By David Leventhal of Playa Viva/Regenerative Resorts
When I speak to folks about their journey to becoming Eco, Sustainable and even Regenerative, that journey usually involves some transformative event that made them, as my daughter says, “woke.” For me, the journey involved a few key people and events.
If I had to point to the seed or kernel of that transformation it starts with my wife and her mother Dr. Elena Kahn Yarowinsky, a Green Warrior, Guerrera Verde, in Mexico, now fighting to keep GMO corn out of Mexico, the cradle of corn and home to 100’s of varieties. She introduced us to Dr. Gerardo Ceballos, a Biologist with UNAM in Mexico studying jaguar in the Yucatan Peninsula in an area called Calakmul. He was studying the area necessary for a viable population of jaguars. He learned that while the Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul was protected in perpetuity, the larger land mass of the buffer zone around the Biosphere was in peril of losing protection.
We met Dr. Ceballos when he was doing a sabbatical at Stanford University with Dr. Paul Ehrlich, chair of the Conservation Biology Department and author of the controversial book, “The Population Bomb” among many. Through our relationship with these two esteemed biologists, my wife and I ended up traveling to Calakmul, hiring the esteemed Mexican Environmental Lawyer, Ambassador Alberto Szekeley and together, we developed a strategy that might work to protect invaluable jaguar habitat. To make a long story short, meetings with the Ejidatarios (peasant community land owners) who came to own this land over the years as forest concessions, resulted in our setting up the largest private conservation easement program in Mexico protecting hundreds of thousands of acres of land in partnership with the Ejidatarios.
Soon after, someone gave me a book called Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. Here is a passage from that book that relates directly to our work at Calakmul.
“…I put my hand on my belly, where I carried the daughter whose name and gender I didn’t yet know, and I whispered to my child internally: Remember this with me. Once upon a time we were here, at the center of the world. As far as I could see in every direction, a dark green sea of untouched forest rolled out to the whole, encircling horizon. In a lifetime–mine, anyway–one is given this blessing only rarely: the chance to stand on high ground, turn in every direction, and see absolutely not one single sign of visible humanity. This is how the world once was, without our outsized dreams and dominion….
This was one of my key transformation moments, not just experiencing what Barbara wrote but knowing, viscerally and intellectually, that we, my wife and I, were instrumental in ensuring that this scene would last forever, for everyone. At that moment, I became an environmentalist. Yet that was only half of it. When you realize that you work so hard to save this and then you go home to be a regular American consumer, I became more than just an environmentalist, I became a Conscious Consumer. What I spent and purchased and the entire downstream effect was in the spotlight.
The next key individual who impacted me was a guy by the name of Shaun Paul. Shaun is a pioneer who you all may know, he’s a gringo like me and runs a project called Ejido Verde in Morelia these days, but when I met him, back in the day, he was the founder of a non-profit called EcoLogic. His thesis was that you can’t solve environmental problems (like Calakmul) unless you solve the people problems; as all environmental problems are just people problems and their demands on the resources we are trying to conserve. It is at that point that I became both a Social and Environmental Impact Conscious Consumer. This integrated manner of looking at solutions would benefit me much later.
My journey began to accelerate and I met more folks such as Julia Butterfly Hill (the woman who sat in a tree for almost 2 years to save it) and joined organizations such as Social Venture Network (SVN – now Social Venture Circle) and Toniic.
Julia taught me that every single one of our actions need to be aligned with our values and that each of these actions alone might not seem like much but adding them all up and then adding the same actions from every person, we can change the world. As a result of meeting her, I take small steps like traveling with my own refillable bottle, my own bamboo tableware and my own cloth napkin. No paper napkins for me, no plastic utensils, no single use plastic water bottles and now, no plastic straws. Yes, each and every one of us can change the world, one action at a time.
