AskNature Learning

• If you want to develop more effective, intuitive, and integrated ways of deeply learning from and being guided by nature, through simple yet profound practices, and without having to be a biology or ecology specialist, then this course is for you. No prior experience in biomimicry or nature connection is required, just your curiosity for nature’s inspiration.
• Designers, innovators, and changemakers seeking more intuitive and integrated ways to learn from and design as nature.
• Educators, facilitators, and practitioners who want simple yet profound practices to design, deliver and deepen their nature-based programmes.
• Professionals in sustainability, regeneration, and systems change looking to be guided by nature in more embodied, place-based ways
• Students and lifelong learners curious about biomimicry, ecological wisdom, and tuning into the living world
• Community leaders and organizers interested in grounding their work in deeper relationships with place, season, cycle and local ecosystems
• Anyone drawn to nature’s inspiration who wants to cultivate more balance, flow, creativity and aliveness —no prior experience in biomimicry or nature connection required.

The living world is a place of constant flow; cycling from birth, tender new buds and seedlings, through to growth, flowering, flourishing, maturity and productivity, slowing down or shedding, and finally to death and composting. All stages needed to create the conditions for new life to emerge and cycle again. 

These expressions, stages and seasons of life offer different gifts to the world, our ecosystems, and to other beings. All are equally needed. Yet in modern human society we tend to focus only on the benefits of productivity, sidelining the beauty and gifts of other stages. Since the European enlightenment, the spread of colonisation, the narrative of dominance over and extraction from nature, and the suppression or eradication of land based peoples around the world, we have largely lost connection with the rhythms of life embedded in human cultures for thousands of years. Where these remain, it is tempting to grasp onto and therefore continue to extract from them, rather than to forge a personal and local return to land based cycles and rhythms, which come from the places and beings we live with and are supported by. 

In this course we will explore the 8 Petals (prev. 8 Shields) framework, a map for reconnecting, integrating and designing with nature’s patterns, stages and cycles. There is deep practical and archetypal wisdom in these, which we will explore how to both embody and apply. This simple yet elegant set of design principles can help us find balance and flow in our personal lives, and offer deeper connections in our community and more-than-human relationships. Partnering and designing with nature’s seasons, cycles and flows brings enhanced meaning, creativity, satisfaction and celebration into our professional lives. They can be used to orient and support nature aligned team and organisational development, and they beautifully support life-affirming design processes at all levels.

By the end of the course you will be equipped with a bundle of new insights and practices to flexibly apply across many walks of life, providing nature-centric invisible infrastructures, and regrowing nature-based cultures.

The living world is not static, and nor can our reconnection to nature be. Bringing our attention back to the ebb and flow of life in all its forms, learning from the inherent wisdom in seasons, stages and cycles, and finding ways to integrate these back into our personal, family, community and professional lives, is a crucial pathway to restoring ecological citizenship. If our intention is to design with and as nature – partnering and contributing positively in our bioregions and ecosystems – then reweaving ourselves back into the rhythms and flows of life is both a necessary and deeply rewarding journey.

• Develop an understanding of –
  • The Importance of Natural Cycles, Stages, Seasons and Flows 
    • How stages and cycles create the conditions for life to thrive.
    • The loss of cyclical embeddedness, awareness and practice in modern life, and the impacts of this.
    • 8 Petals design frameworks, how these have been developed and how they can be applied.
    • Regenerating natural cycles in our lives, communities and work places. 
• Develop a practice of – 
• Designing with Natural Cycles 
  • Establishing a cyclical nature connection practice which restores our relationships with the ebb and flow of life.
  • Becoming familiar with the archetypal and practical wisdom in each stage and expression of nature’s cycles.
  • Recognising and celebrating seasons, cycles and flows through the year. 
  • Applying the 8 petals design framework to your personal, community professional life.

Module 1: The How and Why of Reconnecting with Natural Cycles

Theory – How nature’s cycles create conditions for flourishing and why this matters now

Practice – Deepening our connection with cycles in nature

Module 2: The 8 Petals Design Framework

Theory – Origins and applications – 40 years of regenerating nature led design and culture

Practice – Embodying and applying cyclical awareness in our lives, families and communities

Modules 3 & 4: Becoming Ecological – Reweaving ourselves into the flow of life

Theory – The archetypal and practical wisdom in nature’s cycles 

Practice – Integrating the 8 Petals framework into our creative and design processes

From buildings that regulate their own temperature to cities designed like thriving ecosystems, nature offers proven strategies for creating places that reconnect people and nature. This course explores how the built environment can respond to the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss by learning directly from nature’s genius.

