This is what is posted in the Spearker/Panelist Profile about David Leventhal of Playa Viva for SoCap – Social Capital Conference coming up in SF in September 2011.  We thought you might enjoy reading this:

What is your role in the Social Capital Market?

Pure Entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, business is about doing, learning and perfecting. I believe that there are no original ideas only original execution. As social and environmental entrepreneurs, we subscribe to building enterprises in a regenerative manner. That is, we can make it better. Just like the land we now steward was depleted and degraded, our role as developers is to make it the place better, not just settle for doing less damage. We also subscribe to principals of regeneration including developing a “history of place” and understand our roles as stewards of the land for the relatively short time we will inhabit the place. We also see our role as organic – launch, listen, learn – adapting as nature does. Finally, we see our role as integrated and holistic combining enterprise with environment and social impact. Each of these has equal footing as part of our role and mission.

How can the green movement progress from simply eliminating harm to adding value?

We subscribe to the term “regeneration.” When my wife first met Bill Reed from Regenesis Group at the Green Build Conference back in 2005 and then hired him to head up our design Charettes, I was skeptical. My first thought, “just by the fact we are building means we are degrading.” But Bill made a quick convert of me when he stated, “in most cases we are taking over a location that have already been degraded.” Our role was then to understand the “history of place” and define our role, mission and values as to how we, as stewards of this place, could go beyond doing less harm, to restoration and eventually regeneration. Today, we are experiencing exactly that through our investment in permaculture and community entrepreneurship. We are regenerating over 85% of the land and engaging in making a positive social impact on this community of 600. Come to our session – learn more.

What does Money + Meaning = to you? What should the social capital market stand for?

Every day, we vote with our wallets. “Money + Meaning” = making financial decisions based on your values, values that go beyond just the highest-short-term return. We spend a significant amount of money on regeneration of our land. Many would argue that this investment is a waste, it contributes very little if anything to our bottom line – profits. Why not invest that money in revenue generating assets? But we take the long term view: What is the value of 10,000 trees planted today in 30 years? What is the value of restoring a lagoon and the resulting biodiversity ? What is the value of our investment in the community? What is the value of these “externalities?” Do our customers appreciate this investment and are they willing to pay a premium for our product? We believe so and are committed to make those investments.

Burning trash dumped alongside highways, aluminum cans drifting through rivers where locals bathe, fish washing up on shore with plastic in their bones. It´s hard to drive on the highway highway 200 without seeing smoke hundreds of feet away resulting from locals burning trash. Unfortunately, this is everyday life for Mexico.

Yet in the little town of Troncones located about an hour north of Zihuatanejo, the locals congregated recently for the annual Environmental Expo. The sign outside the event read, ¨Precaucion Zona de Anidacion¨ – “Precaution, Nesting Zone.” Paco, a local organic farmer from Juluchuca near Playa Viva who exports organic basil to the stores in the US, was at the expo promoting his sustainability efforts.  He showed a PowerPoint presentation that he and another local advocate for organic agriculture, Pato, developed jointly. Pato is part of a sustainable environmental group called ¨Colectiva Organika Campesina Cultura de La Tierra¨ which translates to Organic Farmers Cultural Collective for the Earth.  Both are working to promote the new organic fertilizer being used in the field called ¨Agro Kelp¨, which helps stabilize the crops.

Pato gave a powerful show on the effects of pesticides on human population and the environment. He backed up his facts with historical data about the years of destruction following the use of pesticides. Graphic photos lead to a sense of horror among viewers who definitely paid attention to the presentation. Paco is an inspiration speaker for the cause of local and organic agriculture and how it can promote a healthier way world and a better way of living.

Another example of working on sustainability on a local level is a fellow named Mike who demonstrated his eco-enthusiasm by creating a project that involved the boys of a local school. The boys agreed to clean the trash around their community of Saladita and in return they received futbol shoes! Their efforts helped set the standard for a cleaner environment in their local town, which has evidently rubbed off on the girls of the school, who now want to participate as well and receive their own reward.

Johnny´s, one of the key members of the Playa Viva team, was at the Expo.Johnny is part of a group of young entrepreneurs from Juluchuca who are working to create a line of all organic marmalades made from molasses (rather than sugar). The group holds two meetings a week and on the weekend practice making organic marmalades and coconut candies. One of my favorite little finds was flax granola and raw coconut oil being sold at the event.

