Natural Instinct Thanks to Mark Laska, the urban jungle is getting a little greener.

When Mark Laska walks through the streets near his office in New York City, he doesn't look at the buildings and the sidewalks. "I look at the landscape and imagine what was here before and what could be here again," he explains.

The CEO of Great Ecology and Environments, a consulting firm dedicated to repairing the world by restoring habitats, Laska works with developers and corporations looking to offset the environmental impact of their projects, governments looking to restore public lands, and nonprofits focused on saving the environment.

"I have a passion for natural areas," says Laska, who launched his company in 2001. "If we can bring a representation of natural space into an urban area, that will educate urban kids and also provide a place for wildlife to take refuge." His favorite project has been working on Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City to help create a habitat for fish and wildlife. Other local projects include a stream and lake restoration along a 6-mile stretch of river in Westchester County, reviewing the impact of a marina expansion on Staten Island and working with the owners of a golf course to reverse the effects the course had on an existing stream.