The Regenerative Commons License

Version 1.0 · Identifier RCL-1.0 · Steward: Regenerative Development Corp (transitioning to the VLAS Trust)

This work is made available under the Regenerative Commons License (“RCL”) — an open commons license, not an open-source license. It is open to participants who commit to public benefit and non-extractive use, and closed to use that would extract value from places, communities, or living systems without measurable regeneration of the Five Capitals (Natural, Human, Social, Manufactured/Built, and Financial).

This page is a plain-language summary. The authoritative legal text is published by the Steward at the Canonical URL and controls in any conflict: https://commons.zoen.earth/license/v1.0.

Who may participate — three eligibility paths

To exercise any right beyond reading and citation, you must qualify under at least one path. The paths are alternatives; qualifying under one is enough, and they may be stacked.

  • Eligible Entity — a public-benefit corporation, B-Corp, 501(c)(3)/(4), cooperative, Indigenous nation, public body, accredited academic institution, foundation, or a natural person using the work for personal, non-commercial public benefit.
  • Credentialed Educator — an educator, recognized faculty, Indigenous knowledge teacher, or doctoral/post-doctoral researcher, subject to the sliding-scale Knowledge Commons Contribution.
  • Designated Steward — an individual or collective holding ongoing, place-based stewardship of a defined Place, with full economic rights to that Place’s outputs.

Three grants — the tracks

  • Track LR — Learn & Reference (all persons, no registration): read, study, cite, reproduce for personal/academic/journalistic use, and teach non-commercially, with attribution.
  • Track BA — Build & Adapt (Eligible Licensees, non-commercial): modify, combine, and distribute derivative works, under attribution, provenance preservation, and share-alike.
  • Track SC — Steward & Commercialize (by written agreement with the Steward): scoped commercial use with a Community Dividend to the Place Community of origin.

This deployment operates under Track LR (Learn & Reference).

Three gates of the Commons

  • Gate 1 — Self-Declaration → Provisional License and a provisional mark, effective immediately on registration.
  • Gate 2 — Regen-Commons Certification → Certified License and a certified mark, after Stewardship Office review.
  • Gate 3 — VLAS Conformance → Conformant License and a conformant mark, required before any VLAS, RCCS, or NAV conformance claim. Gate progression is voluntary.

Conditions of use

  • Attribution — carry the work’s title and version, its originator(s), the Steward, a link to the Canonical URL, and the line “Licensed under the Regenerative Commons License v1.0, Track LR”.
  • Provenance — preserve the full modification and contributor history in every derivative.
  • Share-alike (Track BA) — release derivatives under the same track of this license or a Steward-declared compatible license.
  • FPIC & Indigenous data sovereignty — respect Free, Prior, and Informed Consent and Local Contexts TK/BC Labels; Indigenous Knowledge is not licensed under the RCL.
  • Non-authoritative-derivative notice — every derivative is marked as not claiming conformance until certified under Gate 3.

What no licensee may do — field-of-use restrictions

These restrictions apply at every gate, under every track, and cannot be waived — not even by a Track SC agreement:

  • No AI training that issues, scores, prices, or substitutes for Verified Living Assets, RCCS credits, or NAV outside the VLAS conformance process, and no general-purpose foundation-model training on the work.
  • No extraction of value from a Place without measurable regeneration of the Five Capitals in the same period.
  • No greenwashing or unsupported “regenerative”/“VLAS-conformant” claims without the matching gate certification.
  • No weapons, surveillance, discrimination, fraud, extraction-industry optimization, commodification of Indigenous Knowledge, or speculation against the communities and Places the work describes.
  • No financial instrument referencing RCL standards, methods, or data unless the issuer is VLAS-conformant under Gate 3.

Reciprocity, Place Communities, and marks

  • Community Dividend — Track SC licensees pay 10% of attributable gross revenue to the Place Community Fund of the bioregion of origin.
  • Place Communities are third-party beneficiaries — with non-waivable standing to enforce this license and to grant or withdraw FPIC.
  • Marks are not licensed here — the provisional, certified, and conformant marks are the Steward’s trademarks, each carrying a public verification identifier.

Read the full license

The complete terms — definitions, patent grant, compatibility, termination, dispute resolution, and governing law — are in the Authoritative Version at https://commons.zoen.earth/license/v1.0. The Acceptable Use Policy, incorporated by reference, is at https://commons.zoen.earth/aup.

Life before profits. This license is dedicated to the regeneration of life.