How to Create Sustainable Futures: The Intersection of Nature, Health, & Technology in Our Communities | Sunrise Journal - Jan 2025
Phylicia Teymer
Creating memorable nature-based learning experiences for greater community well-being & connection | USGLC State Advisory Committee | Exploring Nature+Health+Tech Innovation & Responsible Business Roles | IBM Alumna
by Phylicia I. Teymer
“The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come." - James Whitcomb Riley
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The last two months have been a particularly transformational rollercoaster for the majority of the U.S. in numerous ways, from illuminating how social infrastructures, such as our communities, workplaces, schools, and the systems that guide and reinforce our societal values, play a significant role in our health and well-being, while also dually showcasing our deep codependency on nature & our environment for our health, safety, and survival, as evident through the deep far-reaching impact of the Los Angeles wildfires.
I struggled, initially, to find the courage to write this month’s Sunrise Journal, because of what often happens to those who seek to lead from a place of peace, love, & understanding, in addition to being nervous to
write about the significance of human and environmental sustainability considerations and civic and technological partnerships. Ultimately I want to help create and highlight solutions and ways we can build social health & environmental bridges in our homes and communities through nature-based learning experiences, biophilic design, innovative city planning, & technological advances? — but also to deeply showcase why nature & human social connection are so vital to our health and safety.?
Read on as I share insights and takeaways from the latest research reports, and business updates, along with a fun nature-based activity, so over time as you follow the Sunrise, you’ll come to learn through exploration & discovery how the power of nature and interpersonal connection in our communities, homes, workspaces, and schools can foster greater well-being, creativity, and innovation and why civic and technological partnerships and transparency are important to our long-term sustainability.
Are you ready to follow the Sunrise? Let’s go —
Public Spaces Aid City, Community, and Workspace Health & Well-Being
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, also known as the UN-Habitat, recently released its guidance paper, Healthier Cities and Communities Through Public Spaces, which showcases how public spaces are vital to our health & well-being through their ability to:
It also provides key recommendations and approaches for how cities and communities can improve health through their public spaces.
Below I’ve considered some of their recommendations, and took it a few steps further by pairing them with personally developed social technological ideation starters to get us in the innovative city and workspace planning with a nature and technology frame of mind:
Multi-functional evidence-based design & people-centered assessments in urban city, community, & workplace planning (1)
Social Technological Ideation Starter: Could a city use a park area as a test to use AI along with publicly accessible GPS, weather, & health (via phone/watch/smart-device permission) data to monitor and predict primary visitation times, park equipment & area usage, and its impact on one’s heart rate and basic vitals to improve and suggest enhancements or changes to the park itself while simultaneously learning about the community it serves? You could also cross-reference data to see if it reduces healthcare costs within a community, city, or state while gauging positive community impact through participation surveys & data points. It’s possible!
Dear Apple Austin Campus Leadership (& Innovative City Planners) – For those with iPhones & Apple Watches (who permit use) of vitals & GPS data, you could potentially see how your outdoor campus trails and biophilically-designed spaces can aid employee creativity, retention, and health by monitoring heart rate, physical activity, and a variety of other key points on campus. You could use that project’s design as a base to aid in innovative city planning and pair it with environmental data in communities to aid public and environmental health and safety. NOTE: Apple did not endorse this message, I’m throwing it out there since I live nearby and am interested in this topic.
Human and Environmental Sustainable Maintenance Hubs –
How could community and environmental data aid in the management and sustainability of individuals’ and communities’ health & safety?
Mass awareness and impact of the Los Angeles area fires have recently highlighted both our reliance and need for solutions that bridge community and environmental data for the longevity and survival of individuals, nature, and all the living and breathing beings in those spaces – not to mention the economic ripple effects – such as a city’s culpability and responsibility to its citizens, the implications to social & private infrastructures which support those citizens–? from home & business insurance providers, relief fund providers, to the organizations and city programs which aid individuals, families, and businesses in their times of need.
Whether the impact is by fire, flooding, tornado, or the health implications of what is or is not provided in one’s community – it’s incredibly important to consider building human and environmental sustainable maintenance hubs through solutions that bridge community, nature, and technology. AI (Machine & Deep Learning) along with automation, remote sensing within sensory equipment, applications, and technology can be our ally and will be needed to address upcoming environmental challenges.?
The need to consider human and environmental sustainability in partnership with technology will be highly on display in areas where there’s an increased technological pull on natural resources that communities and technology jointly rely on – its why AI Data Center efficiencies will be incredibly important as we move ahead, particularly in reducing the overall amount of water, power (energy), land and production of carbon emissions.
Recognize the Importance of Water Considerations
For example, data centers, which are the primary processing and storage hubs for artificial intelligence (AI), require an average of 300,000 gallons of water a day (for a mid-sized data center) primarily to cool data center equipment down, that’s the average equivalent to water usage in about 100,000 homes according to NPR. (2)
Understand the Need for Energy Considerations
AI is predicted to drive an 160% increase in data center power demand by 2030 according to Goldman Sachs (3). The Electric Power Research Institute projects data centers could use up to 9.1% of U.S. electricity by 2030 and global data centers in 2023 had already seen a 55% increase to 7.4 GW from 4.9 GW in 2022 according to Cushman & Wakefield (4 & 8). For perspective, 1 Gigawatt is equivalent to 1 Billion watts. 1 GW is enough to power 750,000 homes according to cnet.com.
That means 7.4 GW in global data center power usage in 2023, was enough to power about 5.55 Million homes.
