Ten Ideas for Integrating Earth Caretaking Into Work Environments

I’m often asked to share more details on what HR organizations, individual groups, and team leaders can actually do to integrate Earth Caretaking into their employee engagement or wellness programs. I thought it might be worthwhile to share my top ten ideas.

1. Make copies of the Earth Caretaker Way guide available to your team. This book, written by Tim Corcoran and Julie Boettler, provides wisdom and delightful stories based on their combined 60+ years of teaching outdoor skills to students at Headwaters Outdoor School, which Tim founded in 1992.
2. Create an Earth Caretaking Podcast Library that includes access to various podcast episodes featuring Tim Corcoran on various aspects of Earth Caretaking, from Nature Awareness to Mastering Wilderness Living Skills, Earth Philosophy and Spirituality, and Being of Service to the Earth.
3. Create an Earth Caretaking Community that is interested in receiving a daily 5-15-minute pep talk on aspects of Earth Caretaking selected from Tim Corcoran’s 150+ episode Tim Talks series.
4. Enable free access to Earth Caretaking Writing Trails on Lifewrite, an AI-enabled journaling app. My Writing Earth Caretaking Writing Trails empower people to articulate their thoughts and feelings about what it means to be an Earth Caretaker. They can then compose their own Earth Caretaking Life of Service commitment pledge and plan.
5. Hold in-person Earth Caretaking Retreats for leadership teams or teams and their members that bring cohorts of employees together to begin the process of establishing their own personal relationships with nature. For those interested in a true wilderness experience, private retreats can be held at Headwaters Outdoor School near Mt. Shasta during spring and fall. MEA’s Rising Circle Ranch near Santa Fe would also provide a fabulous venue for those interested in being in nature but not so wild.
6. Establish a program to add more green plants to your workspace or encourage employees to bring into the office and care for a plant of their choosing. As noted by Natura, a horticultural design, installation and maintenance firm, According to Green Plants for Green Building, a non-profit whose purpose is to communicate the aesthetic, wellbeing, and economic benefits of nature in the built environment, adding living plants to your office space works to reduce employee tension and anxiety by 37%, lessens workplace fatigue by up to 38% and enhances creativity/productivity by 15%. Need I say anything more?
7. Create outdoor Nature Sit Spots and/or meeting areas on roofs, balconies, or on company grounds where employees can take a break, hold team meetings, and/or take calls. Spending just a few minutes each day or each week reconnecting with nature can help bring employees back into balance and appreciate the interconnectedness of all things. In addition, if there are nearby walking trails in nature, consider creating a map so that they are easy to find. Even better would be to add plant and tree species names and other information about the local environment or the firm’s sustainability efforts.
8. Audit the firm’s use of toxic cleaning products to maintain the work environment. Where possible, make an effort to eliminate any that are toxic and replace them with more earth-friendly alternatives.
9. Establish an Earth Caretaking Support Chat Group where Earth Caretakers can share other external Earth Caretaking news, track their success, find companions for walking, hiking, camping, beach going, or other outdoor Earth enjoyment adventures.
10. Last but not least, is to incorporate Earth Caretaking causes into the firm’s philanthropic activities. There are so many activities going on around the world that need support from rewilding, to restoring beaver habitats, to the building of wildlife crossings that help reconnect habitats that are divided by freeways.

A lot of research shows that spending time in nature boosts creativity and improves employees’ ability to focus, leading to higher productivity, morale, and engagement. In addition, there is the potential impact on team performance through enhanced bonding, greater empathy, and nature’s ability to flatten hierarchies—even if only temporarily. But most important are the effects on well-being through stress reduction, improvements in mood, and overall happiness that result from more exposure to sunlight and greenery on a daily basis.

If you’d like to learn more about how Earth Caretaker Way concepts can be incorporated into your employee engagement or wellness programs, or have an interest in adding Earth Caretaker activities to your next team offsite or retreat, please reach out to gayeclemson@icloud.com.

Clemson is a veteran high-tech strategy consultant, employee engagement, customer journey, and channel partner transformation expert. She also serves as a strategist and advocate for the Earth Caretaker Way..