As the world faces escalating environmental crises - from biodiversity loss and climate change to pollution and land degradation - it’s clear that current sustainability efforts are falling short. These complex, interconnected challenges demand not just technical solutions but bold, alternative thinking.
At the University of Greenwich, researchers are rising to this challenge. Through forward-thinking research and collaborative action, efforts are made to explore non-conventional approaches to more equitable, just, and imaginative sustainability futures.
Leading these accomplishments is Professor Valerie Nelson of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), working with colleagues from the Political Ecology, Arts and Culture Research Group. Together, they are at the forefront of shaping decision-making processes that enable sustainability transformations in an era marked by uncertainty, geopolitical tension, and rapid change.
Beyond Conventional Sustainability Thinking
With over three decades of experience in international development and environmental sustainability, Professor Nelson champions a pluralistic and ‘socio-environmental justice’ approach. Her work challenges narrow, technocratic, ecomodernist views of nature and progress and instead embraces plural ways of knowing nature and human-nature relations and of valuing nature and people.
For Professor Nelson, following decolonial, feminist ecology and relational thinking and practice, there are already ‘many worlds within this world’.
The innovative research explores practical pathways toward transformative change - such as Governance models ‘ change to ‘that recognize non-human agency and webs of care in governance arrangements, social movements and citizen engagement approaches. These approaches help reimagine our relationship with nature and society, breaking free from the limiting legacies of colonial modernity.
Global Recognition and Real-World Impact
This groundbreaking work has attracted significant international attention. Professor Nelson co-authored the Transformative Change Assessment report for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The report advocates for a shift form relations of domination to one of care recognizing plural ways of knowing and valuing nature, and seeing non-humans / nature as an active participant in shaping possible futures for shared flourishing.
To date, the report has been featured in 648 press articles, spanning 575 media outlets across 58 countries and 17 languages, underlining its global relevance and reach.
Building Nature and People Futures Pathways around the world
Professor Nelson’s commitment to sustainability is deeply rooted in in several decades of collaborative, participatory and decolonized, community-based and multi-actor action-research. As part of the EU Horizon project ‘Transformative Change for Biodiversity and Equity in Telecoupled Agrofood Systems’, her team works with stakeholders in Cameroon, Colombia, Kenya, and across the EU. Through dialogic and deliberative processes, including creative arts-based methods, they foster social learning, build trust, and co-create solutions that are grounded in citizens and non-human perspectives, local knowledge and plural ways of knowing and being.
Closer to home, her work with Medway Council is shaping local food and nature strategies, with Friends of the River Medway on nature futures and nature rights, while a new UKRI-funded project is exploring values-based governance in coastal communities across the UK - including the Humber, Loch Foyle, the Clyde, and mid-North Wales.
In recognition of her contributions, Professor Nelson was recently appointed to the Natural England Scientific Advisory Body and the Defra Nature Futures Framework Pilot Advisory Committee. . She also is part of a global group for the International Land Coalition, supporting the recent development of their Colombia Declaration. Her research exemplifies the power of interdisciplinary, inclusive, and imaginative approaches in tackling today’s most pressing environmental challenges and social justice. Her work not only inspires real-world change - informing policy, empowering communities and social movements, and reshaping recognition of plural ways of knowing and relating to people and nature, but powerfully reinforces the deep-rooted commitment to sustainability in action at the University of Greenwich. Here, sustainability isn’t just a goal - it’s part of who we are and how we shape a better world, together.
