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As the year draws to a close and Regen Melbourne celebrates its fourth birthday, CEO Kaj Lofgren launches our first ever Annual Report and reflects on a year of progress.
Regen Melbourne is now four years old. We are of course still living in complex and disruptive times. At times, this year has felt like an accelerating treadmill of increasing urgency. And yet, if we look carefully enough, we find pockets of regeneration all across our city. As Arundhati Roy reminds us: 'Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.'
Our three Earthshots have matured significantly in 2024. The Swimmable Birrarung community has grown considerably, with the enrolment of non-profits, businesses, academics and government partners. We supported and catalysed a range of initiatives, with the undoubted highlight being the privilege of supporting the Yarra Riverkeeper Association's RiverFest in September.
At times our work can feel hard to grasp. It can be easier to think about the daily symptoms of our current system than to attempt to shift the messy route causes. And yet, this remains our focus.
Our Regen Streets work has gone through a deep, 9-month sensemaking process in 2024, exploring and supporting a vast array of neighbourhood regeneration work across our city. And our Food Systems work has rapidly synthesised systemic barriers and co-developed transition pathways for this vital sector.
This year we have also established our Systems Lab, an action-research platform that explores the enabling conditions for city transformation. Together with our incredible Research Council, we are actively interrogating key enablers including policy, research, capital and narrative.
From an operations perspective, this year we became a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. We also consolidated all our learnings into a publicly available living strategy.
At the end of a big year, we are proud to publish our first Annual Report. Regen Melbourne is an invitation to raise our collective ambitions and deepen our systemic impact, together. Thank you for your continued involvement and support. See you in 2025.
