Sustainability traditionally focuses on reducing harm to the environment and maintaining balance by using resources responsibly. Regenerative sustainability goes further. Inspired by nature’s ability to heal and renew itself, it promotes systems that restore and regenerate – helping landscapes and communities co-adapt, grow, and thrive over time. This approach is systemsoriented, action-driven, and self-sustaining. It allows natural and human systems to continuously evolve and renew themselves.
In this course, students will explore practical strategies for restoring ecosystems, strengthening resilience, and creating self-sustaining systems. Key topics include conservation, reforestation, combating desertification, restoring watersheds, mines, and fostering ethical resource management. Students will compare large-scale sustainability initiatives—such as Africa’s Great Green Wall and China’s Three-North Shelterbelt Program—to community-led efforts like agroforestry and agroecology in the Sahel and Sahara, which leverage local knowledge, participatory governance, and adaptive technologies. This comparison will highlight why topdown policies often fall short, while decentralized, community-driven solutions tend to succeed.
Through case studies, workshops, and hands-on projects, students will examine governance models and restoration strategies, exploring both government-led approaches and grassroots solutions. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to apply regenerative sustainability principles across policy, governance, agriculture, hydrology, energy, business, and technology to tackle global challenges. This course equips students with the skills needed for IQP projects and future graduate studies.