From reimagining to remaking Melbourne

Our Origin

Regen Melbourne began as a way to reimagine a safe and just future for Greater Melbourne. When Regen Melbourne was formed - our city was experiencing the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires and was in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns. It was an intuitive response to safeguarding our place in a time of global metacrisis, bringing together the multiple overlapping and interconnected problems that our planet is facing, and translating them into our local context.

Now more than ever, we need a new way of defining our aspirations for the city.

Shaping the Doughnut

Through a series of workshops, Regen Melbourne explored Doughnut Economics as a framework and a compass to orient us towards a new vision for the city.

This process acknowledged the need for a strong social foundation while respecting the planet’s ecological ceiling, effectively creating a doughnut-shaped ‘safe and just space for humanity’. We explored what it would mean for the people of Melbourne to thrive, and what it would take for our city to reflect and respect its natural environment. This period of community consultation resulted in the creation of our collective vision for a regenerative Melbourne and a local version of the global doughnut, the ‘Melbourne Doughnut’.

Our purpose was clear: to activate our emerging alliance to accelerate our city into the safe and just space of the Melbourne Doughnut.

Remaking Melbourne

Single actors don’t solve wicked problems. In order to understand and act on the myriad of global challenges we currently face, we must work together across the sectors and silos that have typically divided us, across business, non-profit, university and government sectors. Melbourne has a unique role and opportunity to lead transformative action in our economic system that rebalances both people and the planet.

Collaboration is vital to unlocking the regenerative economy, and this is where we are now playing.

Regen Melbourne is a platform for ambitious collaboration, in service of our city. We host bold projects that raise our collective ambition and transition us toward a safe and just future. The Melbourne Doughnut acts as a guide for exploring, developing and actioning projects with the potential to enable our vision for Melbourne, but it is not a roadmap. We are convening people with the knowledge, skills and influence to drive systems level change. We are creating spaces for play, connection and collective action.

Together, we are remaking Melbourne.

Our ecosystem: pathways to the safe and just space of the Melbourne Doughnut

Introducing our projects

Regen Melbourne is excited to host a portfolio of wildly ambitious projects in service to the regeneration of our city. These projects have been co-created from our vision, starting with what it means to be a thriving place, and will evolve over time as our work streams are designed and executed. We are continually co-creating and learning with our alliance to ensure our projects are delivering tangible impact. At the heart of our work is advocating for and implementing more ‘Doughnut’ inspired thinking for Melbourne at all levels of decision-making. It is an iterative cycle of thoughtful co-creation, initiating new action and amplifying what is already working.

Ultimately, Regen Melbourne is the active backbone function for each project: we channel the power of the alliance to achieve these wildly ambitious goals. These projects, and others to come, are our tangible pathways to a regenerative city.