What is Regenerative Management?
A path beyond sustainability toward collective healing and transformation
Why talk about management in the context of PPPs?
My journey in the field of Social Development and Management led me to a core question: how can we make infrastructure projects truly serve the territories and people they claim to benefit?
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become one of the most adopted models for delivering infrastructure in Brazil and across the Global South. But over time, I began to notice how these partnerships, while efficient on paper, often exclude the communities most impacted by them. The logic is still extractive: based on risk transfer, financial return, and minimum public involvement.
This is why, at Yllá Regenera, we embrace regenerative management as a framework to transform this dynamic. We believe in reimagining the very structure of partnerships, through what we call Public-Private-Community Partnerships (PPPCs), and managing projects not only for efficiency, but for justice, participation, and regeneration.
What is a PPP?
A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a contract between a public authority and a private entity to deliver public goods, such as sanitation, hospitals, roads, or schools. The aim is often to leverage private sector efficiency and resources for public ends.
However, PPPs frequently fail to include communities in the process. Public consultations often happen at the end, when decisions have already been made. This creates a democratic deficit and weakens the social purpose of these projects.
🌿 From PPP to PPPC
At Yllá Regenera, we believe that regeneration is only possible through collective care and shared governance. That’s why we propose the PPPC model: Public-Private-Community Partnerships.
In this model:
- The State, the market, and local communities become co-responsible actors.
- Governance is based on deliberation, not just consultation.
- Equity is prioritized over formal equality.
- Local knowledge and lived experience are central to all stages of the project.
The Salvador–Itaparica Bridge PPP, in Bahia, Brazil, will be one of our case studies, a real-world opportunity to explore how regenerative principles can transform infrastructure into a tool for territorial justice.
What is Regenerative Management?
Regenerative Management is a philosophy and practice that places life at the center of every decision. It’s not just about reducing harm, as sustainability often proposes, it’s about restoring what has been degraded, reconnecting what has been fragmented, and revitalizing systems that support life in all its forms.
According to Daniel Christian Wahl (2016), regenerative cultures are those that "co-create the conditions conducive to life.” Management, then, becomes a tool to serve that purpose, not just to organize resources, but to steward living systems.
Carol Sanford (2017) reminds us that regenerative business must see people not as consumers or workers, but as whole beings who can contribute to the transformation of systems, starting from where they are. John Fullerton (2015), in turn, proposes regenerative economics as a model based on interdependence, resilience, and the commons, rather than competition and extraction.
The Brazilian Foundation: Social Management
In Brazil, Social Management (Gestão Social) has long offered a powerful alternative to managerialism. As Genauto França Filho (2008) suggests, it is not just about results, but about processes, and especially, about who participates and how.
It assumes that:
- No management is neutral.
- Every decision involves power.
- Therefore, legitimacy must come from deliberation, inclusion, and transparency.
As Tenório, Cançado & Pereira (2011) state:
“Deliberative citizenship means that the legitimacy of decisions arises from inclusive, plural, and participatory processes, guided by the common good.”
These principles are in direct conversation with regenerative management. What differs is that regeneration also embraces the land, the spiritual dimension, and the healing of historical wounds — making it a deeper and more systemic response to the crises we face.
What does Regenerative Management look like?
Regenerative management is already alive in the world. It can be seen in:
- Community-led agroforestry systems
- Cultural festivals that restore collective memory and joy
- Local councils that deliberate through consensus and care
- Territorial planning processes rooted in ecology and ancestry
These are not just projects, they are gestures of regeneration. And managing them means listening, feeling, co-creating, and respecting the unique rhythms of each territory.
From Business to Territory
As someone trained in Business Administration, I learned to see management as a set of tools: planning, budgeting, organizing, leading. But the real world taught me that these tools are not enough.
A company can be seen as a living organism, just like a territory. Both need systems that communicate, care, and adapt. They need to move beyond control and begin to heal.
This is the purpose of regenerative management: to reconnect economics and emotion, performance and presence, profit and purpose.
At Yllá Regenera, we commit to:
- Designing projects from the ground up with communities
- Using management tools that serve life, not just systems
- Creating partnerships that are rooted in equity, ecology, and ethics
- Honoring subjectivities, identities, and the commons
- Regenerating what has been harmed: socially, culturally, and ecologically.
📖 References
Sanford, C. (2017). The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes. Nicholas Brealey.
Fullerton, J. (2015). Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy. Capital Institute.
França Filho, G. C. de (2008). Definindo Gestão Social. In: Gestão Social: Práticas em Debate, Teorias em Construção. Fortaleza: Imprensa Universitária.
Tenório, F. G.; Cançado, A.; Pereira, J. R. (2011). Gestão Social: Reflexões Teóricas e Conceituais. Cadernos Ebape.
Manifesto Convivialista II (2021). Por um mundo pós-neoliberal. Rio de Janeiro: Ateliê de Humanidades.
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.
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