The expo proved to be a success as locals and tourists alike released baby Golfina turtles into the sea. An important act as some species of sea turtles, such as Letherback, are in danger of extinction due to to a variety of factors including the plastic they mistake for jellyfish – a staple of their diet.

What we see on the outside sometimes not indicative of the work that many are placing into saving the environment these days. Although Mexico has its environmental faults, the many people, young and old, are working together to create a better environment for generations to come.

This article first appeared in Pathwrangler back in February 21st. It provides an insightful description of the Playa Viva experience. Enjoy.

It was one of those gorgeous afternoons. As our airliner descended over the turquoise coast of Guerrero, Mexico, passing the built up resort cities of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo it circled over arid flatlands and landed at Zihuatanejo’s modest international airport.  The dry, fragrant heat, the old rescue vehicles stationed off the tarmac and the sway of coconut trees behind the one and only hangar gave us that inescapable rush of adrenalin you feel … Read More

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Casey Cochran of the Green Guide Network (also affiliated with Keep A Breast) recently sent me a long list of questions related to what makes Playa Viva Sustainable.  I’ve been asked those questions more and more over the last few days so I figured it was time to blog about it.

Here are Casey’s questions and my answers. Enjoy.

1. What makes Playa Viva sustainable?

Here is a quick summary of our “sustainability” components:
– Energy
o 100% off grid solar (only use LP gas for stove)
o Hot water heated by sun

– Water
o Grey water separated and use to water gardens – when you let the water run on your shower, you are just watering the garden
o Black water treated on site with natural systems – papyrus, not chemicals are cleaning the water that is going back into the ground
o Promote Clean water up watershed – Playa Viva sits on an estuary which is the “toilet”/receptacle for all the water coming down from the watershed, thus we take responsibility for what goes into the water upstream.

– Food
o Organic Garden onsite – we try to grow as much of what we eat as possible – training locals on how to create and maintain gardens for auto-consumption, not just for farming corn, beans or other staples.
o Support Organic Agriculture through classes and purchase of organics via CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program – more on our site via Canasta Viva.
o Promote Local sources for milk, cheese, coffee and other products either organic or farmer direct.
o Compost – all food stuff is composted and returned to our garden

– Building Materials
o used sustainably harvested local woods
o Local Craftsmanship – not only in buildings themselves but looked to local artisans for everything from light fixtures to dinnerware and textiles.
o Replenished materials used in construction on site including bamboo and wood – 10,000 trees planted in coastal restoration project

– Regeneration and Promoting Biodiversity
o Coastal Forest and Mangrove Restoration
o 85% of land placed in private reserve for restoration
o Support of Local Volunteers working in Turtle Sanctuary – more at La Tortuga Viva.

2. What steps are you taking to protect the local environment?
Per above, 85% of the land has been placed in a private reserve. We have been working for the last 4 years investing in permaculturist leading the restoration and regenartion of this area back to the coastal forest and mangrove system that once thrived here. Our work has included planting over 10,000 native trees, watering and nurturing these trees through to self-sustaining state, restoration of coastal lagoons invaded by cattle and invasive grasses, provided financial support to 14 local volunteers working at Marine Turtle Sanctuary that protected and released over 100,000 turtles including the highly endangered Leatherback Turtle.

This type of work can not easily be added to a list of room amenities (no mini-bar, no A/C, no TV, but you get 200 acres of coastal forest), so it is hard to quantify the value of this to our guests, yet once they are on site, the privacy, the intimacy with nature and the potential for transformational experiences through contact with these Natural Resources is quite high.

Other steps to protect the local environment include the support of organic agriculture to reduce pesticide use, promotion of higher prices for local artisanal salt to reduce use of contaminating plastic which they see as cost saver – more Sal Viva here. We organize trash clean up days both on the beach and the rivers working with the local school children, teachers, young entrepreneurs and other groups to promote healthy disposal of trash (vs. traditional dumping in rivers or burning methods)

3. What Eco-Friendly products do you use and can guest expect to benefit from?
Eco-Friendly products vary from:
– Purchase of local organically produced linens
– Use of organic soaps
– Use of Organic Towels (imported)
– It is difficult to find many organic or locally produced products in the Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa area, luckily the amount of  consumables (everything from food to soap) is fairly small in quantities.

