The Regeneration Lab
Welcome to The Regeneration Lab. The podcast of the Regenerative Thinking research group at the the Mission Zero centre of expertise at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where we conduct integrated research to come up with regenerative solutions for a more sustainable future. Each episode features a leading educator, activist, professor, or researcher who is already engaging in more regenerative forms of higher education. Join us on this journey as we discover how these educational innovations emerged, how they are practiced, and the beautiful futures that are envisioned for more regenerative higher education. Along the way we will explore the systemic and personal challenges, barriers and opportunities that our awesome guests are facing to do this. You can reach out through mission-zero@hhs.nl to respond or connect to any of the episodes!
The Regeneration Lab
Can we make the planet a stakeholder? A Conversation with Mirjam Pfenninger
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Mirjam sees herself as an incubator preparing caterpillars to become butterflies—holding a safe space where transformation can happen before students are ready to fly. Having grown up close to nature, she's evolved from human-centered design to planet-and-human-centered approaches, and she's not afraid to challenge conventional tools. When the Business Model Canvas wasn't enough, she and her colleagues created the Value Creation Canvas. But perhaps most radically, Mirjam forces her students to include an additional stakeholder in every project: the planet itself. What are the planet's jobs to be done? What are its pains and gains? In this episode, we explore what it means to call students "preneurs"—leaving space for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and commonpreneurs alike—and why having fun as an educator matters just as much as transformation.
Key themes: Planet as stakeholder, transformation as metaphor, value creation canvas, preneurship, safe space for chang