Blake Jones is a founder of several cooperative enterprises, including Namaste Solar and Kachuwa Impact Fund. He’s a pioneer in his marrying of the cooperative model and impact investing. Kachuwa Impact Fund is democratically owned and operated by its members. They invest in companies that have a positive impact on the environment and society, and real estate that does the same—such as organic farms and affordable housing. They invest in Main Street as opposed to Wall Street, and impact is their number one priority with financial return being second.

In this episode, Blake and show host Neal discuss Blake’s journey from working in the oil and gas industry to shifting his interest to renewable energy, and eventually becoming fascinated by the cooperative enterprise model. They dive into the concept of impact cooperative investment funds, discussing how these funds differ from traditional investment models and why they are essential for supporting mission-driven enterprises and real estate. It’s a fairly new concept and Blake shares details of how the fund works in practice—how they vet potential investments and investors, how they approach liquidity and patience, and how members’ voting power is not tied to their investment amount. Blake shares valuable insights from his experience with Kachuwa and other cooperative enterprise, as well as some valuable tips for anyone interested in impact investing cooperatives. For more information about Blake and his work, visit Kachuwa Impact Fund.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

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Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Kris Maher is an architect and developer. For over 20 years, she’s worked for the Rancho Mission Viejo community in Orange County, California, where she is currently senior vice president of community development. The master planned community lies on a former cattle ranch, and currently they are developing a 23,000 acre entitlement that will have 14,000 homes in six non-contiguous villages. Almost three-quarters of that land will remain open space surrounding the villages. Kris leads urban planning and community design, with the natural, preserved landscape at the heart of her efforts. “The land is our brand,” she says.

In this episode, Kris and show host Neal explore her life journey from a mechanical drafting class in high school to becoming a pivotal figure in community development. They trace the history of Rancho Mission Viejo from the 1800s when it was a cattle ranch, to the 60s when the owning families decided to develop a master planned community, to today as it continues to grow with new homes and an emphasis on the land in the age of the agrihood. They discuss the variety of amenities at Rancho Mission Viejo, including the community farm where residents can volunteer and pick up produce, and the horses who live on site and have captured the hearts of the community. Kris shares insights into the intricacies of marketing to different generations, the challenges of dealing with rising insurance costs in light of wildfire risk, the creative solutions they’ve employed for water efficiency, and the general obstacles of greenfield development and creating affordable housing. For more information about Kris and her work, visit ranchomissionviejo.com.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

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Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Jenny Andersson is a regenerative strategist and educator, and the founder of the Really Regenerative Centre in the UK. With over 30 years of experience working alongside brands, organizations, and communities to inspire sustainable and regenerative initiatives, Jenny believes in "harnessing the power of the collective intelligence of organizations and communities to create visions for the future they want." She believes the world has undergone profound shifts—more billionaires than ever, microplastic pollution, ill soil health—and people are sensing it consciously and unconsciously. They are ready for change. But real change, including creating regional and regenerative economies, requires not only contemplating all dimensions of our society, it requires looking closely at oneself, one’s own relationships, and ways of thinking.

In this episode, Jenny and host Neal explore her journey from international development in Tanzania to founding the Really Regenerative Centre, from her current home in West Sussex. They discuss her experiences in brand strategy helping major businesses develop environmental initiatives, her battle with stage four lymphoma, and her deep dive into regenerative practices which she calls her “informal PhD.” Jenny shares insights into her work with the Really Regenerative Centre, which brings people together to learn about the essence of regeneration and inspire them to make the change they know is possible. It supports local resilience and transforms extractive economies into regenerative ones. Neal and Jenny highlight the importance of right relationships, community engagement, and systemic thinking in creating lasting change. They also discuss the necessity of funding for experimentation, the potential of regionalizing economics, and the challenges of “fixing the plane while it’s still flying”—i.e., making change within complex adaptive systems. For more information about Jenny and her work, visit reallyregenerative.org.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

---------
Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Emily Niehaus is a former mayor and a leader in both affordable housing and education. She is the founder of Community Rebuilds, a nonprofit that constructs affordable straw bale homes, and more recently, she’s also the founder of Heron School, a micro-school for gifted neurodiverse students. In between those ventures, she found the time to be the mayor of Moab, Utah, where she was able to advocate for housing policy with a larger platform. Throughout her impressive, varied career, she has been driven by purpose and a “doer” attitude, she says “if I see something that needs fixing, I just try to fix it."

