We are a global community of people and organisations who are
BUILDING REGENERATIVE VILLAGES
Green Paper
This is a living document written to inspire and enable our community of members and partners to participate in the co-creation of a global movement.
Our mission is to inspire and embolden a global movement of re:builders who are ready to step into action and build new villages and businesses, in both rural and urban locations, that embody and celebrate regenerative values and principles.
Each year we host an online global festival and enable physical gatherings that bring together re:builders, landowners and investors to share their expertise and collaborate on new partnerships and projects.
Index
A global community of people and organisations who are
BUILDING REGENERATIVE VILLAGES
2.1. What does it mean to be a re:builder?
Exit to community via re:build DAO
Become a member on the platform
Host a regional re:build event
STORY
1.1. Why re:build?
Regeneration is no longer an option. We need action. We need to start building the places, businesses and communities that will enable us to live and work in harmony with nature. To achieve this at a meaningful scale, we need to support the re:builders who are going to drive this movement forward. This is why re:build was created - to enable knowledge sharing, deep collaboration and friendship so that we can not only optimise our collective impact, but also have a lot of fun along the way.
Often the hardest step in building a village is finding the right co-founders and partners who are prepared to ride the waves and walk the mountain with you in those early years. Those connections make all the difference. That’s what re:build is about. Helping you find your tribe. When you do that everything else follows.
1.2. Retrospective
We started out as a global online event for village builders. Then we hosted our first in person gathering in Portugal. The engagement and feedback that we received was incredible.
As we reflected, we realised that for re:build to grow into a global movement we needed to begin a process of decentralisation, enabling more of our members and partners to host events and do projects within re:build. We also realised that re:build is about more than just village building. re:build is an identity and a culture; a way of thinking, being and doing in all aspects of life, love and work.
We asked ourselves:
How can re:build become a bridge that enables more people to learn about and participate in regenerative systems change?
How can we utilise a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) over the coming years to enable us to scale exponentially across the world?
How can we best communicate our thinking as a core team and begin to include more people in the leadership and movement building process?
In this Green Paper we will share:
- The principles, values and processes that we believe will enable re:build to continue to grow in a healthy and regenerative way.
- What it means to be a re:builder and the values and principles that are core to our movement.
- Our organisational structure and business models.
- A timeline of milestones and events for 2022.
We will also set out a clear framework for how you can join an existing circle or propose your own project or event.
We know how hard it is to scale a movement without either burning out or compromising on your core values and purpose. We want to take things one step at a time, continuously listening and improving our onboarding processes and communication. We hope you enjoy reading this Green Paper and that it motivates you to invest more of your time and energy into building this movement together.
CULTURE
2.1. What does it mean to be a re:builder?
Being a re:builder is not only about what you do, it is also about the way you show up in the world. We are a community of doers. When we see something that is broken, we get up and fix it. We are proactive optimists. We are whole system thinkers. We love learning. We invest in the commons. We believe in collaboration over competition. We believe that work should be joyful and that we should always give more than we take. That is what it means to be regenerative.
2.1. Values and principles
By design and simultaneously emergent from the community we sense these are a set of common values and principles re:builders across the world embody.
Values:
Regeneration | renewal, restoration and growth of all life |
Love | give care and support |
Gratitude | at every moment, for everything we’ve been gifted |
Responsibility | when something breaks we do something to fix it |
Playfulness | celebration is serious business |
Curiosity | we dream big with openness to emergent ideas |
Humility | we belong to the Earth |
Principles:
Leave a better trace
We leave each place and living being we interact with in a better shape than we found it.
Co-creation and Collaboration
Together we are stronger. If you want to go far, go together.
Learning by doing
As children learn to walk by lifting one foot at the time, falling and getting up to do it again better, we are also willing to fail and by failing, move forward.
Whole systems thinking
Creating positive loops in all interactions. An awareness of how everything is circular and interconnected. The waste of one system is food for another.
Transitioning from ownership to stewardship
Recognising the limitations of capitalism and consumerism. Designing economic structures that incentivise long term stewardship rather than private ownership and short term profit.
MISSION
3.1. What does re:build do?
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote working, freeing millions to choose where they live without constraint. It has also awakened in so many of us the desire to live differently; closer to nature and in community.
re:build is here to support the regenerative movement by enabling knowledge sharing and multi-disciplinary collaboration between people and organisations who are re:building our world.
