Hello there. I’m Leigh Baker, your host for this episode of the Think Act Regenerate podcast, where we explore the rich smorgasbord of business and career opportunities offered by today’s full-spectrum regenerative business solutions.

This podcast episode was recorded and produced on Wurundjeri land on the outskirts of Naarm in Melbourne, Australia.

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As a supply chain consultant turned writer, I’ve been watching how entrepreneurial thinkers have been commercialising powerful solutions- solutions that turn today’s challenges into career and business opportunities- for more than twenty years.

Over time, I’ve distilled my observations into a set of design shifts that I assess are driving today’s commercial solutions forward. not all of these shifts will apply to all individuals or to all businesses, but they are fundamental emerging mindset shifts that are well worth understanding.

Depending on your work, your industry, and your interests, one or more of these new thinking patterns could help you uncover a new business opportunity, a career opportunity, or community development opportunity.

Grasping these straightforward but often unspoken patterns, does mean that entrepreneurial thinkers can start exploring for their solutions opportunities without stopping to do a degree in environmental science. You can listen back to earlier insight summaries on past podcast episodes or check the show notes for links to my written content.

[00:02:36]
This episode, Insight Six, explores a design shift around the concept of safety and the ways that that shift in thinking can open up new business strategies and opportunities. What we’re going to talk about is designing next generation 3D safety into business products and processes, and doing it strategically – from the ground up – instead of treating safety as a compliance retrofit.

What does this involve?

Firstly, taking a three-dimensional global systems view of safety that goes beyond “our four walls”; secondly, thinking about safety as a business design and innovation opportunity rather than simply a compliance constraint; and thirdly, exploring beyond traditional less harm definitions of safety to design benign regenerative products, processes and systems – designing for outcomes that intentionally restore ecosystems and communities.

Why does 3D safety matter for forward-thinking organizations and individuals?

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There are a range of reasons, from long-term global concerns to bottom-line cost savings. We’re increasingly acknowledging a global and inconvenient ecosystem truth that toxic isn’t really manageable in the long term.

When industrialism erupted massively in the eighteenth century, the dominant Western worldview was fundamentally infinite resources. It was a worldview where nature supplied endless resources And the extension of that infinity thinking, is that the world had some magical endless capacity to absorb toxic materials and that out of sight somehow meant gone for good.

Today, we know that the biosphere we live and do business within is actually a finite 20-kilometre layer of earth, air, and ocean. We also know that we’ve exceeded seven of the nine biophysical planetary boundaries that keep that biosphere functioning effectively. business as usual is a flawed strategy going forward.

What the second law of thermodynamics has predicted for decades – that everything spreads – applies from nuclear contamination to microplastics. What goes around comes around and contaminants from PFAS chemicals to hormones have climbed the food chain and are now being found in human tissue.

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Societally, there’s a growing concern about toxic contamination and a growing interest in 3D safety. There’s demand for the developments of products and processes and materials that are totally safe and actually healthful.

This 3D approach to safety goes beyond the health of consumers. It’s about innovating towards products, processes, and materials that are:

• fully safe to make; and
• fully safe to use; and
• fully safe to upcycle.

It’s a business challenge, a challenge that’s becoming a source of business opportunity.

Environmental issues around product safety aren’t new They were being raised globally as far back as the 1960s and ’70s, with Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and The Limits to Growth in 1972.

Back then, with 1970s technology, it may well have been too expensive and too much hard work to design safety and positive impacts into products, processes, and systems.

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Statements like too difficult and too expensive have always been taken as a challenge by the human race’s innovators and entrepreneurs – andin the third decade of the 21st century we have over 50 years of innovation work already done.

With the compliance and reduction mindset towards safety, conversations typically get stuck in cost. Only looking at cost can hide a range of big picture opportunities. Safety can be neglected in discussions about innovation, about brand, around niche opportunities and long-term growth.