Emily and show host Neal explore Emily's journey from Ohio to her “forever home” in Utah, where she started off as a park ranger at Bryce Canyon before settling down in Moab. She followed her passions, working at a community theater and as a social worker, before she became a loan officer as a pathway to getting into creating affordable housing. They talk about her innovative nonprofit, Community Rebuilds, which she founded as a way to replace outdated trailer homes with sustainable straw bale homes for families in need. They also dive into her term as the mayor of Moab, where she promoted affordable housing and learned valuable lessons about political will and community engagement. Finally, they discuss her most recent venture, Heron School, which was inspired by Emily’s son, a gifted learner on the autism spectrum. The school operates on a profit-for-purpose model, with the support of the neighboring Sunflower Hill Inn, which Emily also owns. For more information about Emily and her work, visit heronschool.com and communityrebuilds.org.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

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Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Jacob Deva Racusin is a natural building designer, builder, and educator. He is a longtime leader in the field of sustainable building and the co-founder of New Frameworks, a worker-owned cooperative committed to a “kinder sort of building.” Using natural materials such as native hardwood, clay, and stone, they are developing data-driven and scalable solutions for cost-effective, non-toxic, plant based building that can substantially impact our urgent ecological and health crises. Starting as a young person in the punk rock scene, Jacob got involved early on with forward thinking movements around sustainable agriculture and building, and he hasn’t looked back. Now, he is hopeful that the world is catching up and that healthy, natural building is poised to be a major solution to our global environmental crisis.

In this episode, Jacob and show host Neal explore Jacob’s early transition from organic agriculture to pioneering sustainable building practices, highlighting his work in natural building and his path to becoming an advocate for ecological building materials. They delve into Jacob's innovative approach to construction, his early experiences with straw bale homes, his formative experience with Yestermorrow Design School, and his contribution to the BEAM tool with Builders for Climate Action. They also discuss the challenges of integrating sustainable and natural building practices into the mainstream, as well as the potential to encourage widespread adoption, especially as the world looks for ways to cut carbon emissions. For more information about his work, visit newframeworks.com (and follow them on IG) or buildersforclimateaction.org.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

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Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Paul Rabinovitch is an impact investor, sustainable developer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Net Positive Capital, a fund that seeks to build a channel for capital to flow into net positive real estate. He has decades of experience investing in healthy vibrant places and his career is built on the principle that social benefit and profit are not mutually exclusive. He’s been on the leading edge of the impact investing movement in the United States and is hopeful that the rest of the investment community is finally ready to catch up. Recently he put his years of wisdom and knowledge into a book, Investment Opportunities in Decarbonizing Real Estate, and launched his fund to put that knowledge into action.

Paul and show host Neal trace Paul’s life journey and most formative professional and personal experiences. They discuss the influence of his mother, an architect who gave him an appreciation for the beauty of buildings and neighborhoods, as well as his early work with Nature Conservancy, where he learned about the biology of mature plant communities and how they relate to urban communities. They dive into his time as a brownfield developer and his experience managing a personal fund for an influential matriarch with a firm commitment to impact investing. Finally, they discuss Paul’s newly established fund as well as the state of impact investing the U.S. and abroad, and some of the obstacles to growth. For more information about Paul and his work, follow him on LinkedIn or download his book for free here.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

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Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Sean McLean is a visionary in the field of regenerative development. He is a managing partner of MPact Collective, an impact real estate development firm that takes an innovative, long-term approach toward place-based investing. Sean believes that the best way to build a resilient community is to spend months there full-time learning the issues and addressing them in a sustainable way, working on the scale of decades rather than years. He’s creating opportunities to support underserved and underinvested communities that offer impressive returns that can compete with and even exceed those of traditional real estate developments.

Sean and show host Neal talk about Sean’s formative years in Nassau County, “the birthplace of the American suburb;” his education, which taught him about the history and psychology of real estate; and his early years in the real estate industry. Eventually, Sean had an epiphany that the frustrating rules and regulations that prevented more meaningful development could be challenged and improved, and he set about doing that. They discuss his more recent work creating innovative zoning codes and entitlement processes, his transition into regenerative development with MPact Collective, and their efforts to promote economic resiliency and climate-smart growth through their investments. They also dive into the critical role of deep community involvement in the development process and the challenge of attracting traditional investors to buy in to their projects. For more information visit mpactcollective.com.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

---------
Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.

Analise Roland is an impact entrepreneur, neuroscientist, and movement leader in the field of regenerative development. She is the CEO of Anura, a real estate fund that aims to generate financial, social, and environmental returns. She has a deep belief that developments based on regenerative principles can produce substantial returns that benefit the investor, but also the local community and natural environment. With this mindset, we can foster a regenerative economy and a system of regenerative capitalism, that challenges the extractive capitalism which has dominated our era.

Analise and show host Neal explore her diverse background, from her childhood spent in the Montana countryside, to her academic pursuits studying neuroscience at Brown University, to her early entrepreneurial ventures in sustainable farming and development. They talk about her experience investing, and communicating the advantages of regenerative economies to traditional investors. They also delve into her current work, including the hospitality fund which, through its various projects will support local communities and environmental projects, through the bioregional hub model. For more information about her work, visit anura.earth.

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At Latitude, we're more than a real estate firm; we're your partner in the transformation of homes, communities, and habitats towards healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.

By combining specialized real estate consulting services with a creative agency model, we work with property stewards and developers on capital and fundraising strategies, team formation, branding, marketing, and sales.

---------
Are you a professional wanting to create transformational outcomes with your work? Join the Regenerative Real Estate Community to get access to workshops, regenerative real estate investment opportunities, and connect to other leaders and culture creators within the greater real estate industry to create the impact you seek in your work.