Member Spotlight: Regen Melbourne

We are thrilled to welcome Regen Melbourne to our cohort this year. Regen Melbourne is a transformative platform born out of the dual crises of the Australian Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Regen Melbourne was born as a grassroots network, now matured into a platform dedicated to systems transformation. In our conversation with their Director of Systems Lab, Alison Whitten, we delve into the founding story of the organisation, its primary goals, and its vision for a regenerative future for the city.

We also explore the personal journey of its leaders, the ambitious projects they are hosting, and their engagement with the local community to foster a thriving future for both people and the planet. Read more below to learn how Regen Melbourne aims to move Greater Melbourne into a ‘safe and just space,’ defined by the Melbourne Doughnut, through wildly ambitious projects and strategic collaborations. 

1. Can you tell us about the founding story of Regen Melbourne? What inspired the creation of this platform for collaboration?

Regen Melbourne emerged from the dual crises of the Australian Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 and the COVID-19 pandemic. As metropolitan Melbourne entered COVID-19 lockdowns, forums were convened to explore the pandemic’s impact, recognising this moment as the biggest social and economic disruption since the Great Depression. These conversations featured economist Kate Raworth, creator of the Doughnut Economics model, which seeks to secure a balance between essential human needs and planetary boundaries. 

From this, a diverse group of organisations drove a community-based research project with over 500 participants to explore how Doughnut Economics could be localised to shape Greater Melbourne’s future. This led to the creation of a vision statement and the ‘Melbourne Doughnut’ to define what a safe and just city could be. These recognise that, despite Melbourne’s profile as one of the world’s most liveable cities, not everyone has equal access to a good quality of life. Moreover, Melbourne is an unsustainable city, putting excessive pressure on the planet to generate economic activity. The research clearly identified that this extractive and exploitative model urgently needs reimagining to ensure safety and security, not just for the people of Melbourne, but also the ecosystems, communities and regions that are in relationship with the city.

Along with the growing community engaged in the discussions, the group formed Regen Melbourne – conceived initially as a grassroots network that could support the regeneration of the city. Since then, Regen Melbourne has matured into a platform for organising to support systems transformation in our city.

2. What are the primary goals and purpose of Regen Melbourne, and how do you envision it contributing to a regenerative future for the city?

Regen Melbourne’s purpose is to move Greater Melbourne into the ‘safe and just space’ defined by the Melbourne Doughnut.  This is effectively to be a city where people and planet can thrive in balance.  Regen Melbourne contributes to this goal by hosting ‘wildly ambitious projects’, which are designed to be collaborative pathways towards this purpose. We play a convening and catalysing role, bringing together partners from across sectors to work towards regeneration in our city. We also are launching a Systems Lab that is working with the key enabling conditions – policy, research, capital and storytelling – that need to line up to make our projects successful and broader shifts to systems possible.

3. How has your background in urban resilience, international development, and strategy consulting influenced your role and the direction of Regen Melbourne?

At times, my career has felt disjointed, but the breadth of experiences I have had all contribute to my work at Regen Melbourne. I started out studying Systems Engineering as an undergraduate, and after working across the US, Australia and Sub-saharan Africa in management consulting and international development, returned to university to complete a Masters in Urban Planning. I was studying on the east coast of the US when Hurricane Sandy hit, which prompted significant investment in and academic attention on urban resilience, including through the Rockefeller Foundation’s Rebuild by Design competition. When I moved to Melbourne, I had the opportunity to join Resilient Melbourne, part of the 100 Resilient Cities network, which was set up within local government but at a metropolitan scale.

My role leading the Systems Lab represents a confluence of all these experiences: Our work starts by understanding how our city works as a system, including the way in which it is nested within regional and global contexts. We are designing the programs within the lab to be strategic and have maximum impact through the generation of new knowledge and the activation of new projects in practice. We must balance a long-term view and aspiration with short-term outputs that offer visible signals that change is possible. The ways of working I learned in management consulting, the diversity of contexts I’ve experienced by living globally, and the holistic nature of my knowledge about urban resilience all contribute to my ability to contribute to Regen Melbourne’s ambitious agenda.

4. Regen Melbourne is described as an engine for ambitious collaboration. Can you share some examples of the bold projects you are hosting to achieve a regenerative Melbourne?

We are currently hosting three exciting projects:

• Swimmable Birrarung – This project sets the goal of making the Birrarung (the Yarra River) swimmable. While this is a succinct goal, embedded in it is the need for significant change to the river system – such as improving water quality, shifting our relationship to the river, and rethinking how capital flows along it. We are convening groups of partners on these and other themes and working collaboratively to shape initial ‘leverage points’ or activations on the river that can help us to move towards a corridor of swimming spots.

• Regen Streets – This project focuses on bringing broad concepts of regeneration down to the street level, activating communities of different kinds for this purpose. Our goal is to create a wave of regenerative streets that generate benefits for each place and influence broader policy and planning practices.

• Regen Food – We have just embarked on our third project, focused on food systems. We will be working across sectors to look at what is needed to shift to more sustainable and equitable food production, consumption, and circularity.

5. How does Regen Melbourne engage with and support the local community to foster a thriving future for both people and the planet?

Regen Melbourne works with community and sector leaders to explore ways that community needs can be better addressed and community voices can be heard more loudly. We apply a deeply participatory approach to all of our work, and have a stream of activity within the Systems Lab specifically focused on civic participation and democratic health – aiming to ensure that communities can participate in decisions that influence their day-to-day lives. We believe that strengthening social connection, and connection between communities and nature, are critical to the wellbeing of people and place.

6. How do you believe being part of Subak Australia will enhance your mission and impact?

We are beginning a new exploration called Adaptive Futures within the Systems Lab. This is our most climate-centric work, focused on translating academic research and knowledge about climate change adaptation into practice and policy. Joining the Subak Australia village as we shape this work has been perfect timing for helping us to consider how we scope and position this focus area. We have begun to consider how we can draw on and influence environmental law, access new forms of funding, and apply data in new and valuable ways. The cohort of partners is excellent and very well aligned with our mission, so it’s been great to connect with everyone.

7. Looking ahead, what are Regen Melbourne’s key priorities and goals for the next few years, and how do you plan to achieve them?

Over the next few years, we are focused on delivering our projects and demonstrating how new forms of collaboration can start to move us toward a future where wellbeing of people and place are prioritised. We will continue to work with diverse partners to experiment and reflect on what we learn, knowing that this is not a linear process. As such, we aim to contribute to the wellbeing of Greater Melbourne, as well as the broader systems change field as we put theory into practice.

8. What message would you like to convey to the broader community about the importance of urban resilience and regeneration, and the role of Regen Melbourne in this movement?

We talk about living in complex and urgent times, which is true when we look at the current impacts of climate change, global political conflicts, and social inequities. But, resilience and regeneration are not about dwelling on the negatives. At Regen Melbourne, we focus on the new abundance and opportunities that can emerge when we think, work, and connect differently. We are in an exciting position to grapple with challenging questions and are incredibly fortunate to be working together with amazing partners. We also acknowledge that complex times require complex solutions:  Our work is in no way the only approach or solution. We welcome the chance to learn from and alongside others on this regeneration journey.