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Acknowledge the Growing Carbon Emissions Considerations
Data centers account for 2-4% of global carbon emissions (5), if carbon emissions were 37.4 billion tons in 2023 according to the International Energy Agency, that potentially means data centers accounted for 0.75 to 1.5 Billion tons of CO2 in 2023 - which is why finding data center efficiencies (reducing its pull on resources) are incredibly important as the need for AI, and thus data centers, increases rapidly over the next 5 to 10 years.?
An example of need for human and environmental sustainability and technological partnership, support, and transparency, will be increasingly evident in the Austin and surrounding suburban areas. WHY?
Many data centers are being built near and around Austin (see this Austin Business Journal Article) (6). For those of us who live near the area, there’s already increasing pressure and restrictions on available water supplies. In this area, even by simple observation, water tables are not recharging at the same rate or level (look up a photo of Lake Travis 10 years ago to now). We’ve also experienced restrictions in power usage, especially during increasingly longer high heat summers as a result of environmental change. The area is also growing at a very very fast rate (urban sprawl), increasing demand & impacting land necessary for natural recharge of water.
Economics 101 – What often happens when there’s increased demand and reduced supply? Higher costs and/or reduced access. This is why it’s important for there to be partnerships between communities, local agencies, and technology companies and for there to be joint consideration of human and environmental sustainability.?
I can help aid in your innovative ideation process and understand the different technology, city programming, and nature+tech based solutions to bridge the gap.?
Among other strategies included in the UN-Habitat guidance paper 2025, they also refer to the the importance of ensuring public space systems, such as parks & green spaces, are spread out among cities and towns to ensure there’s easy access for all, in addition to considering the ways in which public spaces can be used for vibrant livelihood hubs for use as informal community market places and community events, along with boosting the capacities of urban planners and the creative financial mechanisms that can be used to aid community public space development.
World Economic Forum (WEF) Releases Future of Work Report 2025, Signals Major Drivers of Global Labor Market Transformation Including the Green Transition
The WEF report highlights several major drivers that will ultimately transform our global labour markets and thus the type of skills one needs and the type of jobs on the incline or decline.
Most of the drivers are expected and playing out in front of us – including changes in technology (Hello AI, automation, robotics, and energy provision, among others), economic volatility (Hi, growing cost of living & economic growth changes), working age population changes, along with geographical economic changes impacting trade, investments, and policies (7).
However, what stood out most particularly for me was the mitigation of environmental changes and environmental stewardship as part of the green transition as a key driver for changing the global labor market (7), thus impacting potential jobs and business transformation.
For those in the environmental, conservation, nature-technology, city planning, recreation, and sustainability spaces who may be feeling mixed emotions and motivations at this time – the green transition as a key driver is a good sign. Green jobs and environmental stewardship may be difficult, particularly as tensions arise in future business priorities, but the need is deeply there. I created nature-based learning experiences, content,and solutions for a variety of reasons, including as a means to increase environmental understanding, awareness, and potential appreciation early in life (along with making lasting memories) because our environmental awareness & the impact of it within communities will play a huge role in the future of business, driving innovative solutions, and jobs.
Legal Note: My reference to the above reports and my views are not endorsed by the World Economic Forum or the UN-Habitat. They are merely to help bring awareness and transparency to a few key findings, foster conversation, and critical thinking. Read their reports (see source references 1 & 7). They’re important for business and community leaders, along with future graduates and those looking to up-skill or re-skill for the transforming job market. See source citations at bottom of newsletter.
Action-Forward - Implementing nature-based experiential solutions and guidance for greater well-being, connection, growth – A quick look back and ahead –
So, I’ve shared highlights & perspectives of recent reports to briefly showcase how public spaces, such as parks and green spaces, can aid community health and well-being, its importance in human and environmental sustainability, and the future of work - particularly how green jobs and environmental stewardship as part of the Green Transition is still a driver, and thus there’s hope for our communities and natural spaces.
There were many elements of 2024, pushing me far beyond my comfort zone, in an effort to create solutions to support well-being, connection, and growth in our communities as a larger effort to address issues like large-scale health epidemics (ie: loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression) in addition to helping grow public understanding of our codependency between our environment (nature) and the well-being in our communities. Learning through both failures and successes along the way, and using creativity to adapt and remain agile in curating, developing, and offering fun experiences and solutions.
In 2024, we launched our Nature Expeditions and Activities Starter Kits for passive, self-guided programming in parks and green spaces. We designed, built, and sold our first Nature Learning Adventure Kiosk & tailored digital learning journey for accessible nature-based learning. I was personally delighted to share insights gleaned from numerous studies and developed an initial early model highlighting how incorporating nature exposure and connection within our social infrastructures can impact our overall health, well-being, and creative innovation - and how our social infrastructures are inextricably tied to our well-being. To rounding out the year engaging with leaders and organizations at the Texas Children in Nature Summit.
2025 is about helping others, like yourself and other individuals and companies, understand the importance of infusing nature and connection within the places we live, work, and play, in addition to how organizations, civic groups, and technology can be allies in that journey, along with providing fun nature-based solutions. I’m also seeking a work leadership opportunity in sustainability & public health innovation, advocacy, city planning, ESG, and/or marketing role - full-time or contract in and around the Austin, TX area (or remotely anywhere).
What's a Fun Nature-Based Activity You Can Do With Your Family This Winter?
A fun hands-on activity you can do yourself or with your little ones, is to create your very own Natural Bird-feeders! But why? Did you know, in cold weather, birds use a lot more energy to stay warm? Yes, their metabolic rates significantly increase, which is why you’ll see birds seek greater insect and seed sources which offer higher calories to replenish their energy. Some may say your bird feeders matter more in the Winter than in the Summer because of this. So let’s help them! We’ll show you how to make your very own bird-feeder, by using natural elements, while practicing fine-motor skills & following multi-step directions.
Source Citations: