Regeneration – Making Life the Center of Every Action and Decision with Paul Hawken

Episode 46 Description

Welcome back to the We Rise podcast! We are delighted to share this conversation with Paul Hawken with you. Paul has been influential in Christine’s own work, both personally and professionally, for over two decades. In this inspiring and encouraging episode–the first in a two part series–Christine and Paul talk about the importance of work at the collective level, listening, and connecting with ourselves, as well as nature. 

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is one of the environmental movement’s leading voices, and a pioneering architect of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices.

Paul has started several ecological businesses, writes about nature and commerce, and consults with heads of state and CEOs on climatic, economic, and ecological regeneration. He has appeared on numerous media including the Today Show, Talk of the Nation, CBS This Morning and others, and his work has been profiled or featured in hundreds of articles including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and Forbes. He has written nine books including six national and New York Times bestsellers: Growing a Business, The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest, Drawdown, and Regeneration. 

He is published in 30 languages and his books are available in over 90 countries. His latest book, Regeneration, Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, was published in 2021, which is his sequel to Drawdown. He is the founder of both Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration (regeneration.org). Project Regeneration is the world’s largest, most complete listing and network of solutions to the climate crisis.

Join us as they dive into regeneration, collectively reimagining the future we want to see, and working to make it happen, together. 

Paul says, “The heart of regeneration is to make life the center of every action and decision.”  He sees this as a key to bringing us back to the beauty of life, and helping transform and regenerate the world we live in. As our world struggles with the climate crisis, Paul offers insight, wisdom, and leadership paired with resources for deep, meaningful change.

In part one of our conversation, Paul shares the challenges that we face in making real change happen, including not othering or blaming people. He is not here to “change people’s minds”, but to offer information and create space for them to draw their own conclusions. His words are fueled with compassion and understanding for humankind and the earth.

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Episode 46 Show Notes

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Key takeaways

• “Try not to change people’s minds” has been an important mantra for Paul Hawken throughout his career. Instead, he aims to provide information and create a space for people to come to their own conclusions.
• We each have 120 billion carbon molecules in every cell of our body. As Paul explains, carbon really is the basis of life. In one of his upcoming books, he aims to bring to light all that carbon enables in our everyday lives, how necessary it is to life itself. Paul is focusing on helping to grow a sense of awe and wonder for the marvel that carbon is, and away from the bad reputation carbon has gained.
• Recent polls of college and university campuses show that 70% of students struggle with depression, anxiety, panic, and worry, and nearly half are debating having a family due to the climate crisis. Paul also sees young leaders as key to creating a regenerative future, working collectively. 
• Why it is not uncommon to see businesses jumping on the “eco” bandwagon, fronting for the trend of being environmentally-friendly. However, Paul also sees another angle of the corporate world, where CEOs and business owners deeply wrestle with how to shift and redirect focus in a regenerative and sustainable way to benefit people and the environment.
• The climate crisis and the incredible struggles we are facing worldwide are not attacks on us as people, but they are absolutely devastating to many of the frontline communities experiencing disasters and catastrophes. If we are willing to step back, the famine, drought, flooding, global temperature rising, and catastrophic events are actually nature’s feedback to us that things need to change. Our actions have an impact on our world, and we are seeing the results.
• There is so much power in getting still with self, away from the endless inputs we have around us. When we have the ability to step back into nature and look inward, we open ourselves up to grounding, imagination, self-reflection, and possibility. This leads to transformation and regeneration. Listening is an essential first step – to ourselves, to nature, and in building community.

Notable quotes

“I see a great amount of activity going on. I mean… imaginative, disruptive, brilliant, creative, innovative things that are happening, on all levels of activity in terms of activism to art, you know, and everything in between.”

“The heart of regeneration is to make life the center of every action and decision.” 

“We’re not going to change the world with blame and shame and threat and guilt.”

“In the case of climate science, we have to draw a bright line and say, beautiful, but we have to see the science as describing feedback from the planet to us. That is to say, we have to look at what’s happening, not as being victimized or as something that’s bad, but it’s actually feedback.” 

“Listening to self, regardless of where your orientation is, is about coming into sync with the reimagination, the restoration, and regeneration of life on earth.”

The Yes! We Rise podcast features solutions-seekers, change-makers, and those creating a resilient future. We share stories and strategies to inspire action to build resilience and community transformation. To create change, people need to feel like they belong and that they are part of a growing movement. They need to know their voice matters and that they have the inspiration, agency and ability to transform their lives and their communities. They are the key to a resilient future.

From the Navajo Nation to the mountains of Appalachia, incredible work is being done by community members and leaders. Change is often sparked by inspiration: seeing what others have done, especially in similar situations and places. People see that when someone looks like them or lives in a place like theirs, and has created real, true and lasting change, change that will allow their granddaughters and grandsons to thrive — they begin to imagine what might be possible for them. No longer waiting for someone else to come and save them, they realize they are the ones they have been waiting for. But what creates that spark? What creates that inspiration? Learning through stories and examples, feeling a sense of agency and belonging, and getting fired up to kick ass creates that spark.

We Rise helps community leaders and members learn to forge a new path toward creating resilience and true transformation. One person at a time, one community at a time, one region at a time, the quilt of transformation can grow piece by piece until resilience becomes the norm instead of the exception. Together, we rise.