporting the development of Villages Nature Paris, a major new European destination hosting up to 1 million guests every year, 100% heated by zero- carbon energy.Advising the Singita wildlife reserves in East and Southern Africa on how to reduce environmental impacts while protecting wildlifeBuilding capacity for home improvement retailer B&Q to meet its demanding target to cut carbon emissions by 90% by 2023Advising real estate developer A2Dominion on the development of the UK’s first eco town, with zero-carbon homes, workplaces, and community facilities. The town will have 6,000 homes, starting with a 393-home ‘examplar’ eco-community in Elmsbrook. In acting as an incubator for sustainable innovations, Bioregional demonstrates real world applications and replicates them through partnerships, establishing associated companies, consultancy, training and education. Bioregional uses its innovations to influence policy, transform industry best practice and raise consumer awareness.

Ambition for Change

Bioregional’s goal is One Planet Living. Bioregional aims to change policy and practice to achieve zero carbon and the SDGs by 2030. By focusing on homes, buildings, city planning, and retail products and services in wealthier over-consuming nations, Bioregional seeks to influence developing nations. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)