Regenerative economics in the built environment: Focusing on net-positive impact

Environmental discourse has evolved from "green" to "sustainable" to "circular" approaches. Regenerative economics extends these paradigms by shifting the focus from damage minimisation toward value creation and net-positive impacts for ecosystems, economies, and human wellbeing. This paper revisits regenerative economics by distinguishing its normative role from its evaluative criterion: regenerative economics proposes the direction of development, while net-positive impact assesses whether this direction is realised in practice. Improved system performance reduces environmental pressures while simultaneously increasing productivity, demonstrating that environmental progress can arise as a by-product of innovation, optimisation, and improved information flows rather than constraint or sacrifice. Using the built environment as an analytical framework, the paper examines how engineering optimisation, digital information systems, and infrastructure integration expand resource productivity at both building and system scales. It further argues that institutional capacity is an important factor in translating technological potential into positive outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that innovation-driven regeneration aligns environmental improvement with economic performance and indicators of human wellbeing, offering a coherent alternative to environmental strategies focused on constraint and damage minimisation.