Beyond sustainability: What marketers need to know about Regenerative Marketing

In this article, CIM member Rushana Khusainova discusses the new concept of Regenerative Marketing, which takes sustainability a step further, intending to not just balance out any harm, but create a positive impact on the world around us.

Marketers are well familiar with the key premise of sustainable marketing of minimising harm. Sustainable marketing has helped us reduce waste, like plastic packaging and food waste; raise awareness of carbon emissions and aim for carbon neutrality; and the environmental footprint of [digital] marketing campaigns. But what if simply reducing harm is longer enough? As stakeholder expectations evolve and the climate crisis accelerates, a new (and perhaps unlikely marketing mindset) is gaining traction: regenerative marketing.
Unlike sustainable marketing, regenerative marketing doesn’t stop at reducing harm. It aims to repair, replenish, and revive communities, ecosystems, and supply chains. It’s about creating net-positive impact, where people, planet and profits don’t just coexist, but co-thrive. 

Here’s how regenerative marketing works, and what it means for your brand.

What is regenerative marketing?

Regenerative marketing is a values-led approach to marketing that helps all stakeholders (not just customers and shareholders) thrive. That includes employees, local communities, nature, and society at large. While sustainable marketing states, “let’s reduce our negative impact,” regenerative marketing asks: “how can our marketing contribute to the renewal of ecosystems and society?” It's an approach that goes beyond compliance and green messaging. It’s about embedding positive impact into the heart of your product and value proposition, marketing campaigns, partnerships, and brand experience.

Why is it timely?

Consumers are increasingly seeking brands that have a genuine purpose and create a meaningful impact. They want evidence of real change, or co-creation and long-term vision: vision where our planet survives and thrives for the benefit of future generations.

Environmental crises from the desiccation of the Aral Sea in Central Asia to clothing waste piling in Chile’s Atacama Desert, reveal the consequences of overconsumption and unsustainable marketing. Fast fashion, fuelled by extractive demand, continues largely unchecked. Governmental initiatives, like EU’s Waste Framework Directive and Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation are just first steps in this direction.
Marketers must urgently shift from driving consumption to enabling systems that restore and regenerate people, communities, and the planet.

From regenerative design to regenerative marketing

Regenerative marketing draws on the principles of regenerative design which is a practice focused on enabling human and ecological systems to thrive in synergy. It is based on core principles such as enabling capacity, re-establishing interconnection, building symbiosis, supporting self-organisation, and fostering adaptability. The key here is shifting from transactional thinking to systems thinking, where value is co-created with all stakeholders: customers, communities, and the planet. 

Four ways you can start exploring regenerative marketing today

1. Aim beyond traditional KPIs

Regenerative marketing should think beyond short-term KPIs. It uses the power of marketing to tell stories of transformation and challenge the status quo.

Example: when Iceland Foods released their ad about palm oil and deforestation, they didn’t just promote their brand; they provoked national conversation. The ad, originally created with Greenpeace, (and eventually banned for being political), showed how consumption links to ecosystem destruction. It sparked widespread media coverage and shifted customer awareness around ethical sourcing.

2. Rebuild connections across supply chains

Regenerative marketers foster transparency and relationships throughout the supply chain.

Example: Patagonia doesn’t just use organic cotton; it supports regenerative organic cotton farming. That means investing in soil health, biodiversity, and farmer wellbeing. This approach demonstrates a value proposition that builds deep trust with customers.

3. Encourage conscious behaviour without shaming

Regenerative marketing supports behaviour change in a positive, community-driven ways that aims to support wellbeing.

Example: Hiut Denim, a small Wales-based brand, created the “No Wash Club” to encourage customers to wear their jeans for six months before the first wash. This simple idea reduced environmental impact while building brand identity around durability, shared values, and community.

4. Empower communities to self-organise

Regenerative brands don’t just do good for others, they create conditions for others to thrive.

Example: The Body Shop’s Community Fair Trade programme sources ingredients from local producers worldwide, offering stable income, fair contracts, and long-term investment. Marketing this work isn’t about charity, but about showing how ethical commerce creates empowered communities.

Regenerative marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all tick box activity. It’s a mindset shift that requires rethinking what we consider profit to be. But it starts from small action steps.

Final thoughts

Consider starting by auditing your brand’s values. What its community impact, supply chain and relationship with consumers like? Consider partnering with organisations doing regenerative work already. Such companies are not easy to find as their regenerative work is not always obvious. You might start with those working locally or with underserved communities.

Embrace solution-focused thinking and involve your wider audience in it. Can you give them something more meaningful than a purchase? Perhaps something like a role in a shared mission?

Finally, consider rethinking your business philosophy - what if success wasn’t just financial return on investment, but wellbeing, community and environmental benefits together with financial gains? How about incorporating the return on regeneration?

Marketing has long been accused of driving profits over planet while fuelling consumerism and creating demand. But it can, and, I would argue, it must be a force for good, and a force for healing, renewal, and long-term value creation.

Want to expand your knowledge of sustainable marketing and learn strategies and tools to integrate sustainability into your marketing approach?  The CIM Sustainable Marketing training course offers a complete guide to aligning marketing with sustainability objectives.