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Nature Calling: The Guide for Aspiring Changemakers to Forge Sustainability & Climate Change Careers
Nature Calling: The Guide for Aspiring Changemakers to Forge Sustainability & Climate Change Careers
Nature Calling is a podcast for aspiring changemakers who want to turn climate concern into meaningful sustainability work. Host Scott Poynton draws on 40 years of frontline sustainability experience across more than 35 countries to share practical career lessons and hard-won insights. Episodes explore how climate anxiety can point toward the right career path, what it takes to make a unique impact, and how to stay grounded in long-term environmental work. The show is released twice weekly, with new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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#95. Forest Therapy 5: Ways the Pleasures of Presence Help You Reconnect With Nature
What if the key to feeling more connected to nature and yourself was simply learning to be present?In our busy lives, it's easy to get caught up in constant thinking, rushing from one task to another, and experiencing the world primarily through our eyes. But what happens when you slow down, tune into your body, and engage all your senses?In this episode of Nature Calling, discover the beautiful f
#94. The Ten Steps That Will Launch Your Sustainability And Climate Change Career
What does it really take to build a meaningful career in sustainability and climate change?Breaking into the sustainability and climate change space can feel overwhelming. With so many possible paths, opportunities, and challenges, how do you know where to start and which direction to take?The answer isn't necessarily having the perfect qualifications, landing the ideal job, or having your entire
#93. Forest Therapy 4: What a Walk in the Woods Can Teach You
These forest therapy sessions are here because finding your sustainability career path is not just an intellectual exercise. It requires calm, connection and the ability to hear your own inner compass. Nature gives us that. So come with me and let’s explore.Time to step away from the noise and into the forest, dial into your intuition and let it guide you to your sustainability and climate change
#92. How Nature Helped Me Find Meaningful Work - and a 40-Year Sustainability Career
How can spending time in nature help you find meaningful work and build a career that makes a lasting difference?In this episode, I share how nature connection has guided me throughout my 40-year sustainability career, helping me find clarity, follow my inner compass, and stay committed to protecting the natural world.From a childhood sanctuary beside a pond in rural Australia to a life dedicated
#91. Forest Therapy 3: How Nature Therapy and Mindfulness Help You Find Stillness Amid the Climate Change Crisis
These forest therapy sessions are here because finding your sustainability career path is not just an intellectual exercise. It requires calm, connection and the ability to hear your own inner compass. Nature gives us that. So come with me and let’s explore.Time to step away from the noise and into the forest, dial into your intuition and let it guide you to your sustainability and climate change
#90. How Knowing Who You Are Unlocks Your Sustainability Career
What if the key to unlocking your sustainability career isn’t finding the right job, but understanding who you are?Discovering your personal values can help you make career decisions that align with who you truly are, identify opportunities that energize you, and build a more fulfilling career in sustainability and climate change.In this episode, you’ll learn a practical exercise to uncover your c
#89. Forest Therapy 2: 3 Ways Nature Therapy Can Help You Practice Mindfulness and Start Connecting with Nature
These forest therapy sessions are here because finding your sustainability career path is not just an intellectual exercise. It requires calm, connection and the ability to hear your own inner compass. Nature gives us that. So come with me and let’s explore.Time to step away from the noise and into the forest, dial into your intuition and let it guide you to your sustainability and climate change
#88. Why Your Values Are the Only Sustainability and Climate Change Career Compass You’ll Ever Need & How To Use Yours Today
Are you feeling completely lost in your pursuit of a sustainability or climate change career?You may have studied the right subjects, applied for jobs and internships, followed the right people, and still feel like you can't find your way in. With increasing competition and the overwhelming reality of climate change, it's easy to move from disappointment to despair and eventually feel completely l
#87. Forest Therapy 1: Why Your Best Stress Relief Might Not Come From Your Screen—Take a Forest Snack Into Nature
These forest therapy sessions are here because finding your sustainability career path is not just an intellectual exercise. It requires calm, connection and the ability to hear your own inner compass. Nature gives us that. So come with me and let’s explore.Time to step away from the noise and into the forest, dial into your intuition and let it guide you to your sustainability and climate change
#86. Why Now Is the Worst Time to Abandon Your Sustainability Career
What if the world feels like it’s moving backwards on climate change—but your nature calling is still telling you to make a difference?With sustainability roles being cut, climate commitments being rolled back, and climate disasters becoming harder to ignore, it’s understandable to wonder whether there’s still a place for you in climate change work.But this episode takes a longer view.Looking back
#85. What a Winter's Morning Walk in a Swiss Forest Can Do for Your Soul and Your Sustainability Career Clarity
What if the clarity you have been searching for in your sustainability career is not found at a desk or on a screen, but somewhere much quieter?This episode is an invitation to slow down.Scott Poynton takes you on his morning walk through the frost covered forests above his village in the Swiss Jura Mountains, as the sun rises over Mont Blanc and the Alps, woodpeckers drum overhead and snowdrops e
#84. Humans Are Ecosystem Engineers. So What Happened to Our Sense of Responsibility?
