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You might not see the connection between biophilic design and national security, but today’s guest online how communities like Serenbe are imperative in our global defense strategy.
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You might not see the connection between biophilic design and national security, but today’s guest online how communities like Serenbe are imperative in our global defense strategy. Please enjoy this conversation with Colonel Mark “Puck” Mykleby.
Puck talks about how he bonded with Steve over biophilia and was the catalyst for establishing the Biophilic Institute. Puck also talks about the economics of sustainability and specifically how his consultancy is taking action to create more walkable communities. As he says, our smart growth at home can become our smart power abroad.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals."
Fintech- Utilized to help companies, business owners and consumers better manage their financial operations, processes, and lives by utilizing specialized software and algorithms that are used on computers and, increasingly, smartphones.
Book galley- A preliminary version of a book meant to be proofread by authors, editors and proofreaders before production.
Special Operations Command at the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Captain Wayne Porter - The National Strategic Narrative
Charles Darwin's Survival of the Fittest
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Case Western Reserve University
Oregon Museum of Science & Industry
Rodale Institute's SE Research Center
Greta Thunberg TIME's Person of the Year 2019
Colonel Mark "Puck" Mykelby first came to Serenbe through the Serenbe Fellows, which is a program through the Serenbe Institute that brings thought leaders, scholars, and artists to discourse on timely topics. He'd met Phyllis Bleiweis at the Congress for New Urbanism, and she invited him on behalf of the Fellows to come speak at Serenbe.
His presentation for Serenbe Fellows featured the work he did for Admiral Michael Mullen, specifically a document called The National Strategic Narrative that said sustainability needed to become the country's strategic national imperative if we're to going to face the challenges of the 21st century as well as grasp the opportunities that will be available.
Reporting To The Pentagon - 5:09
They day Puck received the call to go to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was working on determining how special operations forces could go out and shape the environments so our troops wouldn't have to go fight. They started looking at things like urban design, regenerative agriculture, female health and education, and anything else they thought would be catalytic at the tactical level. Admiral Mullen liked the work Puck was doing and brought him onto the team to figure out a new grand strategy for the country.
What was supposed to take two months ended up taking two years, and the result was suggesting that the country focus on becoming a land of opportunity rather than focusing on responding to threats & risks. They saw sustainability as the way to go both from a national security and economic prosperity perspective, specific examples being new systems for food, water, and energy. The Admiral liked what he saw, but hesitated to push it through because domestic policy is determined by civilian political leadership. They weren't able to make a formal presentation to Congress, but they did talk with Congresswoman Jane Harman who took their narrative with her to the Woodrow Wilson Center upon retiring from Congress and launched it from there.
Post-WWII Domestic Strategy - 11:17
Back in 1947, Congress passed the National Security Act, which said the grand strategic challenge facing the nation was the rise of communism in the Soviet Union. The government fundamentally restructured how national security was handled in order to take on that challenge, including establishing the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). What Puck and Captain Porter found during their research though, was that after the Soviet Union collapsed there weren't any adjustments to the strategy despite that no longer being a threat.
In fact, he points to even today's federal budget to show how much money goes toward our country's defense rather than the EPA, funding to diplomats, and education. Puck believes the challenges we are and will face in the 21st century aren't just military. It's part of it (in his words he's a Marine all day long), but believes that can't be our go-to position in a world that needs a leader in finding a way forward to thrive.
Coffee, Serenbe, & National Defense - 14:14
When Puck was in Serenbe for his Fellows talk, he and Steve Nygren had coffee every morning and discussed the future of development, the environment, and the world. Puck told Steve that the way he was building Serenbe, with a focus on biophilic design, was an act of national defense.
Steve shared some of his future plans for Serenbe. There's the plan for a campus for university students from around the world to come for a semester away in environmental planning, as well as a plan to create a think tank for educators and urban planners in the U.S. It was a plan that was a long way off, but because of Puck's encouragement during these coffee sessions, Steve Nygren and a small group of environmentalists in Serenbe launched the Biophilic Institute. Puck even volunteered to be the Vice Chair to help guide the Institute's direction.
