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Published Jun 2025
Regen Labs: WEAVE Regenerative Economy Systems Lab
Led by Regen Labs, WEAVE was a 12-month, place-based innovation collaboration. It was designed to learn how to support regional social enterprises to play a catalytic role in accelerating the shift to regenerative, inclusive, and climate-resilient economies.
About the learning community
WEAVE brought together enterprises, funders, governments, and system actors to test, learn, and build together. It was:
- A learning community which explored how regenerative enterprises can shift systems.
- A real-world lab running place-based experiments.
- A platform for storytelling, insights, and shared infrastructure.
Current systems of business support, economic development, finance, and policy design are not working for regional communities. They’re built for a different kind of economy - one that’s extractive, centralised, and outdated.
This moment in time offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity: the global shift toward net zero, circularity, wellbeing economies, and regenerative business. There is a growing recognition in Australia of the value of place-based, community-led approaches.
Regional social enterprises are uniquely placed to lead this transformation. But they need the right models, funding, and enabling ecosystems to do so. WEAVE is a response to that opportunity and that gap.
About the convenor
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Regen Labs is a strategic design and innovation lab working at the intersection of enterprise, finance, and place to unlock the benefits of a regenerative economy.
They partner with communities, governments, funders, and enterprises to co-design the systems, tools, and support structures that enable regenerative transformation towards just, inclusive, and resilient local economies.
Their current focus is on supporting regenerative social enterprises in regional Australia to lead the shift toward just, climate-resilient local economies — by unlocking fit-for-purpose finance, future-fit business models, and catalytic ecosystem support.
How did this learning community work?
The WEAVE learning community explored:
- Business model innovation - what kinds of business models are regenerative, viable, and impactful in regional contexts.
- Finance innovation - innovative ways social enterprises can be resourced and supported through regenerative funding flows and governance models.
- Social infrastructure for regeneration - the conditions, capacities, and processes that enable regenerative enterprises to be truly catalytic.
WEAVE’s place-based experiments took place in Southern Highlands NSW, Northern Rivers NSW, Hills and Coasts SA, and Melbourne VIC.
This innovation collaboration included learning sprints, design experiments, peer learning gatherings, and storytelling.
Participating organisations
Place-based partners included:
- Regenerating Hills and Coasts (SA)
- Northern Rivers Regen Food Systems Coalition (NSW)
- Southern Highlands Home Grown Economy (NSW)
Critical friends were:
- Dr Katherine Trebeck, The Next Economy
- Dr Joanne McNeill, The Good Shift
- Liam Flanagan, Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation
- Dr Jarrod Ormiston, UTS
Digital learning platform was:
- Business for Good Network
How to learn more
To learn more about this learning community contact Regen Labs.
Resources
Scaffolding change: reflections on enabling collaborations in service to place
GuidesThis document is the first output of a year-long learning exchange as part of the innovation collaboration learning community. The insights shared in this piece serve as a basis for future exploration and learning exchanges between place-based initiatives in a time that necessitates bold collaboration.
Scaffolding change: reflections on enabling collaborations in service to placeWhat is the WEAVE Regenerative Economy Systems Lab?
OtherWEAVE learns from real-world experiments focused on business model, finance and social infrastructure innovation across four regions including Southern Highlands NSW, Northern Rivers NSW, Hills & Coasts SA, and Melbourne VIC; and Pilbara WA, sharing learning between Learning Partners.
What is the WEAVE Regenerative Economy Systems Lab?Driving Australia’s Regenerative Economy: The Role of Regen Labs
ArticlesThis article explores origins, partnerships, and commitment to supporting communities and enterprises that restore ecosystems, strengthen local resilience, and create long-term value beyond profit through collaboration, innovation, and storytelling.
Driving Australia’s Regenerative Economy: The Role of Regen LabsSystem change: bold and hopeful funding for place-based and community-led regeneration
WebinarsOn 18 November, Philanthropy Australia and Regen Labs co-hosted a webinar, sharing funding and finance experiences in catalysing place-based and community led regeneration. Watch this webinar to learn the practices that have worked, the patterns that are emerging, and what it really takes to fund regeneration in a time of multiple, intersecting crises.
System change: bold and hopeful funding for place-based and community-led regenerationLearning to weave: reflections from the WEAVE Place Clinics
ArticlesThis article is a reflection on what we learned together through the clinics. With the benefit of transcripts from both sessions, we've tried to capture the ideas and the voices.
Learning to weave: reflections from the WEAVE Place ClinicsSlide Deck
InfographicsOrganising in Place and Working Across Altitudes.
Slide DeckThe Weavers: The Critical Role of Place-Based Convenors for a Regenerative Future
VideosThis video, produced by Regen Labs, introduces weavers: the people and small organisations who quietly coordinate community-led economic development. It argues their work is often invisible and underfunded, and calls for weavers to be recognised and properly resourced in long-term economic transitions.
The Weavers: The Critical Role of Place-Based Convenors for a Regenerative FutureSupport Convening and Coordination
GuidesThis mini-guide, published by Regen Labs explores one strand of the WEAVE Framework: supporting convening and coordination. It argues place-based convenors, or weavers, provide essential social infrastructure for regenerative economic change, but remain underfunded and poorly understood.
Support Convening and CoordinationDesigning Finance Around Place: Four Insights from Co-designing a Community Investment Fund in Regional Australia
GuidesThis insights paper, written by Phil Freeman, Dimity Podger and Reece Proudfoot of Regen Labs, shares four lessons from co-designing a Community Investment Fund in regional Australia. It argues that financing regenerative, community-led economic transition depends on more than capital alone.
Designing Finance Around Place: Four Insights from Co-designing a Community Investment Fund in Regional Australia
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