What is the goal of the Regenerative Recovery Coalition?
Our focus is to ensure that Colorado emerges from COVID toward a regenerative economy, not back to what was previously considered normal. A regenerative economy is a robust localized system that meets human needs abundantly while equitably providing clean air, water, food and energy. It is a recovery that will create shared prosperity on a healthy planet, starting right here in Colorado. It will also serve as a model beyond our state’s borders.
What is a regenerative recovery and economy?
A regenerative recovery and economy will create shared prosperity on a healthy planet. It engages Coloradans to craft the future that they want. This will enable all Coloradans to share in prosperity as we create the future that we want. It creates good-paying jobs doing the work that is needed to transition to renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, a growing outdoor industry, providing arts and culture and high-technology entrepreneuring. Even before the pandemic, these were the growing sectors of Colorado’s economy.
What is the Regenerative Recovery Coalition?
We are a group of change agents from diverse backgrounds and sectors who are united around a common understanding that we cannot simply go back to normal following the pandemic. The Coalition represents hundreds of citizens, experts, nonprofits, communities and businesses who will work together to prioritize equity and sustainability as Colorado recovers from the effects of the pandemic.
The Coalition is organized around the eight fundamentals of a regenerative recovery as outlined in A Guide to a Regenerative Recovery. Working groups have been established based on the eight fundamentals and are accelerating the transition to a regenerative economy through their focus areas and pilot projects.
What are the Working Groups?
The members of the Coalition collaborate in working groups that focus on the primary areas required to make a regenerative future a reality. This is where the action within the Regenerative Recovery Coalition takes place! We currently have four active working groups:
What makes the Coalition unique?
We recognize that we have an obligation to design an economy that solves past problems as it sets the state on a course to a finer future for all. We are the only group in the state—and, to our knowledge, in the country—taking this approach to build forward from the pandemic.
We are not a single issue group. The state’s recovery requires addressing every aspect of the economy and our society. This place-based, systems approach is unique, but the model is highly replicable.
The Coalition provides the backbone infrastructure to connect our members across Colorado, break down silos and scale collective impact.
Why can’t we just go back to business as usual?
The old normal was broken—fraught with inequities and degenerative practices. The tipping point at which we stand calls for urgent action to harness the potential of a regenerative future. Billions of dollars will be spent in the coming months and years to rebuild our economy. We must ensure these funds are spent wisely. It’s time for citizens to share their visions and craft the communities in which we want to live.
How do we drive action?
The Coalition drives actions in three main ways:
What has the Coalition accomplished so far?
Check out the Coalition homepage for an up-to-date timeline of the Coalition’s accomplishments!
Why now?
As Colorado receives billions of dollars during this one-time infusion, it is urgent that the money be used to create the future we want.
Our state has been embracing a better future, moving from the degenerative economy of the past to one that regenerates people and nature. The transition won’t be easy. Climate change inflicts fires and floods on our mountain state. Extreme weather challenges farmers and ranchers. Underrepresented populations struggle against inequality, bad air and polluted water. COVID-19 worsened all this, striking Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities the hardest. It is urgent that we fix the results of the broken economy of the past as we build toward a vision of a world that works for everyone.
Why The Alliance Center?
The Regenerative Recovery Coalition was born out of the obligation to accelerate the transition to a regenerative and equitable future. The Alliance Center exists to bring people together to solve environmental and social problems. Through this work, we are leveraging our strength as a convener and mobilizing our diverse network of change agents to create a finer future.
What are the values of the Coalition?
What are the eight fundamentals of a Regenerative Recovery?
For details on specific projects proposed by the working groups, view our Project Recommendations for Colorado Stimulus Disbursement.
How will we achieve our mission?
Outreach and Recruit
We recruit organizations and individuals that are diverse, representative of Colorado and aligned in the vision of a regenerative recovery of our state.
Convene and Execute
We gather in focused working groups to innovate ideas, amplify progress through stakeholder engagement and remove barriers to success.
Educate
We foster peer-to-peer education and member-shared resources to accelerate action.
Mobilize
We mobilize citizens, experts, organizations and businesses to accelerate a sustainable and equitable economy.
Implement
Using A Guide to a Regenerative Recovery as a roadmap, we identify key projects for the Coalition working groups to implement to accelerate a regenerative recovery. The best projects cross-pollinate several working groups united around a common outcome.
Scale
This system and place based approach is unique, but the model is highly replicable. Our vision is to facilitate the creation of a Regenerative Recover Coalition in every state, coordinating with each other, sharing best practices, lessons learned and ushering in a finer future.
What does success look like?
Vast amounts of money will be spent in the coming months and years. The Coalition’s task is to ensure the funds go to projects that are rooted in equity and sustainability. Success will take various forms from policy at the state and federal level in support of the regenerative principles, to projects in local communities focusing on increasing air quality, eliminating food waste, implementing renewable energy and delivering workforce development.
Our first metric of success is getting the commitment of the state to direct stimulus money to the healing of communities shattered in the pandemic, transition to renewable energy, shift to regenerative agriculture and implement the infrastructure necessary for a vibrant state economy. Hundreds of specific solutions were outlined in the A Guide to a Regenerative Recovery.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out! We are happy to answer any other questions you may have about the Regenerative Recovery Coalition or the process of joining.
