What if the answer to our biggest challenges—climate anxiety, social disconnection, the mental health crisis, obesity epidemic, economic disparity—wasn’t found in sweeping policy or faraway innovation, but in our own backyards?
Steve Nygren is the founder of Serenbe, the award-winning biophilic community just outside Atlanta that has become a global model for holistic, human-centered living. With over two decades of experience turning a stretch of Georgia farmland into one of the most innovative, and environmentally responsible neighborhoods in the world, Nygren brings rare, real-world insight to the health and wellness conversation.
In his groundbreaking new book START IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD, Nygren shares the story of Serenbe, but more importantly, he offers a replicable roadmap for anyone—developers, civic leaders, parents, even skeptical suburbanites—who wants to create a life and community that are healthier, more connected, and more aligned with nature. Throughout the book, Nygren outlines core strategies for restoring balance to modern life, including how to:
At a moment when the failures of 20th-century suburbanization are more apparent than ever, Nygren offers something rare: hope grounded in proven practice. Serenbe is living proof that these ideas work—and START IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD gives readers a hopeful, proven alternative to today’s disconnected patterns of development and living, demonstrating that meaningful transformation doesn’t begin with massive revolutions—it starts with blueberry bushes, front porches, and the courage to imagine something better.
“We don’t have to choose between progress and preservation,” says Nygren. “We can create places where people, nature, and prosperity thrive together— It’s time to start in our own backyards.”
ADVANCE PRAISE
“This is an extraordinary true-life story of transformation with worldwide implications.”
—Paul Hawken, Author, Carbon
About the Author:
Concerned by trends of poor human health and a degraded environment, Steve Nygren was on a treadmill trying to effect change but going nowhere. He surrendered to hopelessness and retreated to the countryside on the edge of Atlanta to raise his family. After seven years of retirement while walking the trails, he realized the tentacles of dysfunction could destroy his rural paradise. Rather than retreat further, he launched an effort to save his own backyard expanding the effort to the surrounding 40,000 acres that is now a living laboratory for change offering solutions and hope to communities around the world who are curious about a better future.