[00:07:26]
With a strategic and innovative approach – using 50 years of commercial product and process development – solutions that looked like science fiction 20 years ago are commercial today.
Opportunities can turn up where making truly safe products that evaluate safety in multiple dimensions can actually be more profitable.

Once you start looking, there are some amazing stories about today’s growing range of regenerative products and materials and design approaches.

Rohner – case study

[00:08:05]
A European upholstery manufacturer called Rohner started taking ecosystem safety seriously a couple of decades ago.

They delivered a quality upholstery fabric. However, their traditional manufacturing materials and processes produced a fabric so toxic that their waste off cuts had to be incinerated internationally because they weren’t allowed to dispose of them locally. Everybody did it. It was industry standard practice.

But the company took on a 3D safety challenge from one of their customers. They examined the materials they used for their safety, reviewed their production technologies, and reviewed their design standards.

Their results:

• a product so safe their offcuts could be sold for use as strawberry mulch locally;
• filtration process is so . thorough and efficient that water came out of the factory cleaner than it went inl
• radically reduced inventory management costs because they went from hundreds of raw materials to be stored and managed to a much smaller selection,

Another result was zero hazardous material costs. No protection equipment, no secure storage requirements, no materials management training, no overheads. They freed up so much space in the factory that they could put in a staff recreation room.

They didn’t have to reduce their product range. They didn’t have to change their market offerings except to promote the safety of their products. That’s safety with dividends.

“We have the technology”

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There are safe materials in the market. There are safe processing methods. Today you can go online and look up catalogs of commercially available, verified products and materials- from Australia’s Global Green Tag to the International Cradle to Cradle Certified Program.

There are also a whole range of commercial technologies to make processes safer and cleaner. You can go out and buy practical commercial equipment that can purify water without chemicals or filters. You can go out today and source practical commercial processes that can turn the cellulose from plants into everything from paint colorants to building panels to alternative leathers.

Not only do we have materials and products, We also have tools and technologies available that enable rapid design and virtual testing from three D CAD to big data analytics.

As awareness increases of the toxic consequences of many twentieth century materials, processes, and design defaults, demand for alternatives is on the rise.

It’s not on every business’s radar. Some businesses are tempted to treat new safety expectations as a demand fad, rather than accepting and working through the consequences and opportunities of growing societal demands for safety.

Part of what’s going on is that safety has tended to be a secondary design priority, and safety issues are often dealt with using after-the-fact retrofits.

Another reason that businesses haven’t always thought about safety as a strategic opportunity Is that in the past, businesses haven’t been fully accountable for the disposal costs of any toxic products or materials that they make.

The costs to communities and governments of cleaning up after business have led to the development of a range of extended producer liability initiatives, initiatives that are challenging industries from fashion to solar panels.

[00:12:07]
The historical bias towards compliance thinking rather than design thinking shows up in safety. The mindset has tended to be, let’s make it first and then fix it as much as we need to fix it to comply.

The result of that thinking can be that safety considerations often enter design briefs quite late. They become about retrofitting the existing design. And retrofitting something after it’s made is pretty much always an expensive option.

Industry is a human system, and like every human system, it relies deeply on existing and embedded knowledge bases. It preferences known production technology defaults. newer approaches ranging from biomimicry to additive manufacturing and 3D printing may get undervalued and overlooked.

Even our accounting systems can be against us. In many industries using historical accounting practices, safety costs are lumped into a single bucket called overheads Masks, gloves, hazmat procedures, waste disposal costs, sick days, staff turnover.

These are all costs that don’t get attributed to end products or processes. The full and ongoing operational costs of pollution and toxicity don’t necessarily show up on balance sheets where they belong.

Interface landfill energy – case study

Another good story comes from the annals of commercial carpet company Interface in the US. This business got into the sustainability game back in 1997 so they have a raft of stories to tell.

One I like in the context of safety is an energy upgrade they did at one of their commercial carpet factories in the US. The factory was located near the local city rubbish dump. The company’s declared mission was a safer future for all children.

