In this special replay, we unite two dynamic explorations from Paul Hawken’s Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, focusing on how cities and food systems can be transformed for the better. From living buildings to urban farms, from rethinking meat to minimizing food waste—this episode offers a hopeful, actionable roadmap to regeneration.

What You’ll Learn:

• How cities can shift from being carbon culprits to climate solutions
• The role of green architecture and the Living Building Challenge
• What the 15-minute city really means (and why Paris is leading the charge)
• How food systems became the #1 cause of climate change—and how we can reverse that
• Real solutions for food waste, access, and biodiversity in our diets
• Why “eating everything” (not just 3 crops!) matters for our health and the planet
• Practical ways to support regenerative change in your daily life

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Regeneration by Paul Hawken
• BlocPower and founder Donnel Baird
• Rooftop Roots, Lufa Farms, and other inspiring urban farming examples
• Jonathan Safran Foer’s We Are The Weather
• Episode 20: Interview with Howard Schiffer of Vitamin Angels
• Talking Home Renovations with Katharine MacPhail
• CareMoreBeBetter.com | Newsletter & Activist Guide

Support the Pod: If you value this work, support Care More Be Better on Patreon: caremorebebetter.com/support

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? From Concrete Jungle to Regenerative Cityscape: How Urban Design & Food Systems Can Heal Our Planet

What if the way we build and the way we eat could actually reverse climate change?
That’s the radical—and entirely achievable—idea at the heart of Paul Hawken’s Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, and the focus of this replay episode of Care More Be Better.

As part of our ongoing journey through the book, this episode weaves together two key sections: Cities and Food. Together, they tell a story that challenges the systems we take for granted—and offers hope for real, scalable change.

Because whether we’re talking about buildings or broccoli, transit systems or tomatoes, regeneration is about putting life at the center of all decisions.

The Urban Predicament — and Possibility

Cities are marvels of culture and creativity—but they’re also responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. With over half the world’s population living in cities today (and 6.7 billion projected to by 2050), the stakes are high. Urban centers consume massive amounts of energy for electricity, transportation, heating and cooling, manufacturing, and waste. They concentrate pollution, disrupt ecosystems, and generate waste at staggering levels.

But they’re also where some of the most innovative and inspiring solutions are taking root.

Living Buildings and Greener Blueprints

The Living Building Challenge, launched in 2006 by architect Jason McLennan, pushes beyond net-zero to net-positive. Certified buildings—like Seattle’s Bullitt Center or Etsy’s HQ in Brooklyn—produce more energy than they consume, harvest rainwater, and integrate nature into their design. These are not just energy-efficient—they’re living ecosystems.

Retrofitting old buildings is equally crucial. In NYC, where 70% of emissions come from buildings, BlocPower, founded by Donnel Baird, is transforming aging structures by replacing gas boilers with heat pumps, sealing leaks, and installing LED lighting and insulation. The result? Up to 50% less energy use and new green jobs for the skilled labor force.

The 15-Minute City: A Walkable Future

What if you could access everything you need—school, work, healthcare, groceries—within a 15-minute walk from home? This is the vision behind the 15-minute city, a model gaining traction in places like Paris, Melbourne, and Portland. It means less time in traffic, more public spaces, healthier lives, and drastically reduced emissions.

When cities prioritize green transportation, open space, and localized living, we move closer to regeneration.

From Food Apartheid to Food Sovereignty

We can’t talk about regeneration without addressing the food system—a complex web that accounts for 34% of global emissions, causes extensive deforestation, pollutes our oceans, and contributes to an epidemic of diet-related disease.

But here’s the silver lining: food also offers some of the most accessible and immediate solutions.

Eat Real, Eat Local, Waste Less

It starts with a simple shift: eat more real, whole, local food. As Paul Hawken reminds us, ultraprocessed food (which makes up 60% of the U.S. diet) is filled with sugar, salt, chemicals, and fats—fueling chronic disease, obesity, and environmental degradation. Processed food isn’t just bad for your body. It’s bad for the planet.

