Real-life proof of how one man can make extraordinary change.

This is about my friend Pantaleon. And we just discovered that he comes from the future.

Panta is from a small indigenous town in Oaxaca. He came to Mexico City to work in construction, and he built the building where I live. He then became the building’s “portero” (which means he is the doorman, security guard, cleaner, package receiver, car parker and doer of any other job that needs to be done).

I’ve known Panta for four years and we have become close friends. It seems like every night he prepares a new joke to tell me the next day, as we have seen each other more than 1,000 different mornings and he has never repeated a joke.

There are at least two things that make Panta special. The first is that he takes advantage of absolutely every resource that is available on our 100-yard street. The second is that he speaks very, very fast.

Today, we realized that he may speak so fast because he comes from the future and a part of his voice is still there. He came to show us a few of the systems we need to implement at scale if we want to be in a livable place in 50 years:

Systems: regenerative agriculture and local consumption. Panta realized that no one was taking care of the small yard in the middle of our block’s avenue. So, he planted a food farm. To the regular eye it’s unnoticeable, but he has beans, lemons, avocados and cherries. He has a chamomile bush to make tea when someone gets sick, and even some flowers his wife uses to make shampoo.

System: re-utilizing. For Panta, nothing is broken. It just needs to be reimagined. He can transform any piece of wood into a chair or a table, any old T-shirt into a cloth for car washing, and any broken pot into a piece of art.

System: recycling. Panta collects all of our block’s plastic, cardboard and metal, and he uses the abandoned lot next to our building as a storage facility. Every week, he takes his old van to a recycling center and sells all the materials. With this, he buys toys and candies for his two grandsons.

System: sharing economy. Panta has built an amazing toolbox throughout the years. Hammers, spanners, screwdrivers, handsaws — you name it. Everybody in the block knows that when you need a tool, you can rent it from Panta for $10 pesos or exchange it for something he wants (e,g,; I help him manage his savings). Why would you ever buy a tool if you can do this?

Systems: refurbishing, community living. Most buildings in my neighborhood have warehouse rooms on the rooftop. Nobody was using the ones in our building, so Panta took all of them and transformed them into a six-room house for himself, his wife, and his two sons’ families. He has a huge terrace, so he invites his friends over to see the stars and enjoy mixiotes made with the leaves of the avocado tree he has in the street (they are amazing).

System: re-using. This one is my favorite. When Panta ran out of space to store things, he bought an old van and parked it in front of our building to use it as a storage facility. It worked so well that now he has two other cars that can barely move but work great as warehouses. It’s the cheapest real estate in the neighborhood.

Climate change hasn’t been Panta’s main driver in building these systems. Scarcity has been the main source of inspiration. But he is a great example of everything we could do now if we want a better future — a future where our biggest worry is to find a new joke to tell each morning, instead of figuring out how to survive.

Antonio Nuño is the co-founder and CEO of Someone Somewhere, a B-Corp and Climate Neutral company on a mission to lift millions of artisans out of poverty by connecting their products with the needs of modern companies and consumers.