What if restoring nature isn’t just about saving the planet but about restoring our own future?What would happen if we stopped seeing nature as something separate from us and started recognizing ourselves as part of it- and as responsible stewards of the ecosystems that sustain us?In this episode, Scott Poynton speaks with Tim Christophersen, author of Generation Restoration: How to Fix Our Relati
#83. Can a Law Designed to Protect Forests Actually Make Deforestation Worse?
Can a law designed to stop deforestation actually make deforestation worse?The European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was created with a clear goal: prevent commodities linked to deforestation from entering the European market. But what happens when a regulation designed in Europe meets the realities of smallholder farmers in tropical countries?In this episode, Scott Poynton draws on decades of
#82. What Happens When a Village in Northern Ghana Tries Biochar for the First Time?
What can farmers discover when they put biochar to the test in their own fields - and could this simple agricultural waste product help build more resilient soils?In the small village community of Nakpatua in northern Ghana, farmers are facing degraded soils, changing rainfall patterns, and the ongoing challenge of improving their livelihoods. Biochar offers a potential way forward by helping soil
#81. Why 39% of Children Under Five in Northern Ghana Are Stunted and What It Has to Do with Climate Change
Nearly 40% of children under five in parts of northern Ghana are mentally and physically stunted, and climate change is making it worse.This short episode comes straight from a yam field in northern Ghana, where farmers are working incredibly hard to feed their families through months of dry season when there is no other food.You will discover:Why farming families in northern Ghana spend months li
#80. Why Making the Business Case for Nature Has Failed Us and What We Need to Do Instead
What if the way the sustainability world has been trying to save the planet is actually part of the problem?For 25 years, Katie Crichlow has worked at the frontline of sustainability, from pioneering responsible sourcing at Marks and Spencer to leading Nature Metrics, a company using DNA sampling to measure biodiversity across more than 100 countries. Along the way she has become increasingly conv
#79. What Denis Opio Did When No Jobs Came That Every Aspiring Changemaker Working on Climate and Sustainability Needs to Hear
What do you do when you have done everything right, applied for every job, and still nothing comes?Denis Opio faced exactly that moment in Gulu, northern Uganda, when COVID cost him his job and the applications kept going nowhere. His answer was to stop waiting and start building something of his own.Together with his wife Harriet, Denis founded Anyim Wa Community Initiative, an organisation that
#78. What If Burnt Peanut Shells Could Help Transform Farmers’ Lives?
What if something as simple as burnt peanut shells could help farmers feed their families, restore their soils, and adapt to a changing climate?In northern Ghana, smallholder farmers are facing a growing struggle. Their soils are becoming depleted, fertilizer is increasingly expensive, rainfall is more unpredictable, and failed harvests can mean going without enough nutritious food for their famil
#77. How Hugh Locke Is Connecting Spirituality, Regenerative Agriculture, and Smallholder Farmers
What if the experiences, people, and passions that shape your life are quietly preparing you for the work you’re meant to do decades later?At just 15 years old, Scott Poynton heard the voice of legendary forester Richard St. Barbe Baker on the radio—and it helped inspire him to become a forester. Decades later, that same connection brings him into conversation with Hugh Locke, the young man who on
#76. Why Counting Trees Is the Wrong Way to Measure Your Climate Change Impact and What Actually Works
What does it really take to restore a forest and why is planting a tree only the beginning?For more than a decade, One Tree Planted has turned a simple idea - one dollar, one tree - into a global movement. But as the organization enters its next chapter, CEO Hank Lynch is helping shift the focus from simply counting trees to something much deeper: restoring entire landscapes and creating places wh
#75. What Happens When You Only Water Two of Your Four Inner Gardens and Why It Matters for Your Climate Change Career
What if the reason you cannot find your path into meaningful climate change work has nothing to do with your qualifications, your experience or the job market?This short but powerful conversation between Scott Poynton and coach Nadene Canning explores a question that most sustainability career advice never asks: are you actually in balance with yourself?We are taught from childhood to water only t
#74. Why the Most Powerful Sustainability Action You Can Take Might Be as Simple as Putting a Bench at the End of Your Street
What if the reason you feel overwhelmed by the climate crisis is that you are looking at it from too far away?Greta Oost cycled 11,000 kilometres through the Andes, designed sustainable products in Australia, and then came back to a small town in the Netherlands with a simple but radical idea. You do not have to save the world. You just have to make your own little pocket of it more beautiful, mor
