S1E3 - What happens when businesses treat their street as part of their story?
Regenerative Streets Podcast
Vibrant Streets: Good for Businesses and Their People
Shownotes
Aired: 15 December 2025
Guest: Claire Bowles
S1E3 - Vibrant Streets: Good for Businesses and Their People, Regenerative Streets Podcast © 2025 by Wayfinder Labs is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
In this episode of the Regenerative Streets Podcast, host Laura Aston speaks with regenerative practitioner and Director of Okana ANZ, Claire Bowles, about Greening Cromwell Street in Collingwood. The project was a business‑led experiment that turned an ordinary work street into everyday health infrastructure. Claire shares how neighbouring organisations moved from a transactional relationship with their street to a relational one: door‑knocking other businesses, planting natives, running simple propagation workshops, and creating spaces where people could slow down and feel at home on their way to work.
For practitioners and business owners, this conversation offers grounded lessons on starting small, building relationships, and designing light‑touch governance so street projects don’t fizzle when key champions move on. You’ll hear why “health” is no longer just about hospitals, how streets can act as preventive health infrastructure, and why taking time to understand a street’s unique history, ecologies and communities is one of the most powerful moves a practitioner can make.
🌱 What You Can Do on Your Work Street
Take a slow walk along your work street, notice where people naturally gather, and introduce yourself to whoever holds those “energy spots” (the café, studio, bench or corner).
Invite neighbouring businesses to a short coffee or lunchtime chat about what a healthier, more welcoming version of your street could look like and what each of you could contribute.
Co‑host a tiny greening experiment outside your workplace—planter boxes, native planting or a small spot to sit and pause.
Offer your team a little time to join a shared planting or clean‑up day on the street.
Apply together for a small grant to support greening, seating or micro‑events, and share the benefits.
Run a simple propagation or skills workshop so people take plants and ideas back to their own homes and streets.
Door‑knock or visit neighbouring businesses to explain why you care about the street and invite them into one small next step.
Add small touches that support dwell time outside your frontage—welcoming signage, a perch, shade, or water for dogs—so people feel comfortable slowing down.
These kinds of actions help build meaningful relationships, bring more joy into daily routines, support sharing and reciprocity, deepen connection with nature, and contribute to safer, more welcoming streets where people feel at home.
🌐 Explore More from Claire and this Episode
Greening Cromwell Street, Collingwood
Living Future Institute – resources on regenerative design and healthy built environments
Project for Public Spaces – tools and stories on participatory, place‑led street transformations
📣 Stay Connected
Follow @StreetMakerLaura on Instagram for weekly stories, tips and examples from people bringing their own streets to life.
Refer someone to the show who works on a street and might enjoy this conversation.
Start your own tiny experiment with a Street Joy starter kit—a great way to start the new year.
This episode is brought to you by Wayfinder Labs, in connection with Better Streets and Regen Melbourne.
S1E3 - Vibrant Streets: Good for Businesses and Their People, Regenerative Streets Podcast © 2025 by Laura Aston. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Music: Carefree, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License