Engaging with nature-based practice in business schools and organisations

In the face of the climate emergency, there have been increasing calls for businesses to fully rethink their relationship with nature in the way they conceive of and create their businesses and operate within the wider planetary ecosystems, for example in the form of regenerative practices.

Business schools sit at the forefront in preparing future business leaders. However, business research and education does not often engage directly ‘with’ nature. To consider approaches and how nature might feature more directly in business schools, a workshop was hosted by BBS, run by Dr Caroline Chapain (Department of Management) and Dr Fatos Ozkan Erciyas and Dr Emma Surman (both Department of Marketing) in partnership with Winterbourne House & Garden.

The day long workshop was an opportunity for colleagues to engage with the natural world and to explore the ways in which nature might feature in business education and research. It included a mix of talks and practical activities beginning with a session led by Jessica Adams, a business mentor and strategist who centres nature-based practices within her work in both university and business settings. Jessica invited participants to explore Winterbourne Gardens and connect with the space in a more intentional way and explore their reactions and observations.

Students from the MSc Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship course then shared the impact of their nature-based learning when thinking about their professional values in relation to nature and how they have subsequently brought this into their thinking and practice around entrepreneurship. The role of nature in research was also covered as Fatos Ozkan Erciyas, Emma Surman and Mihaela Kelemen spoke about research into nature and wellbeing in a project in which eco-art and poetry was used to work with adults experiencing vulnerability and Anita Lateano who is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Westminster spoke about a multispecies ethnography she is developing as part of her fieldwork on the conservation of coral reefs in Indonesia.

Caroline Chapain and Emma Surman will be developing this work further in conjunction with Winterbourne Garden and Jessica Adams following the award of an ESPRC grant as part of the Ecological Citizens Programme.

To find out more, contact Caroline Chapain, Fatos Ozkan Erciyas or Emma Surman.