#73. Why Your Passion for Sustainability and Climate Change Action Could Be the Biggest Threat to Your Success
What if the thing driving you toward a sustainability career is the very thing that could derail it?Mark Bjornsgard has built and sold multiple businesses, including Deep Green, a pioneering climate tech company turning wasted heat from data centers into free energy for swimming pools and schools. Along the way he has learned something that most passionate sustainability entrepreneurs do not want
#72. How WhatIF Foods Is Using a Forgotten African Bean to Regenerate Soils, Nourish Communities and Tackle Climate Change One Glass of Milk at a Time
What if the solution to some of our biggest sustainability and climate change challenges was hiding in a forgotten crop that has been grown in West Africa for thousands of years?That is exactly what WhatIF Foods discovered when their founder stumbled across the Bambara groundnut in a chance lift encounter at a conference in Malaysia. What followed was a remarkable journey to build a food company t
#71. What Happens When a Girl Who Was Never Supposed to Go to School Grows Up to Run a Children's Education Program in Northern Ghana
What does it take to change the future of a community? Sometimes it starts with one person who was almost denied the chance to have one herself.Lizzy Bashiru grew up in northern Ghana in a culture where girls were not expected to go to school. Her father did not believe in girl child education. But her mother and aunt fought for her, and that fight changed everything. Today Lizzy runs Hilary's Kid
#70. Why Trying to Change People's Minds on Sustainability and Climate Change Is the Wrong Strategy and What Actually Works Instead
What if everything the sustainability and climate change movement has been doing to change people's behaviour is built on the wrong assumption?Scott Poynton has spent more than two decades in the room with some of the world's most resistant company leaders - the CEOs of the biggest palm oil, timber and food companies on the planet - helping them find their way to genuine change. And what he learne
#69. Why Treating Farmers With Basic Respect and Paying a Fair Price Is Still Revolutionary in the Sustainability World
What does a regenerative revolution actually look like on the ground? Sometimes it starts with a set of scales.When Scott Poynton and his team arrived in farming communities in northern Ghana to buy their first harvest of Bambara beans, they brought something the farmers had rarely seen in a commercial transaction: a weighing scale and a fair price. What followed changed everything.In this episode
#68. The Three Rs of Climate Change Action That Every Aspiring Changemaker Needs to Know and Why Offsetting Is Not One of Them
What can one person actually do about climate change? It is the question Scott Poynton gets asked more than any other, and in this episode he answers it directly.With heatwaves, floods and fires now part of daily life across the planet, the temptation is to blame governments and oil companies and wait for someone else to fix it. But that approach has a hidden cost - it gives away your agency, your
#67. What a Regenerative Sustainability Project Really Looks Like When You Keep Your Word to Farmers
What does it actually mean to do sustainability differently? Not in a report or a mission statement, but in a community under a meeting tree in northern Ghana at forty degrees, talking to farmers who have been promised things before and never seen those promises kept?This is the origin story of the Pond Foundation and WhatIF Foods' Bambara groundnut project in northern Ghana. Scott Poynton shares
#66. How Tony Rinaudo Found Life Where Everyone Else Saw Wasteland and Built a Global Regenerative Sustainability Movement
What if the solution to one of the world's greatest environmental crises was already there, hidden in plain sight, waiting for someone to look differently?In the early 1980s, Tony Rinaudo was a young agronomist working with World Vision in the desperately degraded landscapes of Niger. Where everyone else saw barren wasteland, Tony noticed something growing. Not dead. Not gone. Just suppressed. Wha
#65. How One Mom in Seattle Turned a Simple Sustainability Frustration Into a Zero Waste Movement
What if the biggest obstacle to a more sustainable world is not apathy or ignorance but the pursuit of perfection?Stephanie Lentz was a teacher, a baker, a singer and a mom in Seattle who wanted to stop bringing trash home from the supermarket. What started as a simple personal frustration became Scoop Marketplace, a zero waste grocery store where customers bring their own containers and buy every
#64. What If Healing Childhood Trauma Could Change the Way We Change the World?
What if the experiences that shaped us in childhood are still influencing the way we lead, work, and try to change the world today?Alex Postolnig built a successful career in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, working on complex projects in the banking sector. But after a life-changing experience on Mount Kilimanjaro, where she discovered how people working in tourism could be exploit
Nigel Majakari
In this podcast, Scott talks to Nigel Majakari, the founder of Ca'lyah, one of The Pond Foundation's founding members. Ca'lyah is a furniture company that was founded to create design and art objects by bringing together award-winning designers and traditional artisans/craftspeople.
