Neal Collins, Co-Founder of Latitude, is the engaging host of the podcast. Latitude aims to help people and the planet thrive together by using the built environment as a catalyst. Latitude is on a mission to demystify sustainability for the housing market and enable people to live out their values. Be it by living closer to nature, financing solar panels, or installing a water catchment system. They also represent sellers who have already invested in sustainability by getting certifications like LEED and Living Building - they are specialists in highlighting these properties' value.
The Regenerative Real Estate podcast first aired in February 2020 and has had a wide variety of guests. They have included visionary architects, planners, and regenerative agriculture experts, to name just a few.
They tackle subjects like urban agriculture, small space living, and building certifications. They are passionate about healthy homes and focus on what innovators (and everyday people) are doing to improve their spaces through natural products and biophilic design. Rise is thoroughly on board!
Episode 26 of The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast is titled "Health, Wealth and the Planet with Matt Daigle." Our Founder and CEO chatted with Neal about his background and Rise's evolution in the episode.
Neal and Matt began their conversation by chatting about Matt's past, from his MBA in Entrepreneurship to his time at a successful local startup here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They discussed Matt's journey to sustainable building and how much his priorities shifted after having kids. This perspective shift - to a less self-centered, more future-centered way of thinking - brought him to consider the world that will be left behind for his kids. With that, they talked about how Rise was born with the mission to bake sustainability into all aspects of home improvement, so homeowners don't need to worry if they're making the right choices.
Neal commented that only recently has health and wellness come into the broader conversation of home sustainability. They talked about how everyone has a different reason to adopt sustainable practices. With this range of personal focus and varying depth of commitment to change, Rise always ties our content back to the homeowner's health, wealth, and effect on the planet.
Rise is demystifying sustainability - Neal
Matt responded that he didn't know what the end solution would be when he first started. Rise was just a lookbook of sustainable homes at the beginning. This allowed consumers can see what these homes did to reach their goals. Now Rise has a full research and writing team doing great work every day. Rise is even enlisting the help of expert reviewers for an extra layer of accountability.
The two discussed that Rise was just about to reach 3 million site users at the time of the interview (we have since surpassed!) and Rise's demographic spread throughout the United States and Canada.
Recommended by Rise
Shop home improvement products that directly contribute to saving money through their use, whether through energy savings or lower maintenance costs.
How does Rise vet products and manufacturers that it features?
Matt told Neal about Rise's rigorous writer's guidelines and the product and manufacturers' criteria that we developed and abide by - that these help us choose who we work with.
The pair discussed how Rise began to monetize the platform in 2020 by bringing on manufacturers and how Rise paused lots of this work due to COVID. With this, Rise shifted gears and dived into the distance learning market and started translating our content into educational resources specifically for Realtors™. Matt commented that we are teaching Realtors how to talk with their clients about what goes into their houses and how to improve them - for the owner's health, wealth, and the planet - and how this enhances the home's overall value. This knowledge is what homeowners now expect from their realtors, and Rise is excited to give them that edge.
Listen to the full episode here!
Past Editor-in-Chief
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Not everyone was born in a geodesic dome with a solar-heated chicken coop (like Mika), but that doesn’t mean they can’t live in a healthy home with a positive impact on the earth. Mika is a LEED AP and an experienced leader, passionate about bringing sustainability to the masses.
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The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast is an ongoing series developed by Latitude. Latitude is a real estate firm specializing in helping buyers and sellers purchase and sell sustainable real estate.
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By Mika Solway, Past Editor-in-Chief
Feb 13, 2025 · 3 min read