What did they do? They set up a project to draw landfill gas out of that rubbish dump and to use it for energy in the factory. That cut their running costs because the energy cost less. It removed toxic emissions from the atmosphere – both from their old energy sources and the landfill emissions.

That increased the health of the local community and even reduced the landfill costs because by drawing off the landfill gas they were able to extend the life of the landfill by a decade.

Safety can be an opportunity

It’s an opportunity that starts with mindset shift. Like quality, safety isn’t just about cost, compliance, and reduction anymore. . The game has gone bigger picture.

[00:14:58]
The challenge: to design toxicity out – and total safety in – at every stage and for every stakeholder. The goals have got bigger too. It’s not just zero harm. The goal is shifting towards positively healthful, beneficial, benign.

This bigger game of safety is about designing safety in from day one – because retrofitting toxic products and toxic processes to make them less bad is increasingly expensive.

Focusing on safety as a job of reverse engineering gives you a pretty high risk of optimizing something that just shouldn’t exist in the first place.

[00:15:47]
The twenty-first century game of safety is designing for 3D safety.

• Products and processes and systems safe to make and to use and to upcycle at end of life.
• Products, processes, and systems that are safe for ecosystems and for people and for business prosperity.

The traditional approach of build it first, see what you can get away with, and then make it less bad later is getting pretty out of date. It can mean that a whole lot of time and energy get lost in improvements that are about making something less bad.

Today, we know that the toxins we use and the toxic products we create don’t go to some magical “away” where they can do no harm to us.

So it’s worth reviewing your business to see whether your ” manageable risk” will stay manageable Driving off a cliff slowly is still driving off a cliff.

[00:16:51]
So what does a twenty-first century approach to safety look like? It’s designing products that are totally safe to make. It’s designing products that are totally safe for your customers to use. It’s designing products that are totally safe to be upcycled at the end of their usable life.

It’s about system goals that go beyond our four walls.

It’s about safety for people, both your in-house workers and the local community. It’s about safety for the local and global ecosystems that your business operates within. It’s also about safety for your business- for its prosperity and its longevity. Because this new approach to safety goes beyond “comply and retrofit” – it lifts safety into the game of strategy and innovation and market opportunity.

[00:17:45] A truly regenerative goal is even bigger, hairier, and more audacious, as Cradle to Cradle co-founder Bill McDonough has proposed for decades.

“Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy, and just world with clean air, water, soil, and power equitably, ecologically, and elegantly enjoyed.”

Key approaches

Next generation, 3D safety takes an opportunity mindset. It proposes that you look at safety as an opportunity to create value. There are several strategies emerging for opportunity spotting . So let’s take a quick look at four of the key approaches currently in play.

Firstly, straight replacement of toxic with safe. One example is the upholstery fabric discussed earlier. in another example at a smaller scale, commercial painters who go green paints only” have found it reduces absenteeism and staff turnover as well as winning customers. Cleaning services that clean with green products have had similar benefits.

A second strategy is to explore for process improvements and upgrades that remove toxins.

For example, in commercial buildings with water-based HVAC systems, there’s a chemical-free plug-and-play vortex water purification unit that can be retrofitted to existing equipment. This smart bit of kit removes the need for poisonous purification chemicals with the side benefit of re- reducing energy costs and reducing water costs. And it’s virtually a bolt-on.

A third strategy is to level up a bit more and invest in product and process innovation that changes the game you’re in. Here’s another Interface Flooring example.

Interface is in the commercial carpet tile business. Historically, commercial carpet tiles got glued down using fairly toxic glues. When Interface boss Ray Anderson declared the company was going to become the world’s first restorative business, one of the things that they, looked at was fixing systems.

They did some R&D about how to hold down carpet tiles. They came up with a proprietary fixing system called Tac Tiles, that not only removed all glue use , but also enabled the tiles to be rotated, in case of wear and damage adding value for their customers who used the carpet. So by declaring this “business as usual , everybody does it” approach toxic and making carpet tile installation a 3D safety and innovation challenge, Interface developed a new product range.

