Earth City Wonder is Expanding
I’m excited to announce that after starting with an intervention in the travel industry to make developing a personal relationship with the natural world all around us part of travelers’ experience of place, Earth City Wonder is doing it again.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model to make the existing model obsolete.”
We are now expanding into Regenerative Business Services and Regenerative Education Services. Both new areas are based on the same fundamental principle as the walking tours: we all need and want to develop our personal relationships with the natural world all around us by getting out in it!
On the business side, we are developing customized workshops, seminars, training, and retreats to bring biomimicry into all operations across industries. On the education side, we are developing customized curricula, classes, and teacher training.
Biomimicry Beyond Engineering
Biomimicry, of course, is a concept developed by Janine Benyus that refers to looking to nature for inspiration in all aspects of human design. The Earth has been developing systems that operate within the limits of the biosphere for at least 3.85 billion years – that’s how far back the fossil record goes.
By getting to know these living systems we will be able to integrate what they teach us into every aspect of human design. I am convinced that this is the backbone of the 21st-century economy and beyond.
THIS is the new model. These are the principles:
1. The problem is cultural, not scientific.
2. Biomimicry is the paradigm.
3. Citizen science and radical empathy are the tools.
4. We are the problem solvers.
5. This is an exciting time to be alive!
Because our environmental crises are forcing our hands, the luxury of choosing between the biosphere and profits is gone. We have no choice but to build profitable, regenerative companies. Going forward, all businesses will be either innovating regenerative solutions or playing catch up.
I know what you’re thinking: “Can’t I just buy different sh*@?”
Nope. Buying different sh*@ won’t save us this time.
There’s a lot of environmental anxiety these days. The reason for this is these environmental problems feel out of our control. But if, as any scientist will tell you, the problems are cultural, not scientific, we do have agency. But contrary to popular belief, it’s not just about what we buy.
We are not just consumers. There are other ways we encounter the world. In fact, the most fundamental way we encounter the world is as employees and employers, small and large businesses developing and implementing operations, processes, and systems, all day, every day.
Empowered to Innovate
So, how does Earth City Wonder fit into all this?
Our objective with Sustainable Business Services is to bridge the gap between nature and the economy. We want to empower businesses to intervene in the design choices they make in their operations, processes, and systems. We believe that businesses themselves are the only ones who can change these designs.
That’s why we think our idea is radical: We provide access to the vast library of nature’s solutions by facilitating hands-on activities in the field, supplying subject matter experts in biology, geology, mycology, botany, biomimicry, and regenerative business, and teaching the basics of citizen science and radical empathy.
Citizen science gives us an observational toolbox to study nature even if we’re not trained biologists or earth scientists. Radical empathy teaches us how to focus our attention on the wonders of nature as if the Earth were a cherished family member and how when we do, it reveals itself to us.
Our mission is for our participants to come away empowered to start looking to nature for new, living-systems-based solutions in all that they do. We’ve just started discussions with companies in the hospitality industry and the cruise industry.
The Regenerative Classroom
Our third area of intervention after travel and general business, is in education. We believe all children have the right to access to a healthy environment – and to stewardship of the Earth. We help develop curricula, classes, and teacher training incorporating hands-on experience in local ecology so that children can begin their own personal relationships with the natural world all around them.
With our Regenerative Education Services, we bring biomimicry, radical empathy, citizen science, personal agency, and hope into the classroom to prepare the next generation of living-systems innovators for the 21st-century economy. We are currently in talks with our first after-school and community development programs in South Los Angeles.