Regenerative Working Group

Global thought leaders supporting complete and equitable communities.

On April 6, 2020 Ei Founder Holly Elmore hosted the inaugural Regenerative Working Group (RWG) call to announce the initiative formation.

A first task within the formation stage was designating an Executive Team. Focused on guiding the RWG segue from a vision into a viable initiative, the team commits to making a difference in global arenas. The RWG Executive Team consists of the following individuals:

• Holly Elmore, RWG Chair (Ei Founder)
• Bernadette Austin, RWG Focus Area Lead (CEO at CivicWell)
• Brad Bass, RWG Advisor & Industry Expert (30-year veteran at Environment and Climate Change Canada as well as a Status Professor at the University of Toronto (UT))
• Simon Lamb, RWG Advisor & Industry Expert and Environmental Economics Task Force Lead (author of Junglenomics)
• Tim Rumage, RWG Advisor & Industry Expert (Planetary Ethicist and Professor of Environmental Studies at Ringling College of Art & Design)
• Stephen Suau, RWB Advisor & Industry Expert (Consultant at Carbon Life)
• Ronald Thomas, FAICP, RWG Adviser & Industry Expert (Ron Thomas & Co. President)
• Tim Trefzer, RWG Adviser & Industry Expert | Ei Regeneration in ACTION Chair (Honeycomb Strategies VP Sports & Venue Sustainability)

With the Executive Team in place, the next task was to craft the RWG Vision and define the Focus Areas and Commitment as follows:

Vision: to explore challenges related to stated focus areas from a holistic approach where the community, environment, and local economies benefit from commentary, discussions, and proposed projects.

The RWG seeks to be a thought leader in supporting complete and equitable communities.

Focus Areas:

• Infrastructure – explores the built environment including a city’s water & sewer systems, water treatment plants, public utilities, as well as corporate, government, and educational districts | campuses. Additionally, focus is on the availability of and access to affordable housing within a community.
• Environmental Resources – explores the impact of existing and proposed projects and infrastructure within urban and rural communities on energy sources, soil health, local greenways, open spaces, waterways, and resident access.
• Social Equity – explores ways to promote complete communities that include equitable access to housing, transportation and transit, education, employment, human services such as healthcare and safety, and other amenities such as parks. These complete communities balance land uses focused on people, (such as commercial and residential land uses), with natural and working land uses such as open space, waterways, farms, and ranches.

Commitment: the RWG is committed to action, whether in the form of drafting educational documentation (articles, white papers, website copy), global webinars, and/or projects designed for community impact. RWG members must actively participate.

Ei Advisors: The following Ei Advisors agreed to serve as RWG Industry Experts & Leadership for designated topics:

• Brad Bass, PhD – Green Infrastructure
• Britt Faucette, PhD – Erosion Control, Food-Waste Composting, Soil Health, Regenerative Agriculture, Urban Carbon Sinks
• Holly Elmore – Food-Waste Collection, Food-Waste Composting, Urban Carbon Sinks
• Ronald Thomas, FAICP – Broadband Communications Network
• Stephanie Barger – Circular Economy, Food-Waste Collection, Waste & Recycling Systems, Urban Carbon Sinks
• Wayne King – Biosolid Management Systems, Food-Waste Collection, Food-Waste Composting, Soil Health, Urban Carbon Sinks

As the Formation Stage segued to completion, the Executive Team shifted focus to the RWG Communication Stage. With utmost generosity, Brad offered eight hours of student time from his UT research platform to assist with developing the RWG communication vehicles. 

Beginning the week of May 25, Jahin Khan, a UT research student within Brad’s COBWEB platform, worked closely with Holly on crafting a RWG Intro PPT presentation to support an introductory blog article. Later in the summer, Ridhi Gopalakrishnan joined the UT-affilated research team to study Urban Carbon Sinks and the impact of glyphosate on the soil ecosystem.

Activities within Ei’s Nature Prevails platform are in partnership with the RWG.