Start in Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense

Oct 29, 2025

Steve Nygren, founder and CEO of Serenbe, shares insights from his journey to create a wellness community that integrates nature, agriculture, and housing. He highlights the importance of biophilic design and how it fosters connections within communities. Nygren discusses the consequences of urban sprawl, advocating for agri-hoods where residents can engage with local food economies. He also addresses the role of seniors in community life and the need for regenerative agriculture to build resilient food systems, envisioning a healthier, connected future.

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INSIGHT

Farm Next Door Changes Community

An agri-hood pairs residential density with a nearby farm, creating daily contact between residents and food production.
Nygren credits the farm as one of the community's most unexpectedly powerful elements.

ADVICE

Prioritize Regenerative Soil Practices

Protect and rebuild soil using regenerative practices and local research partnerships.
Connect farms to markets and institutions to strengthen local food resilience and education.

ANECDOTE

Restaurants As Placemaking Anchors

Nygren built restaurants early to create a walkable center and anchor placemaking.
Those businesses drew non-resident visitors and supported the village economy beyond rooftops alone.

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Steve Nygren is the founder and CEO of Serenbe, a wellness community created as a model to demonstrate that preserving green space interlaced with agriculture, housing and retail is not only economically viable, but the future of community wellbeing. Nygren, a visionary placemaker—someone who specializes in transforming public spaces into areas that foster community, connection and well-being—has pulled together his expertise in Start in Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense, a blueprint for developing sustainable communities where citizens of all generations can thrive, "and awe is found in everyday moments."

He says this requires understanding the following:

The unintended consequences of sprawl, and why clustered development supports more green space, more housing and lower costs
Why being disconnected from nature and each other is at the root of many environmental, societal and health-related woes
Tactics to encourage a local food-based economy (and why that matters)
How small yards, front porches, and blueberry bushes at crosswalks lead to strong, supportive neighborhoods
The benefits of aging in place, and how to nurture connections between uncaged elders and free-range kids

Nygren says that for many Americans, life is no longer working. We are increasingly sick, stressed, anxious, and unhappy. Many feel left behind by the economy, disillusioned by once-respected institutions, and helpless in the face of environmental decline. Nygren argues that much of this can be traced to where—and how—we live, and that by rethinking and reinvesting in our own communities, we can rediscover the joy of connected, meaningful lives for ourselves and future generations.

Nygren's work has earned him the Global Wellness Institute’s Leader in Innovation Award and Southface’s Argon Award as well as recognition from the Urban Land Institute and the Atlanta Regional Commission. He was also named Georgia Trend’s 2019 Most Respected Business Leader and the MLK Jr. Beloved Community Environmental Justice Award in 2025. Nygren currently serves on multiple local and national boards dealing with children, agriculture and environmental issues, including The Ray C. Anderson Foundation, Children & Nature Network, Chattahoochee Now and The Biophilic Institute. He is also a partner at Nygren Placemaking consulting and started his career as a serial hospitality entrepreneur, having founded the 34-restaurant group, Peasant Restaurants.

A People & Nature Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Organizer: Andrew Dudley

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