GROWN

Grown is an outdoor creativity lab, a design and experience collective – co-creating regenerative design solutions inspired by nature. We (re)connect with nature while we play in nature; we learn from and get inspired by nature, and we mimic nature’s design genius for daily challenges and societal opportunities. We weave new bio-regional circular supply systems and emerge towards new habits and new lifestyles – towards regenerative cultures.

The pressing global societal challenges require fresh mindsets, tools, and cooperation to take more effective local action on sustainability. Nature teaches us relevant lessons of regenerative design for solving societal and individual problems, to restore and rebuild what we neglected, and to navigate in complexity.

Grown’s roots are in outdoor sports, in backcountry skiing. Back in 2008, we developed the first ecologically engineered skis, based on science and hard core testing in Arctic mountaineering conditions. These skis won the first ever eco design award by the leading sporting industrie’s ISPO Munich fair, and we published the first life cycle analysis of skis.

Since then we have been growing a community of nature and sports lovers who feel connected with nature, love to play, and are conscious about our contribution to negative and positive change. We feel deeply connected with the outdoors and learn our lessons while playing in the wild – navigating beyond our comfort zones, challenging ourselves, each other and our equipment, and becoming humble by better understanding our tiny-ness in the complexity of nature.

Ten years later, 2018, we presented another ISPO awarded ski construction from hemp fiber composite. Industrial hemp’s potential to incubate a bio-regional circular economy is a fascinating example for creative inspiration and concrete solutions to mimic nature. Today we design buildings from hemp.

Grown started as a high tech eco ski company. We believe that not “just another brand” is needed to try to push more products into a linear economy, but rather to prototype and prepare-to-scale better, regenerative solutions that substitute existing materials, products, buildings, services. We don’t need another ski company but inspiring examples that nudge the industry – like the Grown hemp composite skis – and that ideally are taken up by existing companies to change their products.

We design essential outdoor tools, things that are helpful and fun to use on outdoor activities as well as in daily (urbanized) life, and that are embedded within greater systems beyond the actual product – as inspiration and illustration. We bridge science, design and industry to develop more sustainable solution prototypes that are then getting introduced to the industry for upscaling and improving conventional, non-regenerative products and services.

We guide local adventures, growing a community that is inclusive in ways of shared passion for co-creation of sustainability, the outdoors, new cultural experiences, and the joy of exploring one’s own physical and mental boundaries through outdoor play, intellectual discourse, engineering and fun events.

We dive into place-based design experience courses with more space and more time, consciously co-learning about ecosystems and human footprint, mimicking fresh tools for change.

We co-create with the industry tailored experiential workshops, train-the-trainer courses, systemic design services (product/service design), invited talks, or second opinion expertise.

Join us for a ride – join to co-create.