Systems Transformation
autopoiesis llc Principals Dr. Stuart Cowan and Kathryn Langstaff each bring 25 years of experience in designing, facilitating, and managing systems transformation initiatives ranging from The Economics of Change, an international effort to include ecological and social value layers in real estate to the Regenerative Communities Network, a global learning and action network devoted to a just transition to regenerative economies. Services include process design, convening, mapping and modeling, regenerative supply chains and research for transdisciplinary systems transformation initiatives in the service of a regenerative world.
Regenerative Communities Network
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autopoiesis llc Principal Stuart Cowan is the Founding Convener and a Senior Advisor for the Regenerative Communities Network, a global learning and action network that launched in October 2018 and supports 14 bioregions on 4 continents on their journeys towards regenerative economies. The RCN has launched significant initiatives in the areas of regenerative education & leadership, systems mapping, bioregional to national scale regenerative roadmapping, systems-based evaluation, regenerative finance, and more. |
Interview with Daniel Christian Wahl: "Learning to be Human in a more-than-human world"
Economics of Change

the_economics_of_change.pdf | |
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Bullitt Center Living Building: Urban Ecosystem Services
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autopoiesis, llc collaborated with Ecotrust on a groundbreaking study of the ecosystem services benefits of one of the world's most sustainable buildings, The Bullitt Center. Just a few of these benefits generate shared value equivalent to the incremental investment required for a Living Building. |

Optimizing Urban Ecosystem Services: The Bullitt Center | |
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Ecological Design
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autopoiesis, llc Principal Stuart Cowan is the co-author of Ecological Design (Island Press 1996, 10th Anniversary Edition 2007), a visionary integration of ecology, complex systems, and design thinking. The book has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin and widely used as a sustainable design textbook. |
Ecological Forestry and Green Real Estate Development
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In 2008, autopoiesis, llc helped a leading rural Community Development Entity secure an $85 million allocation of federal New Markets Tax Credits, allowing tens of thousands of acres to be transitioned to FSC certified forestry while stabilizing rural communities with long-term local job creation. From 2003-4 Stuart Cowan served as a Transaction Manager and founding team member with Portland Family of Funds, an innovative triple bottom line community fund. He played a key role in its successful effort to obtain multiple allocations of federal New Markets Tax Credits to deploy on green real estate development and ecological forestry projects. He helped develop a triple bottom line investment strategy for Portland Family of Funds and its national affiliate, United Fund Advisors, LLC, which have together closed $3 billion in transactions, generating 21,000 jobs.
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Making Wholeness Heals the Maker: A Generative Design Experiment for Personal Healing and Ecosystem Restoration
Generative design experiment "Forest to Home," where deforestation of old growth forests & the grief of the designer inform a transformational design process bringing life and wholeness to healthy ecological forestry & personal well-being.