Regenerative Skills

The essentials of rainwater harvesting with co-author Rob Avis from Verge Permaculture: 102

In keeping with the theme of water regeneration this month I spoke to Rob Avis, the co-author along with Michelle Avis of their book in the New Society Essentials series called Rain Water Harvesting.
Rob and Michelle founded Verge Permaculture, an award-winning design, consulting and education company in Calgary, Alberta after years of international training in renewable energy and regenerative design. Since its founding, Verge has helped more than 1000 students and clients to design and create integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste, and food, all while supporting their local economy and regenerating the land. Through their design and consulting they create havens that produce their own energy and food, harvest water, cycle nutrients, and restore the surrounding ecosystems, enabling property owners to thrive no matter what. With such a broad range of knowledge, experience, and expertise, we focused mainly on rain water harvesting techniques and systems in this episode as an entry into the larger concept of watershed regeneration and revival.
In this session Rob explains some of the key components of rain water harvesting systems and the ways that you can treat and filter the water for various uses. We talk at length about why expensive filters and disinfectants are often unnecessary, even for most potable water uses, and the different ways you can keep your stored rainwater clean. Rob also speaks about how rainwater harvesting systems fit into a larger system aimed toward water resilience in multiple living contexts from urban to rural applications. I’ve been a big fan of Verge Permaculture and all their great work for some time now and I’m intending to create a larger series of in depth talks with Rob and Michelle in the future so if you enjoy this episode and have further questions that you’d like to hear us cover in future talks, then by all means send your questions and feedback to me at info@abundanedge.com or in the comments in the show notes on the website.
Resources:
Buy the book “Essentials: Rainwater Harvesting”
Verge Permaculture Website
Verge Youtube channel
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Why storing water is more important than storing carbon with Zach Weiss from Elemental Ecosystems: 101

In this session I had the pleasure of speaking to the founder of “Elemental Ecosystems” Zach Weiss. Zach earned the distinction of being the first person to earn the Holzer practitioner certification from revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship working alongside Sepp in North America and Europe.
Zach created Elemental Ecosystems as a for-benefit social enterprise focused on solving societies growing environmental problems by considering the elemental relationship between biology and hydrology. In this interview, Zach and I start by talking about the difference between a healthy water cycle and one that’s been compromised. We unpack the reasons why humans have desertified nearly one third of the earth’s land and how we can begin to reverse and regenerate that process. Zach also touches on some of the steps that anyone can take, whether you live on a large farm or a small city apartment, to positively impact the water cycles in your local area, and he also shares many resources you can look into to learn more about watershed regeneration. This interview represents just the tip of the iceberg around water system regeneration and I would love to do a follow-up interview with Zach very soon, so to those of you listening to this, please write to me at info@abundantedge.com and send in the topics and questions you’d like for us to explore in greater depth when I get the chance to continue this series again.
Resources:
Elemental Ecosystems
Zach Weiss’ TEDx talk
Tom Duncan’s podcast with Abundant Edge
Desert or Paradise with Sepp Holzer
The Rebel Farmer with Sepp Holzer (in spanish)
Willie Smits’ TED talk
The Flow Partnership

Building a regenerative future and heading in different directions: RRT 13

We’ve completed 100 episodes! Thank you to all our listeners and supporters who are part of more than thirty thousand subscribers to this podcast and the growing regenerative community that is taking back our future and helping humanity move into its fullest potential. In this episode Oliver and Neal talk about the new direction that Abundant Edge and Granja Tz’ikin will be taking independently and how the two enterprises will continue to work together and support one another in the years to come. They also talk at length about the main takeaways and learning that has happened over the last year of development on the farm here in Guatemala as well as the vision and initiatives moving forward. Keep an eye out on the website at abundantedge.com for new content coming out soon with video tours of the farm, tutorials and explanations of our systems, as well as a regnerative travel show that will begin in May.
Resources:
Volunteer at Granja Tz’ikin
Check out Abundant Edge’s services
Upcoming courses at Granja Tz’ikin

Designing Regenerative Cultures with author and educator Daniel Christian Wahl: 099