The fourth strategy that’s worth exploring, is to survey your market for niche demand. Interface took a look at powering one of their factories using purely renewable energy, despite the relative expense back in the noughties.

When they asked their accountants , they were told that the cost was prohibitive. Then they brought their salespeople into the conversation and asked about the market potential of carbon-free carpet the potential market size for their proposed “cool blue” carpet more than justified the investment in solar.

[00:21:03]
That solar installation also became a strong branding statement. If they wanted a new customer to understand their environmental commitment, they didn’t show them a report. They took them to the factory and stood them under the solar panels.

In a more recent example and a different industry, Bobcat has redesigned one of their compact loaders – the TX7 – to be all electric. That includes replacing the hydraulics of the bucket, as well as the diesel engine – so the new loader ends up using zero toxic fuel or toxic fluids.

The result was a more powerful, flexible, safer machine, One that used zero toxic fuel or toxic fluids, and a machine that also needed less ongoing maintenance.

It’s worth taking safety out of the compliance basket and standing back and asking what innovation and product development opportunities and market opportunities it could offer.

There are at least four levels at which you can explore for opportunity. It could be straight replacement of a material, it could be an ongoing process improvement, it could be R&D focused on significant product or process innovation. It could be a niche market development.

But you’ve got to be looking. If you’re stuck in compliance thinking and cost thinking, it’s going to be much harder to find your opportunities.

As Einstein is regularly quoted as saying: “You can’t solve a problem from the mindset that created it.”

To find 3D safety opportunities for innovation and value creation, the starting point is to reset your scope from “how do we make this thing less bad” to “how can we make this thing fully safe”? Or even get ambitious and consider ” delightfully diverse, elegantly enjoyed” – like Bill McDonough.

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Depending on your industry, it could well be time to update your knowledge base. If you’ve been meaning to “get around” to exploring today’s technology and design solutions – things like green chemistry and biomimicry and circular economy and cradle to cradle product innovation – get that “round tuit”.

Even just going and exploring what’s in today’s certified product databases that’s relevant to your industry could be useful – whether it’s the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute’s listings or the Global Green Tag catalogue. I’ve put some links in the show notes.

Sources and approaches

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Some businesses may need opportunity thinking rather than smart tech or products. Refocus your pick of today’s business innovation knowledge base on safety as an opportunity, whether that’s Blue Ocean Strategy or Framestorming, or Lean Startup or the Science of Scaling.

Standing back and looking at the value that you can offer different market segments could be a better starting point than the technology.

If this insight in particular speaks to you, your business, or your career, the starting point is a scope reset, redefining 3D safety as a big, hairy, audacious goal with real value potential. It starts with what Jim Collins, author of the best-selling business classic Good to Great, called “the magic of the and”. Finding the win-win-win. Safety as a competitive advantage, AND safety in three dimensions, AND safety as benign and more healthful and more delightful. (Updated from safety is compliance and cost.)

[00:25:01]
Think in terms of safety for all three fundamental stakeholders. The people who work for you, and the community you operate within. The ecosystems that deliver the water and the energy that you use every day, and your own business’ prosperity and longevity.

Safety is something that applies across the full life cycle. Not just safe to use, but also safe to make, and particularly safe to upcycle – products designed for end of life from day one because there is no magic “away”.

There are smarter design technologies and better materials and smarter innovation techniques waiting to be explored. Some of these I’ve covered in previous podcasts. Some of these I’ll put links to in the show notes.

Biomimicry, for example, preferences physics and biology as processes, uses renewable resources, AND operates at room temperature – unlike a lot of twentieth century mechanical and chemical engineering.

There’s a growing field of green chemistry, a field that’s all about designing benign materials and processes.

