The workings of nature: for the greater good
Mental Health Awareness Week is all about nature. Here I talk about how our connection to nature goes beyond our own well-being to addressing climate change and why promoting nature connection at work is essential for people, planet, profit.
My story
I grew up in inner city Cardiff. Despite Cardiff’s expanse of parkland area and proximity to the beautiful Welsh countryside, my childhood was largely spent in and around rows of terraced houses, shops and takeaways. We valued family trips to the seaside and parks but my everyday experiences, including at school, were spent surrounded by concrete and tarmac rather than nature and greenery. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel that nature wasn’t for me although (and we know this is the case for lots of people), it was more that it just didn’t really feature as an important part of my life. And thinking back, I felt a slight sense of fear around truly rural or natural environments.
I met my, now, husband in 1997 and that’s when my eyes began to be opened. He, having grown up in Bury (Greater Manchester), spent his childhood fishing lakes, climbing trees - complete freedom in the summer holidays exploring the nearby countryside. And through him, I began to notice and pay attention to what was going on around me. He points out birds and wild flowers and actually knows their names — which had, I’m sorry to say, mostly passed me by until early adulthood.
I am by no means a nature expert, but I have felt my environmental leanings and values evolve simply through exposure to nature. Noticing, listening, reading, valuing. In turn, over the years my behaviour has changed to those which (again while not perfect) are always considering my impact on the environment around me and beyond.
Nature’s good for us (in fact, is us)
My Masters degree in Occupational Psychology offered me the opportunity to study biophilia from a psychological perspective on well-being at work. Biophilia, a term brought to prominence by EO Wilson, is the human-nature connection, which hypothesises that as humans we have a natural affiliation with nature — it’s where we feel safe, sheltered, where our stone-age selves with stone-age brains (think Professor Mark van Vugt’s fascinating work in evolutionary psychology) would have lived, worked, sought nourishment and livelihood.
Biophilia comes in many forms — authentic nature, human-made parks, natural lighting, air flow, nature mimicry indoors, indoor plants etc.
It makes perfect sense doesn’t it, that we feel good in nature. And people generally describe their favourite places as being in nature — a garden, near water, greenery etc. (Korpela and Hartig, 96).
Our human need for nature links to restoration theories which bring together the concept that nature elicits these four feelings: being away; fascination; coherence (opportunity for reflection with fewer distractions); and compatibility (appreciating the environment).
People feel significantly and substantially happier outdoors in all green areas than in urban environments (McKerron and Marouto, 13) and connection to nature can have positive outcomes on our psychological and social well-being. People report better moods, lower anxiety, less rumination, lower negative affect in nature compared with urban settings (Aspinall et. al. 2015). Even taking into account the effect of simply exercising — which we also know is good for us — but even better for us in nature.
Studies have shown how being in nature can offer positive mental and physical health outcomes (Lee et. al. 2014) — think forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) and its links with lower heart rate, balanced cortisol levels, better cardiovascular activity. Being in nature is also linked to kindness and generosity.
For many of us, despite its obvious intense challenges, the COVID pandemic has further reinforced our positive connections with nature. One study by the University of Cumbria found that 72% women and 60% men spent time in nature. The study also found an increase in nature images on social media content during the peak pandemic. And 70% of participants reported feeling more likely to notice nature in local areas in future.
From experimental data from over 2000 participants last year, Natural England found that 40% adults in England spent more time than usual in nature since the first Covid-19 restrictions and 47% wished to continue.
In the workplace
I’ve reported and shared many times the compelling findings by Sop Shin et. al. (2007) and Benfield et. al. (2015) — that having views of nature while working/studying will reduce stress at work and improve grades at school. I’m hopeful about the growing prevalence of forest schools and outdoor learning for young people.
In a nutshell, we know that connection with, views of and time spent in nature enables increased performance, focus and productivity. We also know that indoor plants reduce harmful VOCs (found in many cleaning products and pains/varnishes) and can enhance feelings of job satisfaction.
Testing this further, my field study on 50 indoor workers highlighted that people’s negative mood at work can be reduced and positive mood increased during the working day with only 10 minutes of outdoor nature exposure (compared to a control group who spent ten minutes on a nature activity indoors).
Yet, despite indoor workers relating that they know nature is good for them, they also reported feeling guilty about taking breaks in nature. The curse of busyness!
Managers, role models, coaches and mentors need to promote the essential need for taking breaks and making mandatory some ‘outdoor’ space without phones and distractions. Our stone age brains need this.
Pro environmental behaviours
As well as individual well-being and work-related benefits, our connection to nature has the potential to reshape our values and promote pro-environmental behaviours — as my introduction to this article demonstrates.
In their meta-analysis of 24 studies, Whitburn, Linklater, Abrahamse (2019) found positive and moderate associations between connection to nature and pro environmental behaviours — with the strongest correlation being in children - “Facilitating a stronger connection to nature may result in greater engagement in pro-environmental behaviours and conservation…”.
A Korean study by Chen, Tu and Ho (2013) suggests that while horticultural activity is seen as leisure time, it increases positive mood, improves social relationships and improves the environment.
Research by the University of Cumbria during the COVID pandemic showed that 95% of participants agreed that nature is good for well-being. They go on to report that more interest was reported in global environmental issues during this time and that young people especially (18–30 year olds) were more likely to participate in local environmental activities.
So why is this important?
Not least the climate emergency.
