Creative Regeneration

First Approach and Testing of a Comprehensive Methodology for Designing the Transition to Sustainability.

Our experience as design professionals and researchers has led us to identify significant gaps between…

• on the one hand, design theory frameworks and expectations around the transition to sustainability, and
• on the other, the strategies for real sustainable transformation that organizations and territories are actually implementing.

That’s why we launched a research project with several companies and organizations, which resulted in this academic publication:

Sáez Martínez, Pedro, Begoña Sáiz, and Jimena González Del Río. 2026. “Creative Regeneration: First Approach and Testing of a Comprehensive Methodology for Designing the Transition to Sustainability.” The International Journal of Designed Objects. https://doi.org/10.18848/2325–1379/CGP/A147

By the way, if you want to keep engaged in the conversation with us, you can comment or save this post in Substack.

The foundations of Design for Sustainability

What is there in each Design for Sustainability methodology that could become part of a single, comprehensive methodology? — This is the first research question we explore in this publication.

We systematically searched for, selected, and analyzed (strategic) Design methodologies that placed Sustainability (economic, social, and/or environmental) at their core. Methodologies that genuinely aimed to improve eco-social impact in some way. This led us to Circular Design methodologies, Sustainable Digital Design, approaches that connect Design Thinking with Social Innovation, and others that place citizen participation at the center.

Across all these methodologies, we identified a set of recurring patterns — more present in some than in others:

1. Divergence and convergence — the ability to creatively open up possibilities (as in brainstorming solutions), then strategically narrow them down (as in prototyping and testing the most promising ones), and open them up again, and close them again… iteratively.
2. Zoom in & zoom out — the agility to shift focus between the macro (the broader context) and the micro (details, products, graphics).
3. “Across time” perspective — a lens strongly influenced by foresight and Futures Design, allowing us to approach problems with both historical perspective and prospective imagination.
4. Value chain and life cycle — the capacity to think in processes, from the origin of whatever is being designed (a product, a business…) through to its end of life or reinvention.
5. Value network and stakeholders — the ability to think in relationships, understanding interdependencies within systems, the role of each actor, and the threads that move them.
6. Dual “tangible” vs. “intangible” perspective — in the post-industrial era we inhabit, Design must work not only with materials and physical realities, but also with culture, the immaterial, the digital or virtual, and intangible knowledge itself.
7. Dual “design as problem-solving” vs. “design as meaning-making” perspective — beyond “function” vs. “form,” or “utility” vs. “aesthetics,” Manzini (2015) emphasizes this more dynamic continuum between addressing biophysical challenges and engaging with cultural questions and meaning-making.

From synthesizing all these insights, we created the Creative Regeneration methodology.

A unified and adaptive methodology

How can we build a design methodology through which we can help organizations and territories engage strategically in the transition to sustainability? — This is the second research question guiding our publication.

This is how the Creative Regeneration methodology was born. Or rather, this academic publication consolidates the findings that emerged during its development process. To evaluate this, we tested the resulting methodology — that first version of Creative Regeneration — through workshops with diverse organizations.

The resulting methodology is structured around three main phases. Within each phase, a set of specific tools was developed to facilitate dialogue, co-creation, and progress throughout the innovation process.

EXPLORE — Following a systemic approach, this stage focuses on making sense of the context, building awareness around current and potential impacts generated by organizational or project activity, fostering cultural change, and identifying areas where meaningful change is possible.

ACTIVATE — Here, the methodology centers on organizational or territorial strategy; working on purpose and vision, defining objectives, and creating a roadmap to achieve them.

IMPULSE — In this phase, we shape the experience of the new realities that were strategically conceived and planned in the previous stage. More traditional design disciplines — such as digital product design, graphic design, or industrial design — become central in materializing the strategy.

The creations materialized during the IMPULSE phase become part of the broader context and influence it, providing “infrastructure” for the desired change… and from there, we iterate the entire methodological cycle once again.

To be continued…

The research doesn’t end here, of course. In fact, today it is already much more advanced — the Creative Regeneration methodology has continued evolving through ongoing testing across projects, workshops, conversations… But this academic publication consolidates that specific research and development phase during which we arrived at this version.

We are now continuing to apply the methodology across multiple projects — always with the purpose of regenerating the economic–social–environmental balance — and improving it along the way. The methodology is available under Creative Commons, and several individuals and organizations are already part of this community.

Will you be the next person to collaborate in this ongoing research and development? Will your organization or project be the next to put this methodology into practice?