Earth Month 2025

How to rewild your 24/7

Manhattah Healing Forest, New York City, USA, Courtesy of SUGi

I’ve spent much of my adult life helping to build social impact movements and organizations — as founding president of (RED), senior advisor to the UN Foundation, and strategist for Futures without Violence, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Trove Recommerce, among others. Today, I’m most inspired by my collaboration with SUGi, which provides a 360-degree approach to biodiversity building, ecosystem restoration, and (re)establishing Nature connections in communities. Can you picture denuded urban landscapes and concrete deserts transformed by lush pockets of forests thriving with 100% native species? Now imagine that SUGi’s expert Forest Makers planted these with over 81,000 schoolchildren and countless local volunteers, hungry to hear birdsong, support pollinators, enhance climate resilience, and bring wildness back to city life.

MLK Middle School, Berkeley, CA, USA, Courtesy of SUGi

At 240 SUGi Pocket Forests in 54 cities — from Beirut to Berkeley, London to Los Angeles, Madrid to Manhattan — our species survival rate is a staggering 87.4%. This approach to creating richly biodiverse forests is not only an antidote to the environmental and spiritual stresses of modern life, but it’s a transparent, trackable, and sustainable alternative to the questionable monoculture tree planting programs that offer a quick feel-good fix to consumers but often do more harm than good for local ecosystems.

Natura Nostra Forest, Southbank Centre, London UK, Courtesy of SUGi

This Earth Month, I encourage you to learn more about SUGi and the Miyawaki method used to create these unique forests. Download the latest Impact Report, listen to the SUGi Talks Podcast, or watch more SUGi Films like the one below. It tells the story of a remarkable collaboration with the Yakima Nation to create the Healing Forest at a Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility in Washington State.