People have been working and continue to work in conditions with no natural light, globally we’re migrating more and more to urban areas, and consuming mass media as leisure activity. We are, more than ever, suffering with nature deficit disorder and there is a mismatch in our human needs — remember our stone age brains — to the way we live our lives.
We spend a lot of time at work. Organisations and education establishments can support our connection to nature in their values and culture. The Biophilic Organisation (Jones, 2016) gives us a framework for organisations to get beyond profit, and offers a new perspective to meet corporate sustainability. Think rituals, symbolic practices, language and building design. We need to ditch the status quo and think differently about how we live and work.
Removing barriers to nature at work
Natural England report some stark demographic barriers to nature.
For example, they report that 51% ethnic minorities compared to 60% white British visited nature “in the last 14 days” (between 1 Apr and 30 June 2020). 51% of older adults compared to 62% of 16–39 year olds; 47% with life limiting illness compared to 62% without and 44% of people in households earning £15k or under, compared to 70% earning £50k+ visited nature in the same period.
And, just as my field study showed, Natural England found that between 1 Apr and 30 June 2020 15% of adults in England said they were “too busy” to spend time in nature, this was further uplifted to 17% in October 2020.
Work and educations settings can change this.
COVID has of course brought us immeasurable challenges, but also some opportunities. Commuting behaviour has changed and may change forever. Fewer of us are on the motorways dashing to pitch up our laptops to do exactly the same work from a different desk a few miles away from home. Not denying missing out on much needed incidental social interaction and feelings of isolation — for the planet, changing commuting behaviour has got to be a good thing, hasn’t it? A good balance is what we need.
Of course it’s too early to say what long-term effects this pandemic has had on our values and behaviours, but workplaces can support and influence in ensuring people connect to nature and check in with their well-being. My rallying cry is to role model the behaviours and values of biophilia— normalise walking meetings, take phone calls outdoors, make flexibility a thing for everyone not just desk based workers. We’ve never before had a chance like this to shake up the way we work.
Our pale blue dot depends on us and my conclusion here is that our own connection to nature - knowing, understanding, noticing, could be at the very heart of long-term behaviour change. Employers and organisations have a responsibility to drive this change. After all, we can’t all marry a nature boy from Bury.
This article summarises my talk at the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology Virtual Conference, 8 January 2021.
References
Aspinall P, Mavros P, Coyne R, et al (2015) The urban brain: analysing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG. British Journal of Sports Medicine; 49: pp. 272–276.
Benfield JA, Rainbolt GN, Bell PA, Donovan GH. Classrooms With Nature Views: Evidence of Differing Student Perceptions and Behaviors. Environment and Behavior. 2015;47(2):140–157
Chen, H.M., Tu, H.M. and Ho, C.H. (2013) Understanding Biophilia Leisure as Facilitating Well-being and the Environment: An Examination of Participants’ Attitudes Toward Horticultural Activity. Leisure Sciences an Interdisciplinary Journal [online]. 35 (4), pp. 301–319
Dijkstra, K., Pieterse, M.E. and Pruyn, A. (2008) Stress-reducing effects of indoor plants in the built healthcare environment: the mediating role of perceived attractiveness. Preventive Medicine [online]. 47, pp. 279–283.
Human Spaces (2015) The global impact of biophilic design in the workplace. Available from: http://humanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Global-Human-Spaces-report-2015-US-FINAL.pdf
Kaplan, R. (1993) The role of nature in the context of the workplace. Landscape and Urban Planning [online]. 37 pp. 193–201.
Kaplan, R., and Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of nature: A psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Korpela, K. and Hartig, T. (1996) Restorative qualities of favorite places. Journal of Environmental Psychology [online]. 16, pp. 221–233.
Jones, D.R. (2015) The ‘Biophilic Organization’: An Integrative Metaphor For Corporate Sustainability. Journal of Business Ethics [online]., pp. 401–416.
Lemmey, Tania (2020) Connection with nature in the UK during the COVID-19 lockdown. University of Cumbria, Carlisle. (Unpublished) https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/about/news/articles/articles/university-research-records-new-love-of-nature-during-coronavirus-lockdown-.html
Lottrup, L., Grahn, P. and Stigsdotter, U.K. (2013) Workplace greenery and perceived level of stress: benefits of access to a green outdoor environment at the workplace. Landscape and Urban Planning [online]., pp. 5–11.
MacKerron, George and Mourato, Susana (2013) Happiness is greater in natural environments. Global environmental change.
Nieuwenhuis, M., Knight, C., Postmes, T. and Haslam, S.A. (2014) The relative benefits of green versus lean office space: Three field experiments. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 20 (3), pp. 199–214.
People and Nature Survey (2020) [online]. London: Natural England. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-people-and-nature-survey-for-england-monthly-interim-indicators-for-october-2020-experimental-statistics
Smith, A., Tucker, M. and Pitt, M. (2011) Healthy, productive workplaces: towards a case for interior plantscaping. Facilities [online]. 29 (5/6), pp. 209–223.
Sop Shin, W. (2007) The influence of forest view through a window on job satisfaction and job stress. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
Whitburn, J., Linklater, W. and Abrahamse, W. (2020) Meta‐analysis of Human Connection to Nature and Proenvironmental Behavior. Society For Conservation Biology [online]. 34 (1), pp. 180–193.
Wilson, E.O. and Kellert, S.R. (1993) The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington DC: Island Press.
