What are your relationships with place?

As problem-solvers for planet and people, let’s make 2025 a story of our relationships with place, because that’s how we will accelerate the innovation that unfolds flourishing futures.

At the heart of flourishing sits relationships.

Place can be geographical, physical, spiritual, emotional, financial, economic, intellectual, conceptual...it is the space where we meet ourselves, others and Nature. It is near and far. It is past, present and futures. It’s the starting point of regenerative journeys. ?

It’s in these places where we can come face to face with doing things differently; and what we especially need to do differently, immediately, is reconnect with Nature.

I’m inviting you to be revolutionary as you design, create and implement solutions as products, services, strategies, policies, laws, regulations.

This is the year for us, as problem-solvers for planet and people, to consciously and actively explore and rebuild our relationships with Nature – as Mother Earth, as more-than-human beings, as ancestral intelligence - in these places.

There’s no true innovation without Nature as part of the conversation.

If you’re nervous about how it’ll be perceived, take comfort and courage from the fact that there’s already track record in the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) Appendix of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) 1 General Requirements under Application Requirement (AR) 7 where “Nature may be considered as a silent stakeholder” in corporate materiality assessments.?

Notch that up as a big, chunky signal to build on and go further wherever you are in the world.

How you do that is by imagining flourishing futures scenarios and coming face to face with Nature, not simply as a silent stakeholder but as an active, independent, interdependent member of our lives and communities, organizations and businesses.

It’s in these scenarios, where we will face grief, find enchantment and learn. It’s where reconciliation will start to happen between humans and Nature, giving us the courage to re-shape the present and navigate “our way” (Milojevi?, 2020) forward together.

Now that, is what will create the conditions to accelerate innovation.

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With that in mind, try this at home

Here’s a quick and easy game for you to play, adapting the endlessly useful Futures Triangle developed by Prof. Sohail Inayatullah and Dr Ivana Milojevic, to get you started on your pathway to creating flourishing futures, by looking to the past.

1.?????? Pick 1-2 places that you’ve lived in.

2.?????? Ask yourself, “What was my relationship to/with Nature in each of these?”

3.?????? Note down your answers.

What do you notice? Share your insights in the comments.

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Intrigued? Wondering what to do next?

Join me next week on Thursday 16 Jan 14h-15h CET for a free, interactive Zoom session to keep experiencing, exploring and deepening the story of your relationships with Nature in places, as part of your personal journey as a problem-solver needing nourishment. Register here: https://bit.ly/4291VsL

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Email me at [email protected] to schedule a call about imagining flourishing futures scenarios with your community of internal and external stakeholders, as part of your sustainability roll-out, strategic planning or innovation activities.

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Looking forward to seeing you!

Elaine

(c) 2025. Elaine France. All rights reserved.

MILOJEVI?, I. (2020). Conflict Transformation. Metafuture School

Inayatullah, S. (2023). The Futures Triangle: Origins and Iterations. World Futures Review. 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–10