Agro-ecologist Nathan Lou is Co-founder and Executive Director of San Diego-based Mongol Tribe, a 501C3 providing hands-on education and experiences with traditional and regenerative land management practices.

With local resiliency as his rally cry and food sovereignty as its anthem, Nathan is all about taking back our autonomy, the ability of our communities to grow our own food and medicines with less dependency on external inputs.

We talk about urban food forests and public policy, seed libraries and how to develop them, community building and cultivating connection to the land, even in a city environment.

Links and resources from this episode at https://www.sustainabilitynow.global/2024/03/16/urban-food-forests-seed-libraries-as-food-sovereignty-strategies/

#UrbanFoodForests #SeedLibraries #FoodSovereignty #SustainabilityNow #CommunityResilience #RegenerativeAgriculture #LocalFoodSystems #LandStewardship #Agroecology #CommunityBuilding #UrbanAgriculture #FoodJustice #EnvironmentalEducation #PublicPolicy #SeedSaving #UrbanFarming #CommunityEmpowerment #ResilientCommunities #ConnectionToLand #AutonomousFoodProduction

A Sustainability Now interview with Nina Simons, author, speaker, teacher and co-founder of Bioneers

Join us for a thoughtful and visionary conversation with Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and author of the top Nautilus award winning book, Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. Nina invites us into what she calls “full spectrum leadership;” leadership that reclaims our human wholeness, that values the wisdom of our hearts, our bodies, our intuition, dreamtime and our ancestors.

She calls for regenerating leadership in service to Mother Life in a way that values being as much as doing and is committed to learning how to live in right relationship with nature while reclaiming our fullest human capacities. Throughout her career, spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development.

Additionally, along with her husband and partner Kenny Ausubel, Nina is a recipient of the revered Goi Peace Award for “pioneering work to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring the Earth and our human community.”

Nina's book: Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership
Preview on Bioneers | Buy on Bookshop.org
Bioneers website

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We currently stand at a pivotal juncture where the loss of numerous species from our local ecosystems poses a serious threat. This jeopardizes the ecosystem services that are essential for our well-being, including oxygen production, water purification, flood control, pollination, pest regulation, and carbon storage. However, this isn't a moment of condemning human actions, but an opportunity to embrace an enjoyable path to positive change through stewardship.

Doug Tallamy's message emphasizes a solution-focused approach: small individual efforts can collectively make a significant impact. By working together, we can create new ecological networks that support the growth and resilience of plant and animal populations, allowing them to thrive despite normal population fluctuations.

At the heart of this initiative is the concept of the Homegrown National Park®, a term coined by Doug. It serves as a rallying point, recognizing that even our grand national parks, remarkable as they are, are too isolated and limited in scale to preserve species effectively. The idea behind the Homegrown National Park is a grassroots call to action, encouraging us to restore habitats in our residential and working areas, and to a lesser extent in agricultural and grazing lands, effectively extending the concept of national parks to our own yards and communities.

To visually represent this collective effort, they have created "THE MAP," an interactive community-based tool that tracks each person's contribution to native plantings by State, County, and Zip Code. This map not only gauges progress toward the ambitious goal of planting 20 million acres of native species in the U.S. but also provides individuals with a tangible way to see their role in a larger ecological restoration effort, thereby creating new ecological networks and revitalizing biodiversity.

#HomegrownNationalPark #getonthemap #RewildYourYard #NativePlanting #BackyardHabitats #EcoStewardship #BiodiversityBoost #HabitatRestoration #CommunityConservation #EcoNetworks #DougTallamy #ConservationEfforts #BiodiversityMatters #StewardshipForChange #EcosystemResilience #HomegrownNationalPark #SustainableLiving #DougTallamysVision #CommunityConservation #TheMapForChange #RestoringBiodiversity #CollectiveAction #SpeciesPreservation #SmallStepsBigImpact

Deniz Tekerek is co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Archireef, a Nature-tech startup that restores coral reefs with proprietary 3D-printed clay Reef Tiles.

Often called the rainforests of the sea, coral reef structures help slow down and shrink waves as they hurtle towards shore, which helps protect coastlines from hurricanes, cyclones and tsunamis. Corals protect shorelines in 81 countries around the world, sheltering the 200 million people living along those coasts. Found in warm, shallow water, coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor but host more than 25% of marine life.

Graham Stewart, founder of Fibre52, is creating a revolution in the fabric industry. Over the past 2 years, Graham has developed and patented an environmentally kind and cost-conscious process to bleach and dye cotton that results in a stronger fiber. Without chemical degradation, it produces cooler, naturally dry, soft, wrinkle and stain-resistant clothing that is recyclable, biodegradable, and a natural replacement for plastic.

With his 50+ years in the industry, Graham is an extraordinary source of information, influence and insight. He gives us a deeper glimpse into the world of fiber, fabric and fashion, a world we all rely on yet very few of us know. It is because of his global connections and reputation, and the power of his innovations, that major brands are jumping on the Fibre52 bandwagon in their transition to sustainable practices.

Resources related to this episode at https://www.sustainabilitynow.global/2023/09/02/074-fibre52-a-revolution-in-the-fabric-industry/

Meet Joe Luttwak, a man on a mission to revolutionize #sustainability. With years of experience in the #CarbonFiber sector, including renowned companies like Ferrari, he embarked on a journey to create an eco-friendly alternative. Joe’s brainchild, Lingrove, emerged as a game-changer, introducing a groundbreaking proprietary formulation. This innovative formula transforms waste and rapidly renewable plants into high-performance goods.

One of Lingrove’s standout creations is the remarkable Blackbird Guitar. Blending the strength of carbon fiber with the rich resonance of aged wood, this masterpiece stands out for being tree-free and free from harmful additives. The ingenious combination of flax fibers and plant-based resins holds the key to its success.

The brilliance of this product swiftly caught the attention of designers seeking natural fiber composites. Acknowledging that the construction industry contributes 40% of greenhouse gases, Lingrove evolved to develop ekoa eco-veneers. These cutting-edge materials empower architects and product designers to seamlessly incorporate sustainable elements into their projects.

Ekoa serves as a versatile alternative to wood, vinyl, metals, and plastics, finding its application in interior design. Whether adorning walls, ceilings, cabinetry, millwork, or vehicle dashboards, this low-carbon, clean-air solution boasts a remarkable strength-to-weight ratio, surpassing even that of steel.

Explore the world of Lingrove and Joe Luttwak, where innovation and sustainability converge, revolutionizing industries and shaping a #GreenerFuture.

With a long and distinguished career in microbiology, Mike Cox is an inventor as well as the Founder and CEO of Anaerobe Systems, a microbiology manufacturing and research company. While developing a process to produce hydrogen from biomass, a happy “accident” led Mike to the invention of a miracle “plant food” and fertilizer.

What’s beautiful about Mike’s solution is that the feedstock for his fertilizer is food waste, or as he’s brilliantly rechristened it: food grade fuel. With food waste being one of the greatest contributors to CO2 emissions, how elegant to use that waste to feed plants and restore the soil. Not to mention that hydrogen is essentially a “free” byproduct of the process. All this and a lucrative business model to boot!