The island of St. Croix took two direct hits in the Fall of 2017 from hurricanes Irma and Maria. Amie took part in a 5-day intensive Advisory Panel with the Urban Land Institute in Christiansted, St. Croix to address questions about the islands economic development, mobility, affordable housing and placemaking. The Panel's recommendations identify many small to large scale steps that could be implemented across St. Croix and throughout the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Read the report here.

Thomas Rainer’s work is a revelation: It turns out that plants are social, and have a body language that explains what they need.

We are inspired by Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature. Tercek writes that saving special place by special place as the sole conservation strategy will not be enough anymore. We need to look holistically at land stewardship and maintaining resource health across jurisdictions, on both public and private lands. “The breakthrough insight is when companies recognize that the services they rely on from nature but heretofore took for granted and got for free, such as clean water and flood protection, will be neither guaranteed nor free in the coming years.”

We continue to be stirred by Seth Godin’s blog which is based on the notion of “Make Something Happen.” His book, What to do when it’s your turn, is a book about helping people “do work that matters.” We particularly like his piece titled “Toward Civilization.” We should never forget to speak up, care a little more and "say, 'wait,' when they cross the line, when they pursue profit at the cost of community, when they throw out the rules in search of a brawl instead” because “…the race to the bottom and the urge to win at all costs aren't new, but they're not part of who we are and ought to be.”