Processes
Thoughts on regenerative design and ecosystem processes from Leaf Island team members rendered via text, video and audio
Regenerative Design & Future Thinking: Building a World We’ll Never See w/ Joshua Harrison
The Kidd and Friends Podcast | Self-Improvement and Mindset Insights
October 16, 2025
In this episode, Kidd sits down with Joshua Harrison — Director of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure at UC Santa Cruz and co-founder of Leaf Island — for a conversation that’s equal parts brain fuel and heart food.
They dive into the world of regenerative design, exploring how cities can actually heal the planet by weaving nature back into their walls, rooftops, and streets. From the Native concept of Seven Generation Thinking to the timeless saying “Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit,” Joshua reminds us what it means to design for the future, not just survive the present.
This one’s a warm, wisdom-filled exchange — a hug with a ton of knowledge — about how science, art, and compassion can merge to reshape our cities, our systems, and our souls.
Green Roofs Revolution: The Future of Sustainable Housing Solutions
Walk in Victory, hosted by NaRon Tillman
October 9, 2025
Green Roofs Revolution: The Future of Sustainable Housing Solutions
In this episode of Walk In Victory, host NaRon Tillman explores the game-changing world of green roofs and sustainable housing with guest Joshua Harrison from a wood innovations company. Discover how technological advancements are revolutionizing the roofing industry and creating affordable, eco-friendly housing solutions.
This conversation covers the evolution of roofing technology, the challenges consumers face with new sustainable options, and the importance of holistic living using natural resources. Joshua shares insights on historical housing solutions, the impact of financial decisions on real estate, and the economic benefits of implementing green infrastructure.
Key topics include reducing urban heat effects, managing stormwater, improving air quality, and the critical role of community and government involvement in promoting sustainable practices. Get actionable steps for homeowners and entrepreneurs ready to embrace the future of housing.
Abstract Essay Podcast, Season 5 – Featuring Joshua Harrison
October 2, 2025
Tending the Wild City with Josh Harrison
Ep. 127 Reconnect with Plant Wisdom, by Tigrilla Gardenia
September 29, 2025
Cities don’t have to fight nature—they can breathe with it.
In this conversation with artist–ecologist Josh Harrison, we explore cities as living ecosystems: cooling with plants, capturing stormwater, and designing with indigenous stewardship in mind.
We go beyond “green decor” to talk symbiogenesis, circular materials, and what shifts when we remember: I am nature, and I have a role to play. You’ll leave with fresh language, grounded examples, and a clearer sense of how to tend your place—on the street you live.
Green Roof Revolution: How Tradespeople Are Building Cooler Cities
Aro Benaiah Show
September 25, 2025
Josh Harrison, Co-Founder and Chief Strategies Officer of Leaf Island, is turning New York City’s rooftops, streets, and coastlines into thriving ecosystems. In this episode of The Aro Benaiah Show, we uncover how green infrastructure is creating real opportunities for tradespeople and why it’s the future of urban development.
Greening Our Cities with Joshua Harrison
Ep 162 – Grounded in Maine
September 2, 2025
Josh Harrison discusses his work in the environmental field starting in the 70s, and the dire need for integrating green infrastructure into our cities today.
Grounded in Maine Podcast is an open conversation about being mindful of how we show up for the world. We discuss the role we play in sustainability including gardening and preserving, recycling, composting and even household DIY. It’s a podcast about our commitment to ecological responsibility, and empowering us to take on our role in the solution instead of feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world.
How Plants, Water, and Waste Can Save Our Cities
EP958, Minddog: Coffee with the Dog
August 21, 2025
Joshua Harrison is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Leaf Island, an award-winning green infrastructure company based in New York. He also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure at UC Santa Cruz. For over three decades, Joshua has worked at the intersection of art, ecology, and systems strategy — from designing immersive installations on ocean collapse to building regenerative models for wildfire-impacted landscapes in the American West. His current focus: transforming cities into functioning ecosystems using modular, scalable technologies — starting with rooftops, walls, streets, and coastlines.
Why Cities Need Green Roofs
WBAI 99.5fm Eco-Logic Radio interviews Leaf Island
June 25, 2021
Why Cities Need Green Roofs - Interview w/ Leaf Island
WBAI 99.5fm Eco-Logic Radio hosts Ken Gale and Donna Stein interview Leaf Island co-founders: Joshua Harrison, Dr. Paul Mankiewicz, and Michael Fishman on the potential of green roofs to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, fight climate change, reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect, create biodiversity corridors and improve the overall quality-of-life for urban residents.
Re:Evolution of Cities: Ecology is the Future of Infrastructure
March 26, 2021
Presented by Leaf Island on March 26th, 2021 for NY Circular City Week hosted by the Danish Cleantech Hub.
In 2019, the Leaf Island Team (formerly known as Gaia Technologies) won the NY Access Cities Open Innovation Call for solutions to the Urban Heat Island Effect and Air Pollution for our unique approach to greening urban centers. Instead of rebuilding cities from scratch using brand new technologies, Leaf Island posits that the greatest economic, social and ecological benefit will be achieved by taking advantage of the high surface area of cities and retrofitting existing urban surfaces with layered vegetation at the right scale, thus allowing Nature to do the work for us. They will quantifiably demonstrate the scale required to realize these ecological goals, and its implications on urban life, commerce, economics and the waste stream through a 45-minute presentation and 15-minute+ Q&A session.
The Evolution of Cities: How Ecology Holds The Key To Our Infrastructure’s Future
February 18, 2021
The efficacy of urban ecological infrastructure is largely governed by something far simpler than many would believe — the amount of vegetation covering a given surface area. There are several nuances to this, but the general rule holds true — the more plants you have layered over a landscape, the better your environment is going to be. The key is finding enough surface area within our existing built environment to cover with appropriately designed layers of dense vegetation.
Green cities typically conjure a neo-Corbusian vision of gleaming renderings, — ultra-LEED certified, futuristic steel-and-glass buildings, laden with solar panels,- the latest technology. This mirage promises zero emissions and campuses populated with manicured green lawn punctuated occasionally with trees. Alternatively, albeit less commonly, our future is sketched as a series of green ziggurats, buildings staggering under loads of plants with but little resemblance to the urban landscapes we know. Neither vision incorporates traditional, working streetscapes at human scale. Both visions point to a reliance on high tech solutions in a society that has transcended traditional ideas of industry, supply chains, waste, and ecology. Nature looks upon these utopian landscapes…