Through SVN, I was exposed to so many of my heroes, people running businesses that made me realize that even though I thought we were doing everything right, I was just a “grasshopper” to these ‘Senseis” – these great masters were teaching me how to think deeper, open up to communities in more need, broaden my perspective to making change to our larger community… Folks like Bernie Glassman and Greyston Bakery with building his workforce with open hiring and creating thriving communities, Judy Wicks and White Dog Cafe transforming and creating local living economies, and so many more.
Then Toniic which made me realize that the money I spent as a Conscious Consumer was just a small part of the impact of my money – the larger impact was becoming a conscious investor and investing with my values. Folks like Charly and Lisa Kleissner who kept pushing the envelope of investing to 100%ers and then Deep Impact.
The transformation is not complete. I spend more time these days mentoring. I still have so much more to learn about how to be more than just an accidental environmentalist. Regeneration has been a big leap in that process. It started in 2006, when my wife invited Bill Reed and Regenesis Group to lead the design process behind Playa Viva. When I met Bill I was still working in hitech. On our first call he said, “When we construct, we can make the place better,” to which I answered “Bullshit, whenever we build, we destroy something in the process.” That is when Bill said something to me I will never forget. He said, “If we understand the history of place and how that place got to be the way it is, in the majority of cases, probably 99% of the time, we, as humans, have touched that place and degraded it in some form. Thus, by studying the history of place, we can understand our role, as stewards of that place, to bring back the abundance that was once there.” Those words rang true to me. We hired Bill and team and our work with him and his team transformed me deeply into being the regenerative person I am today.
The process of regenerative design required that we first create a set of core values. These are the outcome of that first session:
- Promote Cleaner and More Transparent Sources and Uses of Energy, Water and Waste Streams.
- Promote Biodiversity
- Create “Meaningful” Community
- Promote Transformation Experiences
- Create a Living Legacy (consider 7 generations of effect with our work)
These Core Principles guided our design principles and further guide our operation of the hotel.
Our collaboration with Bill and team introduced new terms to me around our regenerative design work. This includes Whole Systems Thinking which harked back to my work with Shaun Paul but included so much more than just environment and society (although that captures a lot). Bill also uses the term “Co-Evolution” to describe the work we do at Playa Viva. These terms are now part of how I think, they are part of a new paradigm of Regeneration which is more than just green, more than being sustainable, it is a new way of thinking with its own language.
The most recent person to inspire me on my journey is Carol Sanford. Carol is the true pioneer in regenerative design and thinking. I met her in 2016 when Playa Viva was awarded the Regenerative Business Prize for Communing [ 6. COMMUNING – Businesses that connect and harmonize humans with higher energies thereby evoking spirit, e.g. sacred ecology experiences, spiritual tourism, regenerative schools]. Carol, in many ways, is the holder of language which defines regenerative business practices. I highly recommend you look her up, she publishes profusely including books, audio podcast, YouTube videos, etc.
So why am I sharing my journey? First because we are all on a journey. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t born “woke”, it took a long and winding path, and meeting some wonderful teachers and mentors along the way to be “woke” and I’m still on the path, on that journey to be more “work” and more impactful. Second, I hope my journey inspires as others have inspired me. Finally, because it is my story and all we really can share is our stories. Like Barbara Kingsolver at the top of the hill, holding her belly, thinking of sharing that story with her daughter and how important that moment of untouched nature was to share.
As we travel, may our journeys allow us to visit those Untrodden places and do them in a way that allows them to stay untrodden. Therein lies the irony of travel. So it is up to us to make sure it stays as irony and does not become a tragedy. May our journeys lead to a regenerative path that allows us to leave a place better, more abundant, than how we found it.
David Leventhal is one of the organisers of the Eco Resort Network communing to be held in Slovenia from 18-20 June, 2020. Bringing together resort operators with sustainability experts – the event is designed to inspire all upon their journey to make travel more regenerative.
header image: Playa Viva by Andrew Kearns @andrewtkearns
