Paul Mankiewicz is the creator of Gaia Soil, a light-weight soil used for urban gardens. His work couples ecological engineering and restoration with the integration of human communities in natural systems. We need plants to sustain life. They recycle carbon and rainfall and are a vital part of our ecosystem. Plants need soil to thrive, which means places like New York City, that are mostly concrete and pavement, lack the natural systems that improve sustainability. The Gaia Institute is on a mission to unite natural and urban development through innovation. Previously, soil was too heavy to make rooftop gardens feasible. Gaia changed that, creating a lightweight soil that's giving a whole new meaning to the term "concrete jungle."