“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold famously wrote in 1949. I’ve certainly felt that at times – deeply. But is it inevitable?

I’ve spoken with many people working in sustainability, climate, biodiversity etc, and they seem to fall into two groups:

• Those who are in despair at the state of the world, and questioning whether their work is worthwhile.

• Those who accept the state of the world, but are buoyed up to some extent by the knowledge that their work is genuinely making a difference.

This came up when I was speaking with Rebecca Lewis about the citizen science river monitoring project that she leads, and discussing that with Nadine Andrews and Morag Watson (all on a recent episode of my Thrivable Scotland podcast).

Reflecting on those conversations, I got to thinking:

What are the minimum conditions for those of us working for people and nature in the polycrisis, to function well despite knowing about the state of the world?

I came to these tentative conclusions:

To thrive as changemakers working for people and nature we need…

1. Not to be alone. Instead, to feel part of an organisation, community or movement that is doing good work.

2. Feedback that our work is making a genuine, worthwhile, difference.

Rebecca’s work certainly meets both conditions. Not only is it inherently collective, it has a feedback loop.

The Guardians of Our Rivers project has an agreement with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency so if water quality, as monitored by the volunteers, falls below the minimum acceptable level, this triggers action by SEPA. Volunteers therefore know they are helping improve the health of the river, not just monitoring its decline.

As a more personal level, Rebecca talked about feedback she gets from working with volunteers about how the project changes them – like when a fisherman who believed their river was dead, first saw the invertebrates teaming in their water sample, and exclaimed “It’s not dead, it’s alive!” And went on to become a regular volunteering monitoring several sites and driving action on the river.

Do these conditions (being part of collective action, and feedback that the action is effective) ring true to you? Have I missed anything?

And where do you get your feedback? What’s it telling you?

Other things…

Every year for a while now, I lead a netwalk with the Edinburgh Circular Economy Network.

Whether you’re already active in circularity or curious about getting started, join us for a relaxed, gently facilitated walk on the Meadows to:

• Connect with people across the circularity community

• Share experiences and insights to learn and inspire

• Explore opportunities to grow the circular economy

Details and Register: Circular Economy Netwalking, Thu, 16 Jul, The Meadows, Edinburgh

I sometimes feel that I bang on too much about improvisational performance – how I’ve found improv both personally rewarding and professionally relevant.

However, I’m performing with my improv team soon, do come along for an evening of joyful fun! And perhaps a drink afterwards.

Details and Tickets: TBC & Friends: A night of improvised comedy, Fri, 10 Jul, Summerhall, Edinburgh (We’re the special guests.)

I’m loving developing the Thrivable Scotland podcast, the amazing conversations I’m having and the positive feedback I receive.

But facilitating meetings and events is what pays the bills for me – luckily I love doing this too, and people tell me I’m good at it!

So if you’re planning an event and wonder if it would be helpful to have help to design and lead the session, do get in touch.

I’m also at the very early stages of creating facilitation training to help sustainability (and climate, biodiversity etc) managers lead more effective meetings and workshops, with colleagues, collaborators and stakeholders.

If this – or something along similar lines – sounds interesting I’d love to have a chat to understand what specifically you would find most useful.

All the best

Osbert

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Osbert Lancaster, Director, Realise Earth specialist facilitators