Eating whole foods—especially local and seasonal—supports biodiversity, requires less packaging and transport, and builds community resilience. Joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or shopping at a local farmers market are tangible ways to vote with your fork.

And let’s not forget food waste. An estimated 90% of wasted food ends up in landfills, creating methane emissions more potent than CO₂. From meal planning to composting, freezing leftovers to repurposing scraps, there’s so much we can do in our homes to waste less and nourish more.

Eat Everything: Expanding Our Palate (and Our Possibilities)

Did you know we only regularly consume about 200 of the 400,000+ edible plant species on earth? Rice, wheat, and corn account for nearly half of our global calorie intake. This limited diet not only weakens ecosystems, it weakens us.

Eating more perennial plants, herbs, fruits, and less common vegetables can restore gut health, reduce disease risk, and strengthen agricultural systems. Perennial crops sequester carbon more effectively and require less replanting, preserving the microbial richness of soil.

Want a simple place to start? Grow a few herbs in a sunny window, support a regenerative farm, or try a new plant-based dish each week. Variety isn’t just the spice of life—it’s the key to a resilient food future.

What About Meat?

Jonathan Safran Foer, in his excerpted essay from We Are the Weather, offers a surprisingly compassionate take on one of the most contentious climate topics: animal agriculture. Instead of moralizing, he proposes a simple, doable shift—no animal products before dinner.

It’s not about perfection—it’s about progress. Industrial meat and dairy production is responsible for immense suffering and massive environmental harm. But localized, regenerative livestock systems can be part of the solution—if we commit to sourcing ethically, reducing our intake, and eating more plants.

Like all aspects of regeneration, it’s about awareness, intention, and reimagining the norm.

A Regenerative Tapestry: Cities, Food & the Power of Choice

From green buildings to vertical farms, compost bins to community gardens, pollinator corridors to walkable neighborhoods—there is a common thread: we must design systems that give back more than they take.

The extractive economy has done its damage. Now it’s time to build something new—something regenerative. And the good news? We don’t have to wait for top-down change.

We can:

• Grow herbs on a windowsill
• Support local farmers and food co-ops
• Advocate for green infrastructure in our cities
• Eat more variety, more plants, more mindfully
• Compost, conserve, and connect

Regeneration is not a destination—it’s a way of living. One rooted in curiosity, compassion, and care.

Together, we can be the architects of a future where cities are lush, walkable sanctuaries and food is nourishing, just, and regenerative.

Because when we care more, we really can be better.

RESOURCES:

• Carbon: The Book of Life by Paul Hawken
• Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis In One Generation by Paul Hawken
• INTERVIEW WITH PAUL HAWKEN – Sept. 2021: Regeneration: Ending The Climate Crisis In One Generation with Paul Hawken, 5 Time Best-selling Author and Environmentalist

11 Part Series on Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis In One Generation

• Regeneration Part 1: Podcast Updates And Regenerating Our Oceans
• Regeneration Part 2: Forests And Their Role In Climate Change
• Regeneration Part 3: Wild Things and Wilding, A Review of Paul Hawken’s Book on Ending The Climate Crisis in One Generation
• Regeneration Part 4: A Review of The Climate Activist Portal – Nexus – on Regeneration.org with Anca Novacovici, Tia Walden, Julie Lokun and Nicole Davis
• Regeneration Part 5: Land, Regenerative Agriculture and Soil Restoration To Reverse Global Warming
• Regeneration Part 6: People, Indigeneity and Our Role In Reversing Global Warming
• Regeneration Part 7: Cities, Green Architecture, The Living Building Challenge and Getting To Net Positive
• Regeneration Part 8: Food, The Need for Localization and Decommodification To End The Climate Crisis
• Regeneration Part 9: Energy Use, Renewal and Storage As We Transition Away from Fossil Fuels and Electrify Everything
• Regeneration Part 10: Solving The Climate Crisis By Regenerating Industries
• Regeneration Part 11: The Role of Action + Connection In Reversing Global Warming