Nature needs better ideas. Here’s one of them. Nature’s Boardroom, out now.

Hi, Simeon here — Brand Director at Faith in Nature and, as of last week, author of Nature’s Boardroom. If you’ve been following the Nature on the Board story, you might have seen me banging the drum for why Nature needs a voice and a vote in all that we do.

The logic is pretty simple. However you personally relate to the natural world, we’re all part of this intricate, wonderful web of life that we call ‘Nature’. Nature provides all we need — whether at the functional level of the wonderful plants in our products or at the emotional level of how time spent in Nature can rebalance us. There is lovely Welsh saying ‘Dod yn nol fy nghoed’. It translates as ‘coming back to my trees’, but it means ‘returning to sanity’. However we relate to Nature, a thriving natural world is essential for our own thriving.

But the natural world isn’t currently thriving. It’s in rapid decline, with global biodiversity levels down nearly 70% since 1970. In Latin America, that figure is an astounding 97%. (By way of comparison, imagine yourself operating at only 30% of your vitality. Or even worse, at only 3%.)

But of course, we’re a business and all business has played some part in this decline. That’s why it’s down to the likes of us to reimagine our relationship with the natural world. Every decision we make has some impact upon Nature, but until 2022, Nature had no say in those decisions.

That changed in 2022 when Faith In Nature became the first company in the world to make Nature a director. Since then, Nature has had a voice and a vote in everything we do. At that time, we open sourced how we did this, and since then, Nature has taken its seat in the boardrooms of around 25 other organisations worldwide. That’s a drop in the ocean, still. But it’s a pretty significant start.

And we want it to accelerate. That’s why I’ve now written ‘Nature’s Boardroom’, published by Bristol University Press. In some ways, it’s a manual for how you can do this too — with examples of how it’s working not just at Faith In Nature, but at some of the other organisations working with the model. It turns out, this is not just an idea for businesses. It’s for all kinds of organisations. So far it’s been implemented by river trusts, volunteer groups, funds, public bodies and arts organisations. I’ve also spoken to charities, schools, councils, universities, national parks and even government think tanks about this.

But Nature’s Boardroom is not just a manual. It’s also a thought experiment and an invitation to co-create a better world together. Nature on the Board is just a tool. It is a means, not an end. The ‘end’ is all of the beautiful, emergent Nature-centric ideas I hope it brings into being. They might be your ideas, just waiting to be unearthed.

The environmental conversation can be so heavy sometimes. But I hope what Nature’s Boardroom does is offer a glimmer of hope, a spirit of play, and a blueprint for real, meaningful change.

If a small soap company from Manchester can make this big a ripple, so can you.

Nature’s Boardroom is out now and available here, here, here, directly from the publisher here and all the other usual places you buy books.

We can't wait to see what you do with it.