Over the last few months I have had the great pleasure to listen to the narratives of practitioners that have been working with sustainability learning experiences. There are several members of the Impact Network for Regenerative Futures (IN4RF) that have a lot of experience working in different organisations and have recognised the need to transform society towards a sustainable future. There is much enthusiasm when engaging with different energies in practice and the experience of listening to these narratives always provides so many examples of what needs to be done, how we need to transform and why it is so important to keep implementing activities to support a sustainable future.
Rohan Chadbury has recently joined the IN4RF from Mumbai, India, and has shared his passion for regenerative futures and his knowledge of technology-driven solutions. Rohan has been working within the field and active in research projects for several years across the globe. His insights into analysis and modeling using advanced AI and machine learning techniques will be a great support for many of the inspiring seed projects that have been activated by members of the IN4RF. Thank you, Rohan, for your support and engaging inspiration.
I would like to also introduce Marcus de Vries is a coach at IB ZUYD University in Maastricht, Netherlands. I first met Marcus in Liverpool in 2023 and listened to his talk on the wonderful alternative teaching approaches they have developed at an university that applies a student-centered approach to curriculum design. I also had the pleasure of hearing how much the project has progressed and how much support sustainability education has gotten from the government and council in the Netherlands when he visited the symposium we held a year ago at the end of this month. He has introduced himself on this site:
Making your gifts, your talents, work in service of our natural world is my highest value. It’s a lifestyle I came to live, chasing a career in the “business jungle.” You have to do the conscious work on yourself to understand what Ram Dass intends to convey with “We’re all just walking each other home.”
My pathway took me to a deep immersion into mindful yoga, sound meditation, and forest hiking, which I could seed into the learning journey at IB, and so, hopefully inspire this network. Many students who joined reflected that my 8 weeks of Blue Lotus Yoga strengthened their commitment and resilience for the challenging way of learning we offer.
I work as an inspirator/business coach at the International Business School Maastricht (IB), within the international domain of ZUYD University of Applied Sciences. The school has been developing a fully student-led learning trajectory in project mode for their IB Bachelor, which I joined in full at launch.
This job felt written all over me. I worked for 25 years in corporate business life as a changemaker in larger training projects all across the world. I often mentored younger colleagues with heartfelt fulfillment, so I felt joining IB was an opportunity out of a thousand. Sustainability is a central principle in IB; in my chest beats a green, nature-loving heart that resounds, “We need to make a change in taking care of our world!”… for which I believe education will work the strongest.
Several seed projects have begun at this inspiring alternative educational site in Maastricht, including the Green Bike Initiative. I will update you on this seed project and tell you more about all the other seed projects taking off from around the globe next week, since we will be holding a special event next week where we listen to student narratives. If you would like to connect with Marcus to hear more about his work and get involved with some of the seed projects, click on the link below.
Do you have extensive experience in practice and recognize the need for transformation in sustainability activities? Would you like to join the IN4RF to be part of an ongoing seed project, create a new seed project, or support the network in other ways? Would you like to share your narrative and provide a space for connections to a transdisciplinary community?
Leave a Reply