What We Mean By “Regenerative Solutions”
At Kinjani, we believe in the power of African ingenuity to tackle the climate challenge head-on. As Sub-Saharan Africa emerges as a hub for innovation, leveraging our natural resources and ecosystems to create scalable, sustainable solutions is not just a priority—it’s an opportunity.
This is where Regenerative Solutions come into play. Food Systems Journal defines these as “solutions that work with or mimic the ways that natural ecosystems return energy from less usable forms to more usable forms.” This goes beyond sustainability, to regeneration. The Sustainability Agency explain these terms as:
Sustainable: something that can be sustained over time, doing little harm to future generations. Think stability.
Regenerative: something that aims to do no harm and lead to benefits/reversal of harm. Think renewal.
Sustainable vs Regeneration - adapted from Sustainability Trends
We define Regenerative Solutions as ones that work with ecosystems to address pressing societal challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity, while also unlocking new economic opportunities.
For founders, investors, and partners alike, Regenerative Solutions represents a dynamic and expanding frontier in the climate-tech & nature-tech landscape. In this article, we’ll explore what these solutions mean, why they matter, and how they’re poised to transform Africa’s climate future.
How Kinjani's key focus areas (Food Systems, Urbanisation, Critical Minerals, and Materials) intertwine with regenerative solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
These solutions harness nature’s innate ability to provide services, from carbon sequestration and water filtration to increased resilience to climate impacts, offering a low-cost, high-impact alternative to traditional engineered systems.
Defining Regenerative Solutions
How we define Regenerative Solutions: commercial science-driven innovations that are working with ecosystems rather than against them to address challenges in climate, water, and biodiversity. This may include solutions that are made with nature (e.g. soil health improvement through fungi & microbes), or are derived from nature (e.g. repurposed mine-waste material that includes magnesium-rich rock dust which can be used as a cement alternative).
Examples from Kinjani’s first cohort that are Regenerative and nature-derived:
Materials | Fiberglass Alternatives: BoomBio creates fiberglass replacements from natural fibers, combining industrial ingenuity with sustainable farming, a lightweight alternative displacing materials in the automotive & airline industries.
Urbanisation | Biogas in townships: MAVA transforms organic waste to clean, affordable & safe energy using modular biodigesters (a container-sized system that converts organic waste into biogas and compost), improving quality of life and promoting sustainable living.
Food systems | Biochar for Rehabilitation: BioCarbonX Climate Company (BCX) produces engineered biochar from invasive species and agroforestry waste to rehabilitate degraded lands and decarbonise industries.
Minerals | Green Cement Alternatives: iCink uses crushed-rocks from mine waste to make a green cement that replaces the carbon-intensive clinker, and mineralises carbon into its structure.
These solutions align with the principles of regeneration and resilience, creating benefits that extend beyond their immediate applications.
Why Regenerative Solutions Matter
Africa’s potential to be the world’s largest carbon sink is unmatched. Our vast natural resources such as our minerals and grasslands can sequester billions of tons of carbon, while also improving livelihoods, preserving biodiversity, and strengthening water security. Here’s why this matters:
1. Climate Action
Regenerative solutions mitigate climate change by reducing emissions and enhancing carbon sinks. For example, reforestation projects in Africa’s Great Green Wall not only absorb CO₂ but also combat desertification and create jobs.
2. Economic Opportunity
Founders can build businesses around Nature-based Solutions that provide measurable outcomes, such as biodiversity credits or water purification services. These markets are growing globally, with compliance and voluntary biodiversity markets already worth $12 billion annually.
3. Addressing Biodiversity Loss
Africa is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but habitat destruction threatens species and ecosystem services (the benefits humans derive directly or indirectly from natural ecosystems, like clean water, air, food, and climate regulation). Regenerative Solutions restore habitats, strengthen food systems, and safeguard water supplies.
4. Cost-Effective Resilience
Green infrastructure, such as biochar buffers, offers cost-effective alternatives to engineered flood mitigation. For governments and industry, these solutions are cheaper, scalable, and more adaptable to changing climates.
Tackling Barriers and Building Solutions
While the potential for Regenerative Solutions using nature is enormous, founders must navigate several challenges to prove their innovations and scale them:
- Resource Constraints: for any of these solutions to scale, founders need foundational inputs, like access to feedstock, land for regeneration and communities to work with to ensure successful uptake of solutions and equitable distribution of the benefits. By partnering with incredible initiatives like Save the Sand, Llondolozi & Anglo American’s Regeneration initiatives - the vision of creating regenerative industries that are planet-healing and commercial, can become a reality.
- Standards and Verification: Unlike traditional markets, medium and long duration carbon and nature credits lack globally accepted standards. Leading with science, and working with trailblazers in the space, such as Breakthrough Energy, Carbon Direct and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund to develop high quality carbon credits is a competitive advantage with HUGE market potential in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Access to the right types of Funding: commercial projects need clear business models, techno-economic assessments, and strong proof of outcomes to secure financing. This often includes demonstrating long-term ecological and economic benefits and requires funding for capex-heavy projects that look more like patient and large-scale infrastructure funding, with the appetite to take venture-capital type risks.
How Kinjani Supports Regenerative Solutions
At Kinjani, we’re on a mission to support African innovators as they tackle these challenges head-on. Through our venture-building programmes, partnerships and capital, we provide founders with the tools, networks, and funding opportunities they need to succeed.
- For Founders: We help you navigate the complex world of climate-tech and carbon credits, whilst building scalable business models.
- For Investors: We connect you with high-quality regenerative innovations across Sub-Saharan Africa that align with your sustainability & growth goals.
- For Partners: We collaborate with scientific institutions, corporates, funds and NGOs to drive the adoption and scaling of regenerative solutions across the continent.
The Road Ahead
Regenerative Solutions offer a pathway to a thriving future for Africa. By restoring ecosystems, empowering communities, and unlocking new markets, these solutions can tackle the global polycrisis we face, including climate change and biodiversity loss, while driving economic growth.
If you’re a founder ready to innovate, an investor seeking impact and commercial returns, or a partner looking to collaborate, Kinjani is here to support your journey. Together, we can harness Africa’s natural potential to create solutions that benefit both people and the planet.
Let’s build a planet-positive future, one rooted in the power of nature.
Ready to take the next step?
Join Kinjani’s (Ad)venture-building programme or reach out to learn how you can be part of Africa’s climate innovation revolution.