We host an online global festival and enable physical gatherings that bring together community leaders, landowners, permaculture and ecology experts, impact investors, property developers, housing manufacturers, software engineers, architects, coliving operators, scientists, lawyers, artists and green tech specialists.
Our mission is to inspire and embolden re:builders around the world to create places and communities that embody regenerative values and principles.
3.2 Short term goals
We aim to inspire and embolden re:builders around the world to take action. The core re:build team will focus on the following goals;
- Release Green paper to larger audience
- Run membership & partnership programme
- Support regional gatherings (Netherlands, UK, Portugal, etc) and city salons
- Initiate the decentralization process
- Recruit for comms and operational roles
- Organise a 2022 re:build Global Festival
- Define re:build circle structure to enable organisational scalability and initiate first circles
3.3. Medium term goals
- Create templates and tools - we take our learnings and try to distill them into actionable useful wireframes that others can use
- Invite collaborators to join the organization during our transition to DAO
- Design teams and roles within the organisation where future DAO members can contribute their time and energy
3.4. Long term goals
- Operate as a fully decentralized organization
- Release re:build tokens to be distributed to initial core team and new collaborators proportional to their contributions
- Evolve re:build to be an incubator for regenerative village development as well as matching landowners and investors with builders and communities across the world.
- Curate a shared library of village building knowledge, creating a global map of village projects and a global directory of village builders.
DECENTRALISATION
Genesis structure
The idea for re:build was born in May 2020 during the pandemic. Sam was working on the “Co-living federation” and Victor and Anton had been working on “Village 3.0”. Together with Nico and Ani, they started exploring the idea of co-creating a network and event in Portugal for village builders.
Due to travel restrictions the initial in-person gathering was postponed and the core team of 5 decided to host an online event in April 2021. Alongside partners (Future Thinkers, Terran Collective, Buckminster Fuller Institute, Regen Villages and Design Science Studio) the conference hosted over 100 workshops, panels and talks. This content can be viewed anytime by re:build members via the re-build.co platform.
The initial envisioned Portugal gathering happened in September 2021 and was hosted by Traditional Dream Factory, a regenerative co-living hub that is currently being built in Alentejo rural area. A special thanks goes out to Jeremy, Jose and Nicole who helped to curate the content of the Portugal Gathering as well as Morgane who helped with Marketing and Social Media.
Since the Portugal Gathering we have also onboarded Jeremy as a sixth member of the re:build core team.
Exit to community via re:build DAO
The re:build team has created a pilot DAO that will enable us to prototype and experiment with new forms of collective governance and ownership. If you wish to learn more about and participate in this pilot DAO you can read more here.
ACTION
Buy a ticket to our upcoming events
Go to the re:build website homepage to discover and buy a ticket to our upcoming events.
Become a member on the platform
Access past content and support the development of the re:build platform and the ongoing member experience. Sign up here.
Become a content contributor
If you feel drawn to become a re:build contributor, reach out to the core team team@re-build.co
Send an email with your expertise and areas that you feel drawn to share your energy, knowledge & time. We will invite you to an intro call to discuss if your offer aligns with the existing needs and capacity to integrate a new member.
Host a regional re:build event
Are you a re:builder or regenerative organisation, sharing the attitude, values & principles listed in the Green Paper? We invite you to join the information and onboarding sessions hosted by the Partners & Events support circle which will guide you how to make a proposal for hosting a regional gathering. Note: the regional events are separate organisations, re:build sets the requirements and supports you in hosting an event, but each local is an independent organisation. You can find guidance & requirements in this TEMPLATE document.
Connect with the events & partners support circle by sending an email here:
Email team@re-build.co
Host a re:build salon
If you want to connect locally with re:builders in your area you can host a SALON (define salon). Join the information and onboarding sessions hosted by the Partners & Events support circle which will guide you how to make a proposal to start and host a local salon. You can find guidance & requirements in this TEMPLATE document. (to be linked)
Connect with the events & partners support circle by sending an email here:
Email team@re-build.co
Join a Circle
We are creating a simple structure with a couple of main circles that are focused on specific areas.
If you are passionate about governance and organisational design and would like to support the core team in developing our DAO and ever-evolving organisational structures and process, please email team@re-build.co.