In this interview I had the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Christian Wahl, Daniel is an international consultant and educator specialising in biologically-inspired whole systems design and transformative innovation.
By the time he was 28 Daniel had travelled to 35 different countries on six continents and he started his career as a marine biologist and scuba diving instructor, before he decided to focus on sustainability and sustainable communities. Originally trained at the University of Edinburgh and the University of California, Santa Cruz, Daniel also holds a Masters degree in Holistic Science from Schumacher College, and a PhD in Natural Design from the University of Dundee. Daniel has taught capacity building workshops on a wide range of sustainability issues to local authorities and businesses and has worked closely with Gaia Education since 2006 when he participated in the first training of trainers for the ‘Ecovillage Design Education’ program. Daniel currently lives on Majorca, and works locally and internationally as a consultant, educator and activist, and in 2016 he published his first book, “Designing Regenerative Cultures.”
In today’s session we cover a very wide range of regenerative design theory and Daniel’s perspective and experience on community and cultural shifts, the factors of time in nuanced design, working in collaboration on multi-stakeholder projects and much more. This interview is the perfect capstone for this last month’s focus on design theory and regenerative community dynamics so before I give it all away, I’ll hand it over now to Daniel.
Resources:
Buy the book “Designing Regenerative Cultures”
Daniel Christian Wahl on FB
UCI Costa Rica
Gaia Education
Gunther’s Fables

Finding the story of a place and it’s true potential with Bill Reed, principal at Regenesis: 098

My guest today has been a big inspiration to me and has been a leader in regenerative design, pretty much before that was even a term. Bill Reed is an internationally recognized practitioner, lecturer, and authority in sustainability and regenerative planning, design and implementation. He is a principal in both Integrative Design, Inc. and Regenesis – two organizations working to lift green building and community planning into full integration and evolution with living systems. Bill is also the author of many technical articles and contributed to many books including the seminal work, “Integrative Design Guide to Green Building.” He is also a founding director of the US Green Building Council and one of the co-founders of the LEED Green Building Rating System. Bill has consulted on over two hundred green design commissions, the majority of which are LEED Gold and Platinum and Living Building Challenge projects.  He is also a keynote speaker at major building and design events as well as a guest lecturer to universities throughout Europe and North America including Harvard, MIT, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve been looking forward to connecting with Bill for quite some time and this interview did not disappoint. We talk at length about Bill’s design process and the perspective needed to remain open to the full scope and context that a design might affect. Bill warns of the dangers of going into a design job looking for problems to solve and projects to implement before understanding and listening to the place and the people in it. The insights from this interview were quite profound for me and I hope this will spark a larger conversation about what regenerative design is and has the power to do
Resources:
Regenesis Group website
Guide to LEED building certification
US Green Building Council

Listening to nature and seeing with more than your eyes with Marcus Veysey from “The Seed:” 097

Welcome to the first episode of season three. I’m so excited for the year to come and all the conversations, interviews, and information that I’ll be sharing with all of you over the year. This season, while I’ll be sticking with the general format of the season prior, I’m also looking to bring more stories into these conversations and cultivate narratives around the incredible work that people around the world are doing in the regenerative fields. Just like last season, once a month the team from Abundant Edge will be checking in on the Regenerative Round Table segments and giving updates on the design and development of the farm as well as the projects we’re working on for clients and friends both in our communities and around the world.
Now today’s guest is a good friend of mine from our community here in Tzununa on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Marcus Veysey has lived and worked here at the lake for over 25 years and is a wealth of knowledge on medicinal plants and herbs. Now rather than focusing just on plant medicines, our conversation focuses more on how to listen and observe the natural environment around you and open your heart and perspective to what the plants you interact with are really communicating to you. Through mindfulness practices and small but profound changes in your habits and perspective, Marcus guides us through his own journey of discovery and learning from the local ecology and communities here in Guatemala. I thought this would be the perfect conversation to launch the new season of this podcast with the intention of connecting the practical information of regenerative living to the stories and narratives of the people and their lifestyles so I hope you enjoy this chat with my good friend Marcus.
Resources:
Marcus Veysey on Facebook
The Seed

Reviewing and learning from the first year working as a team and developing the farm: RRT 12

