The Future of Cities 3-Part Webinar Series - Session One

From Grey to Green: Building Cities That Breathe

Conversations at the intersection of regeneration, adaptation and the built environment

With Special Guests:

Rasmus Nørgaard, Home.Earth, Denmark

Paul Hameister, Nature Based Cities, Hamton Property Group

As urban areas grapple with rising temperatures, biodiversity loss, and social fragmentation, the integration of green spaces into cityscapes emerges as a key lever of transformative change. This session explores how regenerating urban landscapes into living, breathing ecosystems, enhances biodiversity, improves community well-being, and creates sustainable cities of the future.

Based in Copenhagen, Rasmus Nørgaard is the founder of Home.Earth and co-founder of NREP. With decades of experience in real estate investment and urban development, Rasmus focuses on creating inclusive, sustainable urban communities that prioritise liveability and environmental integration. His international perspective offers valuable insights into regenerative urban development practices already being deployed and integrated in the Nordic context.

Paul Hameister, is founder of Nature Based Cities and Executive Chairman of Hamton Property Group. A seasoned property developer and outdoor adventurer, Paul is a leading advocate for integrating living landscapes into urban development. Through Nature Based Cities, he champions the inclusion of green spaces in urban design to create cities we love to live in.

Moderated by Berry Liberman, co-founder of Small Giants Academy, this discussion examines the shift towards nature-integrated urban design and its impact on creating cities that are not only habitable but also regenerative for both people and planet.

Meet Rasmus Nørgaard :

Rasmus Nørgaard is the founder of Home.Earth, a real estate company established in 2021 with a bold mission: to create sustainable, inclusive, and livable urban communities.

Before founding Home.Earth, Nørgaard co-founded NREP (Nordic Real Estate Partners) in 2005, where he served as Chief Investment Officer for 13 years. Under his leadership, NREP grew to become the largest real estate fund manager in the Nordic region, overseeing assets valued at approximately €20 billion.

Nørgaard’s professional background includes experience at McKinsey & Company and Nordea Markets. His career has been defined by a commitment to integrating environmental sustainability and social inclusion into the built environment. Through Home.Earth, he seeks to show that real estate can be a driver of positive change by developing affordable, sustainable housing that delivers both social impact and competitive returns for investors.

His vision is to reshape the real estate industry to meet some of society’s most urgent challenges. From climate change to inequality, he focuses on designing diverse, inclusive neighbourhoods that foster both environmental and social sustainability.

Meet Paul Hameister:

Paul is a former lawyer and investment banker who has been actively involved in property development since 1997.

His professional passion is finding and delivering solutions to complex and challenging development opportunities.

His development business, Hamton has current and completed residential projects of over $4.5bn in the last 19 years.

Paul is the first Australian to have climbed the Seven Summits (the highest peak on every continent on Earth, including Everest in 2011) and complete the Polar Hat-Trick (skiing to the North Pole, the 550km Greenland Crossing and South Pole) all unsupported and unassisted, including being a member of the first all-Australian team to establish a new route from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole (with his daughter).

He has been a member of four expeditions sponsored by the Australian Geographic Society, including a circa 1,000km expedition through unexplored Amazon jungle in the mountainous Sierra del Divisor region. In Peru with Matses tribe support (with his son).

In Nov 22, Paul and his two children completed a 400km crossing of the Sinai on food with Bedouin tribe support. Some of these expeditions have been captured in TV documentaries aired on Discovery and National Geographic Channels globally. He is involved with a number of not-for-profits, including as Founder of Nature Based Cities.

Paul received an Order of Australia Medal in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours to service to exploration and to business.

Meet Berry Liberman:

Berry Liberman is a pioneering impact investor, businesswoman, philanthropist, storyteller and filmmaker. As co-founder of Australia’s first B-Corporation, the Small Giants Family Office, Berry and her husband Danny Almagor create and support media, investment, and education initiatives with the purpose of moving towards a Next Economy model: supporting human flourishing within our collective natural limits.

Berry was the editor in chief and publisher of Dumbo Feather for 12 years and is the creative director of Small Giants Academy, an educational initiative providing courses in progressive business, investing, and leadership.

She is an accomplished speaker, interviewer and thought leader on the Next Economy. Berry’s radical curiosity and intelligence are as expansive as her big-hearted love for people and planet alike. With warmth, humour and deep relatability, Berry urges leaders from all sectors to face a changing economy before it’s too late to have that choice.

Thank you for supporting Small Giants Academy, a not-for-profit organisation and an ACNC registered charity.