Kijani Forestry
In this podcast, Scott talks to two of the founders of Kijani Forestry, Paul and Beau, about their fantastic project and the impact that they're having. Kijani Forestry is one of My Carbon Zero's project partners who produce sustainable charcoal in Uganda to save old-growth forests and better local livelihoods.
Emma Gallagher
In this podcast, Scott interviews Emma Gallagher, cricket manager at Cricket Victoria. Emma discusses how sport shaped her idea of family, identity, and community in Australia; and how these experiences affected her wellbeing over the course of her life.
Josh Beaumont
In this podcast, Scott talks to Josh Beaumont, a Club and Competitions Specialist at Cricket Victoria. Josh describes how he ended up in his position, and how he works with the sport and the local community.
Geeta Stillwell
In this podcast, Scott discusses his experience with Geeta learning to become a forest therapy guide. Geeta also shares her story, explaining how she became a forest therapy guide and the philosophy and practice behind it.
Ben Page
Ben Page is a Forest Therapy Guide and Trainer with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. He's just published his first book, "Healing Trees," has Founded a School and thinks deeply about his and all human relationships with the Earth. Scott was inspired to interview Ben after completing his own Forest Therapy Guide training.
The Art of the Possible
In this podcast, I share my perceptions and actions on climate change, one of the most pressing issues of our time. I discuss how each of us can cope with it and take action as individuals. We need to combat governmental and corporate inaction on climate change, which can come from each and every one of you.
Natasha Mahendran
Natasha Mahendran is an Australian, currently based in Malaysia. She works in Human Rights and International Development and is currently with the Earthworm Foundation on the supply chains of many big companies.
Chris Langwallner
Chris Langwallner is the Founder and CEO of WhatIF Foods - The company addresses the paradoxical existence of hunger, obesity, micronutrient deficiencies and the destruction of our planet – what is known as the Nutritional Paradox. Chris and Scott discuss WhatIF Foods, the Nutritional Paradox, and life in general.
Tina Talbot
Tina Talbot is a children's author who is based in the UK. Her stories are based around nature and the environment, where she aims to "give nature a voice". In this podcast, Tina describes how she became an author, and why she writes about nature.
What The Pond means to Scott Poynton
Boris Gojanovic
Boris Gojanovic is a sports doctor at the Swiss Olympic Medical Centre in Geneva. Boris talks us through his life, his journey to becoming a doctor, and his relationship with wellbeing.
Welcome to The Pond!
Scott Poynton and Julien Troussier have a conversation about a new community that they have set up, The Pond. Welcome to The Pond, what does The Pond mean to the co-hosts, and what can it do to help you?
Manoj Krishna
Manoj Krishna is the founder of the Human Wisdom Program, based in the UK. The project aims to transform individual lives and make the world a better place, by enabling people to understand themselves and how their minds work, since so many problems first begin in our thinking.
Michael Fischer
Michael Fischer, a very good friend of mine, is the country manager at the Movember Foundation in Europe. Today, Michael tells us about the Movember Foundation's role as a change-maker, and how they go about making changes to the face of men's health.
Heloise Buckland
Heloise Buckland is co-Founder and CEO of Husk. Husk, working out of Cambodia, improves small farmers' livelihoods by transforming rice husk into biochar products to regenerate soils, increase yields and capture carbon.
Florian Reber
Florian Reber, a Swiss-German political scientist, sustainability advisor and climate change specialist left the office and discovered true innovation in climate change on two wheels, riding thousands of kilometres across the Alps and in the US.
Alban Mayne
Alban joined me on the Big Walk across Switzerland in August 2019. There he learned again to slow down, to hear the rain falling on the leaves of trees, to breathe, to marvel at the beauty of the small things. He was reminded that what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Jacques Nollet
Jacques Nollet is a Senior Exec in a French Tech firm. He works crazy hours and struggles to find time to wind down. Jacques came on the Big Walk in August 2019 and here, in French, shares his impressions of how time in the trees helped him get back to himself.
Tony Rinaudo
Tony Rinaudo is a humble Australian who has changed, for the better, millions of people's lives. He stumbled upon a way to get trees back into the dry, barren landscapes of Sahelian Africa and 20 years on, he's been responsible for the reforestation of more than 5 millions hectares in Niger alone.
