Voices of the ReGeneration: Conversations about regenerative practice (episode 46)
Daniel C. Walh and Pooran Desai in Conversation
Sit back, relax and enjoy a cup of tea whilst you listen to Daniel Wahl in conversation with Pooran Desai, CEO of OnePlanet. On January 7th, Daniel had an opportunity to speak with Pooran Desai.
From the successes and failures of the London BedZED project and how it let to developing the ‘one planet living’ principles and applying them with different developers around the world to 30 billion dollars worth in real estate development. And how BedZed led to the creation of the ‘One Planet Living’ principles and how they are “not a certification system” – an approach which Pooran considers of limited use. One Planet Living is instead a simple set of principles that once applied together can lead to the emergence of more sustainable systems and practices. To considering the need for getting people out of the silos of experts that “know more and more about less and less”.
This led Daniel and Pooran to discuss Pooran’s most recent venture: www.oneplanet.com, which he spun out of Bioregional a couple of years ago. The company uses a novel network database technology to enable systemic design processes as it helps to map connections, desirable shared outcomes, synergies between them, progress indicators, and implementation pathways. One Planet is exploring applications of this software with large companies and even entire countries and is preparing to have the more projects launched in the coming year. Daniel and Pooran speak about the example of Karingani, in Mozambique, that aims to use income from tourism to support work with local communities and regional ecosystems restoration.
Daniel and Pooran’s conversation next begins to explore the difference between a Pathogenic and a Salutogenic approach to health and how creating the conditions for positive health would be a much more effective way to invest in health than the NHS current “national illness service” approach. Pooran highlights the role of education and culture to promote positive health. From there they turn towards talking about consciousness at the personal, collective and planetary level. Signals from a planetary consciousness will influence peoples behaviour on a daily basis; we will then begin to see an accelerated change towards a regenerative future.
Towards the end Daniel invites Pooran to reflect on the role that Vipassana meditation played in his life and work. Pooran’s response: “I attribute all my work to Vipassana Meditation.” In the end Pooran quotes Bucky Fuller’s advice “If you want to change the way people think, don’t tell them what to think. Rather give them a tool the use of which will change the way they think.” Pooran’s intention behind the software platform developed through One Planet is to create such a tool.
Enjoy this conversation. I certainly did!
More on Bioregional: https://www.bioregional.com
More on OnePlanet: https://oneplanet.com
More about Pooran: https://oneplanet.com/about/founder