“REGENERATION MUST COME NEXT”

You hosted the Outdoor Futures event, at the Monviso Institute that you founded. Can you share more about this institute?

I had been searching for a place where sustainability theory and outdoor practice could meet, since I believe they must go hand in hand. In 2015 I purchased an abandoned mountain farm close to the mountain village Ostana and opposite Monviso. Since then I have together with friends, students and colleagues tried to convert the farm into a prototype for sustainable innovations. We invite academia, companies, and NGOs to come here for workshops, learning processes and more. And also, to unlearn! I think we all must regularly question our assumptions and beliefs.

What are you working with today?

My field as a research scientist is Systemic Design with a focus on regeneration, and I am Professor and Program Director at the university ETH in Zürich. But I also work with the Monviso Institute, as a mountain guide and off and on with the sustainable ski brand I started in 2008: Grown Skis.

“Regeneration” was featured at the think tank in 2019. What does this mean to you? Since then, it has become a buzzword and like many buzzwords nearly lost its meaning. Of course, it can include more concrete initiatives like regenerative agriculture. But for me, it also implies learning from nature, since nature has an amazing capability of regeneration. Just think about how biodiversity can spring back to life after a forest fire. We humans often go against nature to reach our goals – I think we instead should be inspired and learn, no matter if it is about cells, ecosystems, societal or personal regeneration. And to learn from nature, we must really be out in nature. That is why it is so important to combine theory with outdoor practices.

Your field aims to be at the forefront of sustainability. What do you hope happens next?

Systemic design and regeneration are at the forefront. But the way we see sustainability as one step on the journey, not the final destination, might be unknown terrain for many. I’m a fan of how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals provide us with a global framework. But we should not stop here. Regenerative development must be the next step, to repair and heal systems and cultures.

Can this be adopted by the outdoor industry? Absolutely, since the connection to nature already is there. I think the pandemic demonstrated the need for more resilience in our systems, also on a personal level. Looking forward, one crisis is just going to follow the next. The usual way of tackling this is to grasp for structure, planning, and data. Instead, we could learn from nature, in nature.

Mountaineering is a great way of learning how to navigate, reach milestones and make decisions based on what you experience along the way. And to get out of our comfort zones and build resilience and trust, both personally and as a team.