Wild at Heart – Connecting with nature

Woman's face with tree background, with text saying 'What we love and feel most connected to, we'll protect'

As we prepare to emerge from life in lockdown, we’ve been reflecting on our increased connection to nature and the refuge that it’s provided – helping to keep us occupied, active, calm and connected. 

At Greenhouse we developed ‘Wild at Heart’ – a campaign to encourage every single team member to get out and about in nature during the last six weeks of lockdown. Our aim was to get close to nature and walk for our health and wellbeing, as well as doing something positive for the planet.

For every mile walked, Greenhouse committed to plant a tree, in partnership with the reforestation charity, TreeSisters.

Our goal? To walk at least 2,000 miles by March 21st, the UN’s International Day of Forests. 

Becoming Wild at Heart

So far we have walked our way to a small forest, comprising more than 4,000 trees, which will also make an impact on our journey to becoming a carbon positive business.

We divided ourselves into six teams as a way to stay connected and create a sense of community, as well as generating a bit of healthy competition to help us reach our collective goal. As Max said: “I’m all about the hyper-competitive enjoyment of nature…”.

Having a weekly leaderboard motivated us to get outside, feel more energised, and created a sense of togetherness. We have really enjoyed seeing pictures of everyone out and about on their walks, experiencing the many benefits of being in nature, and snapping some great photos along the way.

Each group came up with their own unique name which said something about their team, and the winners were announced on Monday in our final leaderboard. Hats off to Best Pace Scenario comprising Emily, Alex, Rosie, Maria, Tom, and Jessie who won by a country mile (or in this case 239 country miles):

  1. Best Pace Scenario – 955 miles
  2. Team STEPTACULAR – 716 miles
  3. Wild Walkers – 702 miles
  4. Chafing the Dream – 679 miles
  5. The Goop Group – 666 miles
  6. Amiable Amblers – 467 miles

This simple challenge helped us realise the benefits of taking some time away from our desks, something that all of the Wild at Heart walkers, runners and cyclists could agree on.

Photo of squirrel on left side, quote on right side from Helen Bell

Quote from Maria Dolben on left side, picture of outdoors on right

Image of sunset on left, quote from Gertie Goddard on right

About the TreeSisters and how to get involved

Our partnership with the TreeSisters dates back to January 2019, when we were first introduced to the founder, Clare Dubois. As an organisation, TreeSisters embodies everything we value here at Greenhouse PR, being a purpose-led organisation that works for people and planet.

That partnership was the inspiration for Wild at Heart. The TreeSisters invite people to do as much radical good as they can for the planet. Their global programmes focus on encouraging women’s leadership, nature-connection and significant behaviour change as we make the shift from being consumers to restorers. 

TreeSisters is funding the restoration of environments, biodiversity and communities within more than 10 major ecosystems around the global tropics, through a diverse portfolio of vetted, trusted reforestation projects – and in the process planting millions of trees. 

TreeSisters is a UK registered social change and reforestation charity that places tropical forest restoration into everyone’s hands. Through individuals and businesses that give back to Nature every month, TreeSisters has so far funded the planting of over 16 million trees across 12 locations in Brazil, Borneo, Cameroon, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Nepal and West Papua.

We fund a diverse portfolio of tropical reforestation projects that are ethical, community-led, expand natural forest cover and aim to avoid further deforestation. Our projects support local communities and improve livelihoods, protect critically endangered species, and focus on gender parity and the participation of women. They are a direct and measurable way to restore the web of life and mitigate climate change. We are actively encouraging the cultural shift required to grow from a consumer, to a restorative culture. We encourage feminine leadership by providing resources, experiences and communities that inspire personal and collective action on behalf of the trees.

Clare Dubois, Founder & CEO, TreeSisters 

If you want to be wild at heart and make a difference to people and the planet, join us! Imagine a reforestation revolution ignited by the shared creativity and courage of a global network.

Become a treesister today: www.treesisters.org/join

And if you’re interested in helping us tackle the climate emergency, or simply want to learn more about what we do, we would love to hear from you. Call 0117 214 1250 or email info@greenhousepr.co.uk.