What if we could create a future we were proud to leave behind?
Welcome!
I'm Dr Deborah Benham and I support people and groups to reconnect with, learn from and emulate nature's patterns and principles. For the last 28 years I've been exploring, through various pathways, how humanity can become ecological citizens, live within planetary boundaries and create a thriving future for humanity and the wider living world. Starting out as a marine mammal biologist and wildlife guide, becoming a sustainability trainer and deep nature connection practitioner, then working with the Transition towns movement to support community led climate resilience, and most recently diving into the wonderful world of biomimicry. Throughout this I've provided individuals, community groups, organisations and multi-stakeholder partnerships with the experiences, mindsets and practices to be guided by nature in their designs and actions.
Why nature as guide?
Life on Earth has 3.8 BILLION years of experimenting with and evolving solutions to pretty much every challenge faced by a lifeform or ecosystem. By apprenticing ourselves to nature and being guided by living systems principles, human societies can move away from creating harm to the planet, each other, and the wider community of life, and toward being positively contributing citizens, locally and globally.
Nature has the answers. Find out how to...
my approach IN SIMPLE TERMS - Nature C.E.N.s.E
CONNECT - with nature and people, for wellbeing and new perspectives
EMULATE - life’s principles, patterns and solutions, for designs which support all to thrive
NETWORK - participate in and contribute to your communities of support, practice and place
STORY - shape a vision of a preferred future which builds active hope and solidarity
EMPOWER - yourself and others to believe that we can all be positive contributors to the living world
And in more detail... introducing the Ecological Citizens Framework
ECOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP FRAMEWORK
Find out more by exploring the 5 pathways and 5 outcomes of ecological citizenship
Figure 1: Ecological Citizens Framework version 1.1. Created by Deborah Benham © 2024. This work is openly licensed via Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND meaning you may share the framework with others so long as you provide attribution, and do not change or remix the content or use it for commercial purposes.
TALKS - recent podcasts & public speaking
LEARNING - Courses and Resources
(coming soon)
COLLABORATE - Consultancy & Co-design
(coming soon)
INTRODUCTORY COURSE - Becoming Ecological Citizens
register interest by completing the contact form below. 'pay what you can' rates available.
Explore
- Simple practices to deeply reconnect with and learn from the living world.
- Principles of living systems to guide us out of the climate and biodiversity crises into a more safe, just and thriving future.
- An elegant nature-based framework to create more connective programmes and events, and develop your team.
- Your pathway to activating as an ecological citizen.
- Creating conditions for others to flourish into ecological citizenship.
- Designing and cooperating towards ecosystems of ecological citizenship.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY – THE LIVING SCHOOL
Where we apprentice ourselves to nature and reweave ourselves into the web of life.
Includes the Introduction to Becoming Ecological Citizens course, plus each month,
- New content and case studies on Nature Connection, applying Living Systems Principles, Biomimicry, Citizening and Community Building.
- Two community calls with mini mentoring sessions - for support & inspiration,
- Co-working day - for connecting and collaborating with other members, and progressing your projects.
To become a founding member on a 'pay what you can' rate, please use the contact form below or book a short call with me. Details below.
CONTACT ME
For any questions, or to express interest in an upcoming course or in joining our Living School community, drop me a message using the contact form.
CHAT WITH ME
If you'd like a free 30 minute chat to explore how we might work together, or to see if any of the offerings mentioned on this site are a good fit for you.
Book a time using the button below.