A New Map for a Regenerative Future: Reframing Business Through Planetary Systems
What if business strategies didn’t start with profit margins or market share—but instead with watersheds, seed banks and living networks? What if regeneration wasn’t just about reducing harm, but rather about restoring the right relationship with the very living systems that sustain us?
At Carom, we believe regeneration isn't a checklist—it's a worldview. One that begins by asking ‘what does life need to thrive?’ And followed by ‘how might business participate in a thriving planet, rather than extracting from it?’
Human face embedded in Earth, part of becoming regenerative.
This reorientation is at the heart of regenerative innovation—and it's why we developed our Holistic Planetary Framework. It’s not just a model. It’s a kind of map to orient us on a new adventure. One that helps organizations see the full system they’re operating within—and make decisions in alignment with planetary health, resilience and equity.
Why the Current Models Fall Short
Conventional business frameworks focus on things like profits, growth, scale, efficiency. Even when we use sustainability frameworks, they tend to isolate variables like emissions, waste or equity, all tracked in silos.
But life doesn’t work in silos. Rivers don’t flow and follow quarterly reporting cycles. Fungi don’t optimize for KPIs.
To truly regenerate, we need a systems lens—one that reconnects innovation with the broader flows and cycles of the Earth.
The Six Regenerative Categories
Our Holistic Planetary Framework maps six interdependent categories that represent what life requires to flourish—across both human and its more-than-human systems.
Each one invites curiosity. Taken together, they provide a compass to help guide us.
Habitat & Living Systems
Are we designing our spaces to nurture life—or displace it?
From office parks to agricultural land to cloud infrastructure, our physical footprint shapes, and reshapes, ecosystems. This category considers whether our built environments support biodiversity, mobility and thriving habitats for all species.
Business lens: How is your land use, sourcing or development impacting local ecosystems? Are you a tenant—or a steward?
Food, Water & Nutrient Cycles
Does our business replenish what it takes?
This category explores circular flows—of water, minerals, nutrients and materials—and asks whether a business participates in cycles of renewal or depletion.
Business lens: Are your packaging, ingredients and waste streams designed to re-enter healthy cycles—or break them?
Climate & Energy Balance
How do our operations support stability, rather than volatility?
We should all live within a climate threshold. Beyond carbon accounting, this lens looks at thermal dynamics, energy sources and a company’s role in stabilizing planetary systems.
Business lens: Are you generating long-term resilience—or just outsourcing your footprint to another region or the future?
Biodiversity, Health & Resilience
Are we contributing to living diversity and wellbeing—or narrowing it?
Monocultures aren’t just agricultural—they’re systemic. This category looks at the diversity of both ecosystems and human health, mental resilience and cultural adaptability.
Business lens: Is your supply chain promoting genetic, species and cultural variety—or streamlining it out of existence?
Knowledge, Innovation & Evolution
Is our innovation serving life’s long-term intelligence and adaptability?
Technology can regenerate or destroy. Innovation must be grounded in humility—aligned with the evolutionary intelligence of living systems.
Business lens: Are your tools and platforms increasing adaptive capacity—or automating disconnection?
Kinship & Cultural Continuity
Who belongs in the future we’re building—and who decides?
This category honors relational equity: cultural memory, community voice and the ancestral threads that sustain dignity. It reminds us that regeneration is ecological and social.
Business lens: Are you designing for intergenerational wellbeing—or just shareholder returns?
What This Means for Business
Regenerative businesses don’t just reduce harm—they restore connection.
The Holistic Planetary Framework can be used as a mirror across all dimensions of business strategy:
This is more than a model—it’s a transformation tool. Whether you're a startup or multinational, this framework asks: What does your business look like when it’s designed as part of a living system?
What’s Next: Archetypes for Regenerative Change
In our next post, we’ll introduce six Regenerative Archetypes—our sort of ‘personas’ that help bring this framework to life inside teams, organizations and communities. They represent distinct roles needed to regenerate the systems we’ve collectively strained.
Each archetype offers a way to show up differently—in strategy, in leadership, in life.
Because regeneration isn’t just ecological. It’s personal. It’s cultural. It’s participatory.
Let’s Co-Create This Map
Which of these categories feels most urgent—or most invisible—in your work?
Where is your business already aligned, and where is there room to grow?
We’d love to hear from you. This isn’t a static model—it’s a living framework, and your insights help shape it.
→ Share your thoughts in the comments, or connect with us.
Let’s build the future in right relationship—with the planet and each other.
Connect with Carom
jeremy@carom.com
🔗 www.carom.com
📱 Instagram: @carom.cares
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