Dr. Kat Bruce
Dr Kat Bruce, is the Founder and CEO of NatureMetrics, mixing the rigour of science with the drive of being a young entrepreneur. Kat shares the story of her journey to science and everything about NatureMetrics' funky new technology to help protect biodiversity.
John Watkin
John Watkin had a great job and belonged. He was doing what he loved, had great purpose and was well rewarded which included being sponsored to do a study tour to Harvard Business School. Then he was made redundant. John joined me on a Big Walk across Switzerland in August 2018 and here recounts how the ten day walk in the mountains helped cleanse his heart and soul.
Anne-Marie Hunsaker
Anne-Marie Hunsaker is an inspiring and truly courageous human being deeply connected to Mother Earth. She shares her battle with shame, growing up in a conservative religious community and finding her way after a terrible experience.
Scott Williams
Scott Williams discovered the joy of running in his 20s and since then hasn't looked back. He's now run almost 100 marathons and ultra-marathons and here speaks of his philosophy of life and what it means to get to the starting line.
Humanity: What to do?
We're failing to end deforestation. Blaming companies isn't working. We need to speak to each other, to work together.
Luca's Stories
A follow up to the "Broken Boys" Podcast which I did in February, which reminded me of the stories my youngest son, Luca, wrote for some of his school projects. Here are his stories.
Roisin Mortimer
Roisin Mortimer, a TFT colleague, completed a Masters of Agro Ecology in 2017. Her thesis explored the role of values in the origination, formulation and implementation of No Deforestation Policies (NDPs). She presented her intriguing findings at TFT HQ a
Robyn Tyner
Robyn Tyner has dedicated his life to supporting young people develop intellectually but also to grow as wonderfully rounded young adults going out into the world. Robyn's commitment to his charges is hugely inspiring and in this podcast, we learn about Robyn's own journey to teaching and a personal philosophy that underpins everything he does.
Broken Boys
A personal reflection on the recent tragic shooting in the US and a New York Times Op ED on the subject. Why is it that it's always boys?
Worms for Peace
A follow-up episode from Global Worming. Sara Moledor and Julien Troussier let me know how the Worm Project in Palestine was going. Using a waste management problem, and a few worms, they are trying to figure out a solution to the soil degradation issue.
Walk Sew Good
Megan O'Malley and Gab Murphy set out on a mission in 2017/18 to walk across 4 SE Asian countries to raise awareness of sustainable fashion - they wanted to know who made their clothes. Listen to their story to hear about all of the great experiences they
Hilary Thompson
Hilary Thompson has dedicated her life to looking behind the products we see on the shelves. She has focused on environmental practices such as no-deforestation, and primarily focuses on labour practices and exploitation issues.
Sarah Mortimer
Sarah Mortimer is an early childhood educator in the Punmu community. Sarah bases her teachings to the children in this very remote area in Western Australia around Nature-Pedagogy, a program based around the human connection to nature.
John Deighan
John Deighan is a teacher at the International School of Geneva, who is responsible for bringing guest speakers to the school to talk to the students. These speakers bring great insights and life experiences to share at the school.
Toby Webb
In the latest episode of the Poynton, Webb dialogue on all things sustainable the pair discuss: the decision to disband the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge, IPOP; IOI's decision to abandon their lawsuit against the RSPO, Resolute's decision to keep suing Green
Daniel Klein
Daniel Klein is the Founder of The Perennial Plate, a documentary series focusing on sustainable food. What I love about The Perennial Plate films is that they don't judge the people they're filming. They don't try to force a message down your throat; they're gentle. They just show their subjects' way of life and I believe this is profoundly important, profoundly beautiful in fact.
Vince Taylor
As part of the Enviva interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Vince Taylor - "Just keep going"
Phil Bain
As part of the Enviva interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Phil Bain - "Appreciating the land"
Lee Jackson
As part of the Enviva interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Lee Jackson - "Mr Experience"
Lauren Killian
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Lauren Killian - "Life entrepreneur"
Kyle Prendergast
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Kyle Prendergast - "Aspiring Hall of Famer"
Kim Cesafsky
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Kim Cesafsky - "For the love of learning"
Elizabeth Smith
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Cooee! Podcast: Elizabeth Smith - "Living life to the fullest"
Brad Antill
As part of the Enviva interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Brad Antill - "Forests & Faith"
Don Grant
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Don Grant - "Life with purpose"
Dennis Vick
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Dennis Vick - "Going with the flow"
Aaron Boyd
As part of the Enviva Interview series, here is: Cooee! Podcast: Aaron Boyd - "In search of success"
Enviva - Disappointment
Enviva employees responses to the question: "What is your greatest disappointment?"