It’s been a monumental first year for us here at Abundant Edge with the development of the farm “Granja Tz’ikin” and all of the client projects we’ve been juggling at the same time. As we wrap up the second season of the podcast and the first year of me, Neal and Jeremy working as a team we want to mostly take the time to show our gratitude for all the people who’ve been instrumental in the progress we’ve been able to make together in a relatively short period of time. We also discuss the core projects that we moved forward on and some of the key lessons we’ve learned and continue to learn over the last season. From here we move into a month long hiatus but The Abundant Edge podcast will be back for its third season on Friday February 1st. Until then, thank you to all of you who’ve listened, subscribed and supported us. Your feedback and encouragement mean the world to all of us here. We’ll look forward to catching you in the new year!
Resources:
Alex Kronick’s episode
Lorenzo Maniet’s episode
Previous regenerative round tables

Transitioning to a regenerative economy with Matt Powers, author of “The Permaculture Student 2:” 095

My guest today is one of the most inspiring and enthusiastic educators working in permaculture and regenerative education anywhere in the world. I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Powers, author of “The Permaculture Student” and “The Permaculture Student 2,” in the last season on this podcast and got to catch up with him again to talk in depth about some of the most urgent transitions facing humanity and how we all need to prepare ourselves to contribute positively to a regenerative shift in the way our societies and economies operate.
In this interview Matt breaks down how advances in technology and AI will affect us all and drastically disrupt our economy in the near future, but rather than paint a bleak picture of the days to come, we discuss how anyone motivated to do so can see this shift as an incredible opportunity to re-tool and re-skill to advance themselves and their communities in a new “Regenerative Economy.” We also talk about the types of jobs and contributions that will most be in demand in this changing global system and Matt even dispels the myth of the self-sufficient homestead being a way to insulate or disconnect ourselves during this transition. Matt is a fantastic educator and storyteller who illustrates his points with thoughtful observations from his own experiences and much of the beginning of this episode is spent talking about some of the big transitions that and his family have gone through directly
Resources:
thepermaculturestudent.com
Matt Powers on Facebook

How to raise rabbits for meat with authors Eric and Callene Rapp: 094

Animals and livestock can be an essential component to land restoration if managed correctly and while we already have goats, chickens and ducks on our small demonstration farm here in Guatemala, I’ve been looking into the addition of another animal enterprise that would fit into our existing systems without overwhelming the small space we have. For a while I’ve been interested in rabbits for their fast reproduction, amazingly fertile manure and their delicious lean meat. That’s when I came across a book called “Raising Rabbits for Meat” by Eric and Callene Rapp and published by my good friends and supporters at New Society Publishers. Immediately I wanted reach our to Eric and Callene because of the wealth of well explained and practical knowledge from their experience raising heritage breeds of rabbits for both genetic conservation and high quality protein.
In this interview Eric and Callene share their wealth of knowledge in running a profitable rabbitry and walk us through the process of how they got started, general care and maintenance, breeding, harvesting and much more. Be sure to stay tuned until the end when we talk about some of their delicious rabbit recipes that they also include in the book. Now before I give everything away, I’ll hand things over to Eric and Callene
Resources:
Buy the book “Raising Rabbits for Meat”
Contact Eric and Callen on Facebook

Discovering our nutritional wisdom by observing animals with Fred Provenza, author of “Nourishment:” 093

It’s not often I get the chance to speak with a renowned animal behaviorist, much less for a talk about nutrition and nourishment, but my guest today, Fred Provenza, professor emeritus at Utah State University, makes the argument that we can learn a lot about our own health by observing the way that animals choose their food in their natural environments. Fred challenges us to be more skeptical of the latest diets and academic findings on nutrition and listen more to our own bodies and how they respond to the food we ingest.
In this interview, Fred explains how his observations of seemingly counterintuitive eating behavior in goats first compelled him to look deeper into the nutritional wisdom of animals and how his findings gave him valuable insights into how we can begin to rediscover our own nutritional wisdom on a personal basis. We also talk about how someone (like myself), who is coming from a place of chronic digestive issues, can rebuild their system to the point that we can trust the signals that our body is giving us once again. Now before I give too much away, I’ll turn things over to Fred
Resources:
Buy “Nourishment” the book