Puck never could have imagined the relationships he'd form when he agreed to do a talk at Serenbe. Beyond meeting Steve, Phyllis and other Serenbe residents, Puck connected with Serenbe itself as a place. He notes that it doesn't have to be just Serenbe, though, which is a message Steve tries to get out as well. It's a pattern, a place created through principles that can be replicated. Any community can take the biophilic principles and apply them to their specific location. And as Puck believes, our smart growth at home can become our smart power abroad.
Puck says that part of the strength in what he researched for Admiral Mullen is that they're common-sense conditions. Even Charles Darwin wasn't talking about survival of the fittest, it was about spring bed and how every organism had a role to play to make it a vibrant biosphere. This was the logic they were using: how could the U.S. be the best contributor to this biophilic system. The document they wrote was not prescriptive in nature, but rather an attempt to catalyze action in D.C.
The Economics of Sustainability - 22:05
Puck retired from the military and went to work as a private citizen with the New America Foundation to push for biophilic action. They were picked up by the business school at Case Western Reserve University, and that's when they wrote the book The New Grand Strategy, which examined the economics of sustainability. He sees the biggest hurdle in changing policy is the antiquated focus on suburban sprawl growth, even though fiscal data shows that it is unsustainable (and of course environmentally unsustainable).
Puck felt like they weren't moving anything forward with the Case Western think tank, though (he wanted to be a part of a "do" tank), so he and his business partner created Long Haul Capital Group as a way to bring capital to catalyze, support, and propel more walkable, sustainable communities. He sees that as the future not only for the United States, but also the world.
Many people feel that the government is not the answer when working toward sustainability initiatives, so where can we turn for action? Puck has seen success and results through his company from 3 basic components.
LHCG is working on several different projects, including at the OMSI in Portland, Oregon. They also want to get a streetcar system up and running in Cleveland, Ohio. What they're most focused on right now is cracking the code in revitalizing the home mortgage industry using a fintech solution. They provide transparency, consistency, and direct a large amount of dollars to the mortgage industry to have a strategic impact on the way US citizens live their lives.
Puck sees Serenbe as a successful community in this arena for a variety of reasons. He likes that Serenbe has achieved soil reclamation. If you can take that science and apply it to more distressed urban environments across the country (Cleveland, Detroit, etc.) it could be a game changer in terms of wellness, social justices issues like food deserts, children being able to grow up without lead and other harmful materials in their food and water. Many people saw the lead water issue in Flint, Michigan, but if you could do a comparison with Cleveland, the latter's soil has 3x more lead in it.
Rodale Institute is opening the Southeastern Research Center in Chattahoochee Hills to determine what farmers need in this region to improve their practices, and Puck thinks this is the great thing about Serenbe and the surrounding city of Chatt Hills - the take an idea and run with it. Steve also talks about recently running into David Orr at an event for Children & Nature Network, who is coming out with a book focused on democracy (he says we can't save the planet if we can't save democracy).
City Mayors Are Leading The Way - 31:39
We're all looking for someone to shine a light on what's happening in the world with the environment. Puck thinks the most important people that we should be looking to are city mayors. He jokes that it's because they can't BS their way around problems, but then goes into the reality of being a mayor: walking the streets with your constituents and looking them in the eye. Setting priorities and making tough decisions based on seeing real-life and real-time results based on those priorities and decisions.
He also sees great entrepreneurs and investors in the private sector trying to do the right thing in regard to the environment, we just have to figure out how to scale it down locally. Puck has immense hope in our citizenry that the events of recent years will be a wake-up call to do something about climate.
There is a level of fear and of not knowing what to do, but there's so much that even we as citizens can do to make change. How we purchase, eat, where we live - we have influence. It's important to be curious and want to continue learning. Steve agrees and thinks the younger generations will be the ones to fix what baby boomers have done to the planet. Puck says they're reminding us what democracy is all about, and is hopeful that they will continue to push older generations to listen and act.
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Mark Mykleby is a member of the Center for Climate and Security’s Advisory Board. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1987. He was designated a naval aviator in April 1990 and as a qualified F/A-18 pilot in December 1990.
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