We wish we had better access to consumables such as organic and eco-friendly detergents, food, etc. We hope our presence will push hotels and our suppliers to carry these types of products.

4. What inspires you to create a more sustainable environment?
When we started building, we looked to go beyond green (doing less damage), beyond sustainable (net neutral) to being a truly regenerative development. Our inspiration is achieving the goal of regeneration (a philosophy first outlined to us by our design partner – Regenesis Group), of making the place better than when we found it. In our design Charette’s we agreed on these key values:
– Creating more energy than we consume (consume less)
– Produce cleaner water than when we started (consume less)
– Promote Biodiversity
– Develop Meaning Community
– Promote Transformative Experiences
– Create a Living Legacy
These values are what guide our work.

5. Where do the organic foods that you serve come from?
Per above:
– We have a garden on site that produces a decent amount of organic food
– We have developed relationships throughout the area and up the watershed to source organics (either certified by third parties or by farmers),
– We promote organic agriculture classes to develop knowledge and sustainable farming techniques that reduces farmers reliance on agribusiness,
– We promote a CSA to increase the market and value of organics in our area

6. How is your salt project Sal Viva helping protect the environment against toxins, and helping local farmers?
120 families are members of the salt coop. The salt is undervalued (it once was the valued tribute to Aztec kings as salt was a currency and valuable for curing meats and other food staples). Many familes have stopped harvesting salt, of those still harvesting, many attempt to reduce the initial cost of casting hand-made drying ponds of calcium and clay. These salt producers just line drying ponds with black plastic sheets. The result, imagine what salt brine soaking in black plastic in the sun for 5-7 days does to contaminate the resulting product (in comparison to educated westerners not wanting to use plastic to hold water for a few hours). Additionally, when done with plastic at the end of the drying season, the plastic is just discarded as waste to contaminate the lagoons from which the salt is derived. By raising the price of salt a few pennies for “traditional” salt, we can put enough pressure on plastic salt farmers to move to higher valued products that don’t contaminate the salt or the lagoon.

7. We heard you have an awesome turtle sanctuary! Tell us about it!
The turtle sanctuary is located right on Playa Viva’s property. It is “manned” by 14 volunteers from the town who work night shifts to collect eggs laid along an 8 miles stretch of beach to protect the eggs from poachers including dogs, raccoons, tejones and people (turtle eggs are still considered a aphrodisiac). We have had donations from guests and from groups such as SunPower Foundation that have allowed us to create a turtle sanctuary that can boast solar powered lights and electric fencing (to keep out predators), as one of the most advanced sanctuaries in the area (if not Mexico). Last year, 2010, this group of volunteers released over 100,000 baby turtles including a few highly endangered Leatherback turtles. They are in desparate need of additional funds to purchase an additional 4×4 ATV vehicle and other resources needed to patrol these beaches. The release of baby turtles and the night patrol with the volunteers is a wonderful life experience for young and old.

8. What makes Playa Viva different from other “private” resorts?
What makes Playa Viva different? All of the above. Playa Viva is “where your vacation meets your values”. We offer an eco-luxe experience so you get all the luxury and none of the guilt. We are a true triple bottom line business that generates tourism revenue but also focuses on a significant impact on the renerating the environment and a high level of social impact in raising the general welfare, health and educational opportunities of the community of which we are a part.

9. At Non Toxic Revolution, we believe that nurturing your mind and soul help improve your overall health. Can you tell us a little about the health and wellness programs you offer?

Disconnect to Reconnect – we start by providing an environment to disconnect from the toxins of your life and reconnecting with the rhythms of nature.

Healing Arts – We start with daily yoga and provide opportunities to connect with the natural environment from guided tours and hikes to working in the garden. We are providing more and more spa services including cleansing massages and use of locally harvested materials (coconut, mango, tamarind, salt) to create regenerating spa treatments.

Healthy Food – we try to connect people to land, community and food to promote slow food.

Ocean – the ocean is a great healer and cleanser.

Transformative Experience – When people come to Playa Viva, you just seem them switch gears, slow down, reconnect to themselves, their family, to nature, the cycles of day, stop to admire the sunset, become aware of the position and cycle of the moon, look up to the heavens to see more stars than they have seen for a long time, catch the pelicans diving for fish, a dolphin riding a wave, the baby turtles instinctively race into the ocean…and it is through this process of disconnecting and reconnecting that people nurture their mind and soul and leave healthier than when they arrived.