Award Winning, Founder of Circular Earth sustainable fashion consultancy , coaching and building with businesses towards a sustainable fashion future.
Founder of the Ecosystem Incubator, and advocate of building living systems and ecosystem thinking in Fashion business structural development.
Regenerative leadership and the online learning journey that I did with Laura Storm – changed my life, I was trying on looking at how to apply permaculture values to business structures when the Cambridge mentor that I was talking with said – ‘right you have to read this book’.. and it was the answer to all of my questions about how to create living systems in a business structure. I chose to do that in my industry of fashion and the niche here of working with small hives – but this works of course for industry, corporates, governments and community based systems.
The book gathers together and makes clear the various work done by many amazing players in living systems and whole systems thinking, such as the great Donnella Meadows, Daniel Christian Whal, Otto Scharmer, Charles Eisenstein,and the original work of William McDonough & Michael Braungart.
It changed my view on how to build a business, that it doesn’t have to be about one person winning and others loosing in a degenerative way – as it is in our current economic system. I was able to play and work with applying a balance throughout society. It isn’t that we have to become communists to do this, we can create structures that resemble nature, in nature there is always a balance, it is living and breathing. As we see in climate change when you upset the balance of an ecosystem injustice and suffering occur.
The book shows us that we can look to reconnect to nature, each other and what we create inside of this re-connection in such a beautiful and powerful way. It gave me real inspiration and so I started to create my own ecosystem with its principles.
So, if you want to learn more – grab a copy of this – it is AMAZING.
I love anything by the modern philosopher Charles Eisenstein, all of his books have touched me In such a way as to inspire me on my journey towards the regenerative approach. In his Book ‘Climate a New Story’ he talks of looking at climate change in different perspectives and to look at the very systems that we are founded on. In his book ‘The more beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible’ he speaks of systems we may put in place to work towards a new world. The book ‘Sacred Economics’ inspired me so much and gave so many practical possibilities towards different takes on a new way of building our economic system which fundamentally is where we need to begin to have more lasting sustainable impact on the world.
It helped to build my views on the very economic system that we live in and how we might go about creating our new decentralised economy, with different principles enquiring about the gift economy and how that might show up in what we create. The very aspects of what I live for changed after trying this on and understanding more the new economics that we might build in our businesses. It was certainly a book that Inspired my work in The Ecosystem Incubator, in applying a transition economy business in action.
It rocked my thought processes around business structuring
This book has rocked my thought processes around business structuring towards new systems thinking is Laloux’s book about reinventing the very structures that we work in. The book is very easy to read and understand, showcasing with drawings and diagrams how we might try on moving from our old structures that are based in what he calls Orange (based on competition, and hierarchical structures) towards Teal organisations where we might work with a bottom up mentality, creating with small self organising teams to create with more innovation and flexibility as founders and CEOs.
I loved his approach and the real case studies that he showcased in the book, It was so practical and interesting to apply in my work in The Ecosystem Incubator and my work as a sustainability consultant.
Simon Hedley