When you explore circular economy, make sure you explore all circular economy. There’s a belief that circular economy is just a trendy name for recycling. Full spectrum circular economy is a bit more than that. Make sure you understand it.

If you’re in the materials and products game, you might find that the resources of the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute are useful. There’s a complete sets of guides , and certification processes, as well as a catalog of certified commercial materials and products.

As I’ve already said, don’t get excessively caught up in the technology solutions. Step back and look for value. Consider proven tools and approaches – anything from a five whys exploration to a lean startup approach.

Leverage today’s systems innovation knowledge bases to make your journey easier. Learn a little bit about systems thinking, especially systems thinking for social change. Read Greg Moore’s classic on Crossing the Chasm and a bit of Robert Cialdini on Influence and the Psychology of Persuasion.

The world’s innovators and entrepreneurs and thought leaders have been out there playing with this stuff for 50 years, so don’t start from ground zero. This might mean that you go and explore your way through the Circular Design Guide from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for the Circular Economy.

It could be that you go to the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and look at their resources It could be that you find out what green chemistry is about.

Three decades of innovation to draw on

You’re not starting from scratch. You’re not reinventing the wheel. You’re finding out what’s already working and looking for ways to grow your business or your career by spreading it.

Regenerative entrepreneurs and thought leaders have been challenging the design thinking that perpetuates allowable harm and manageable risk in business product and process design since at least the 1990s. They’ve accepted the basic physics of the second law of thermodynamics Everything spreads.

[00:28:54]
The ideas and approaches that they’ve been developing since the nineteen nineties have now delivered a whole range of design tools and principles and processes and products that go way beyond twentieth century notions of allowable harm and manageable risk and the goal of zero.

Today’s tools and principles offer business more innovation and more prosperity by intentionally doing more good instead of settling for less harm within the status quo.

The bigger game of 3D safety is about designing safety in from the ground up. Designing regenerative potential into products and processes and services, as well as into business models and innovation practices. Regenerative entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs today are designing products and services that are safe for staff, customers, and communities, and products and services that protect their future prosperity by responding to twenty-first century reality.

Whether you’ve identified this trend yet in your industry or not, it could be worth asking yourself what your industry’s early adopters could be quietly leveraging today. Don’t miss out on opportunities because your approach to “the environment” is to wait for government policy.

[00:30:21]
The ten regenerative business insights I’ve distilled over the past two decades are creative thinking provocations. Which insights apply to the business or industry you work in will vary depending on what you do and where you operate. They’re simply starting points to explore how and where changes are occurring in the world today.

Their goal is to create visibility of the new opportunities that people are busy working on in business today – opportunities that people working in business in today’s super disrupted world might not have had a lot of time to notice yet. The purpose of this 3D Safety Insight is to challenge you to look at where do we do harm, whether or not “everybody does this”.r r

Other resources

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Check out the Think Out Regenerate blog for the other insights and for more stories and sources, and most importantly, to look at this question from the perspective of “where’s our opportunity?”

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Think Act Regenerate podcast. I’m Leigh Baker, and I’ve enjoyed being your host today. This episode is Insight six in an occasional series of 10 regenerative business insights.

In coming podcast episodes, I’ll be summarising the final four Think Act Regenerate insights, which focus on key implementation mindsets that are really useful. If you don’t want to wait for future podcast episodes then go to the Think Act Regenerate website and sign up for the free Insights email series.

If you liked this episode, then please leave a rating and review on your favourite platform so you can help other people find access to their opportunities.

[00:32:18]
Now it’s over to you to start exploring and see if you have unrecognised opportunities to apply 3D safety somewhere in your bit of the world – as a strategy, in design, in production, in a product, a process, or a service. If you’re in an extra hurry, then head over to the website and check out my Regenerative Thinking in Action program. It might accelerate you somewhere you never thought you could go.

There’s far more to be done than most people know. There’s a world of solutions and opportunity out there.

So be excited! Be very excited!