Four For Friday | March 13, 2026
LF211 Regenerative cities, not just net-zero, the Impact Reporting Network, period blood as biomarker, biological capital + Zo Computer
Welcome to this week’s Four For Friday, covering some of my favourite topics: better cities, new bathroom biomarkers, impact reporting frameworks and longevity hype. Am back in Melbourne for a week before heading out to a trip to the US, UK, Europe and Singapore / Bali. If you’re in SF, UK or Singapore and want to connect, drop me a note.
1. What if your city could regenerate?
Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities is making the case that “doing less harm” no longer cuts it.
Its Regenerative City Framework pushes urban development from net-zero ambitions toward net-positive outcomes, combining ecosystem restoration, circular resource flows, and low-carbon design.
Some of the case studies are inspiring: Bangkok’s One Bangkok development cut peak energy load by 22%, diverted 75% of construction waste from landfill, and its wetlands will retain 200,000 m3 of stormwater. London’s Canada Water project aims for 28% biodiversity net gain, triple the statutory minimum (quite a contrast with the rest of UK’s water industry, as described in LF210). Singapore’s Bidadari estate hosts more than half the country’s migratory dryland bird species, inside a residential precinct.
The So What? Cities that restore rather than merely ‘sustain’ will out-compete those still chasing net-zero as their ceiling.
2. Impact Reporting Network: a new common language
Nonprofits spend enormous time producing impact reports, often filing near-identical documents for multiple funders with incompatible requirements. True Impact, Charity Navigator, and YourCause from Blackbaud have launched the Impact Reporting Network to end this absurd waste of effort.
The model is simple: a nonprofit creates one standardised impact report, opts in to share it, and that single document flows across platforms serving millions of donors and over 10 million employees across 600 companies in 170 countries. No new reporting burden; same data, wider reach. Participation is opt-in and nonprofit-controlled. It is infrastructure, not mandate.
The So What? Impact measurement only scales if reporting costs fall; shared infrastructure is how the sector finally stops asking nonprofits to prove themselves twice.
3. Period blood: the most overlooked biomarker?
For 6,000 years, physicians have analysed urine. Menstrual blood, a far richer specimen, has been largely ignored. This BBC piece argues that’s a significant oversight.
Half blood and half a complex mixture of proteins, hormones, bacteria, endometrial tissue and cells from the reproductive tract, menstrual fluid contains 385 proteins found nowhere else and functions, in effect, as a monthly natural biopsy.
Researchers at Northwell Health have studied 3,700 women and identified distinct immune and cellular markers for endometriosis. California startup Qvin secured FDA approval in 2024 for a pad-based blood sugar test, and demonstrated superior HPV detection compared to traditional Pap smears.
NextGen Jane (previously referenced in an earlier LF), having analysed 2,000 samples, is tracking early links between oestrogen decline and ageing. Studies have also detected thyroid dysfunction markers, environmental pollutants, vitamin deficiencies and STIs from the same specimen. An FDA submission for a non-invasive endometriosis kit is targeted for 2027. The research drag is funding: globally, women’s health received just 5% of R&D spend in 2020.
The So What: The most information-dense fluid in preventive health has been discarded monthly for millennia; fixing that is both a diagnostic revolution and a long-overdue equity correction.
4. New metric of success: Biological Capital
If you follow along with more than 30% of the references of this rather amusing diatribe - The Status of Health - around the explosion of the longevity and wellness segment, consider yourself quite the longevity geek…
The So What? Longevity is having a cultural and economic moment, with new devices, services and protocols emerging that can have genuine impact, but for most people, this stuff is still gobbledygook and elitist.
Cool Tool of the Week: Zo Computer
Interested in testing out some of these new super powerful agentic tools such as OpenClaw, but nervous about opening up your computer to goodness knows what, and finding outsourcing to virtual servers quite complicated? In that case Zo - a cloud computer in a box that’s managed by natural language and vibe coding (rather than requiring complex code commands), is worth checking out.
That’s all for now - happy weekend everyone.
- Stephen