The Australia Quarterly invited CEO of Regen Melbourne, Kaj Löfgren, to reflect on RM’s work in the context of the polycrisis for their April 2025 edition. The article is republished here with permission.

Regen Streets convener, Nina Sharpe, reports back on the strategies and conversations that emerged from our recent “local economies” workshop with world-renowned localisation expert Helena Norberg-Hodge and community organisers from across Melbourne.

What are we learning from the likes of Amsterdam and Cornwall about how to put Doughnut Economics and the City Portrait into practice here in Melbourne? Regen Melbourne City Portrait Analyst Lokesh Sangarya reflects on how international practice continues to inform and evolve the Melbourne Doughnut.

How do we transform our city’s streets to shape the neighbourhoods Melburnians want? Through lengthy community engagement, Regen Streets has identified seven key building blocks to get us where we need to go.  

In April, Regen Melbourne’s will be co-hosting a ‘Hot Food’ workshop in collaboration with Sweltering Cities and the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation. Here, our Food Systems convenor Dheepa Jeyapalan chats with Sweltering Cities founder Emma Bacon to discuss what it’ll take for Melbourne’s food system to become truly resilient. 

This month, we welcome Dr. Dominique Hes to the Regen Melbourne board, where she will take on a very special role: to represent nature. Here, Dominique reflects on the opportunities and responsibilities ahead - including what nature can teach us about purposeful governance within our organisations.  

Without requiring the services of a crystal ball, there are a few things we already know about 2025: We know that it’ll have 12 months and 365 days in it. We know our global political landscape has shifted. We know we’ll be at the whims of an increasingly unstable climate, no matter where we live or our socioeconomic status. And we know, despite it all, that so many millions of us will spend the next 12 months planting seeds in the hope they might one day bear branches strong enough to hold our visions of a better world. Here, Regen Melbourne CEO Kaj Lofgren reflects on why these seeds matter now more than ever. 

As the year draws to a close and Regen Melbourne celebrates it’s fourth birthday, CEO Kaj Löfgren launches our first ever Annual Report and reflects on a year of progress, big wins, sidesteps, re-shuffles and growth for our team, partners and projects.