Participants will discover the hidden dependencies between our cities, the materials they are made from, and natural systems. They will discover how the family of “bio” approaches— biophilic, bio-based and biomimicry—can work together to create regenerative, resilient solutions. Through real-world examples, you’ll explore how to translate nature’s genius into scalable innovations, helping to shape a future where our buildings, cities and infrastructure become connected to nature. This course is an invitation to step outside the limits of conventional design and listen to nature’s wisdom, translating its time-tested patterns into buildings, cities, and infrastructure that regenerate life. Learn from the experts with live sessions being led by Erin Rovalo, PhD, Interim Head of impact, and weekly expert speakers

• Built environment professionals seeking to integrate biomimicry and nature positive principles into the planning, design, construction, and operation of buildings and communities, including architects, landscape architects, engineers, urban planners, sustainability consultants, and real estate and development professionals.
• Emerging leaders, educators, and public sector professionals advancing Nature Positive approaches through policy, research, and education, including government planners, higher education faculty, and graduate students.
• No prior experience in biomimicry required, just your eagerness to realize a nature positive built environment sector.

• Identify key dependencies on nature within the built environment sector and explain why addressing them is essential for long-term resilience. (Module 1)
• Describe specific ways the built environment sector can contribute to addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. (Module 2)
• Cite examples of nature positive projects and differentiate between various ‘bio’ disciplines – such as bio-based, biophilic, and biomorphic design – and explain how they complement each other in creating Nature Positive and regenerative outcomes. (Module 3)
• Access the resources, tools, principles, and frameworks to guide first steps towards applying biomimicry for nature positive design. (Module 4)

Module 1: The Challenge: Why is nature important in the built environment sector?

Module 2: The Opportunity: How can learning from nature influence built environment innovation? 

Module 3: The Practice: How are biomimicry and nature positive solutions getting implemented today and what are the complementary frameworks?

Module 4: The Application: What are the tools, principles, and frameworks to begin ideating and applying this immediately?

Like Nature itself; starting small with lichen eating rocks to create soil, building towards a living complex forest; this course is part of a growing movement to bring Nature’s voice into organisational governance.

We begin by learning from First Nations cultural understandings of Nature , which  have long integrated practices affirming that  Nature isn’t a resource to extract from but a living stakeholder in decision-making. From there, we explore how the rise of legal personhood has opened new possibilities for imagining Nature back at the table. These shifts create the psychological and cultural groundwork for what becomes possible.

With that foundation, we turn to Nature’s own organising principles. Ecological models like succession, nutrient cycles, systems thinking and the adaptive cycle offer profound lessons for how boards can make more resilient, holistic decisions. We’ll discover how Nature experience itself drives innovation, creativity and the kind of problem-solving that silos can’t achieve.

Then comes the practical heart of the course: how organisations are actually doing this. Drawing from case studies of over 30 organisations, we’ll examine four key approaches such as Shareholder/Stakeholder models, Executive Roles, Non-Executive/Advisory positions, and Guardian/Trustee and Zoöp voice of the living frameworks. The Regen Melbourne case study anchors this module, showing how Dr. Dominique Hes’s Voice of Nature role contributed to decision-making quality and organisational culture in practice.Finally, we focus on you. You’ll think about your organisation’s readiness, design which model fits your context, and create an action plan for introducing Nature’s voice. The intention is that by week four, you’ll have a concrete approach to bring Nature into your governance and join a growing community reshaping how organisations make decisions.

• Executive governance level of organizational leadership
• Non-executive level as well – organizational staff
• Academics and researchers interested in nature-based governance
• The course provides opportunities for participants to consider how to apply the presented concepts in their own contexts.
• This course does not provide legal advice. Dominique is not legally trained, and every country has different laws and conventions. The aim is to share and hold space to see what could work for you in your place.

• Start with acknowledging  First Nations cultural understandings of nature and the rise of legal personhood for nature. 
• Learn how ecological principles – succession, nutrient cycles, systems thinking, and adaptive cycles – translate directly into frameworks for more resilient and holistic board-level decision-making.
• Understand the four key models for representing nature on boards – Shareholder/Stakeholder, Executive Role, Non-Executive/Advisory, and Guardian/Trustee; and, The Zoöp speaker for the living model – and explore examples of these models in action, particularly through the work of Regen Melbourne. 
• Create a personalized action plan to integrate the perspective of the living world into their own work/organization.

Module 1: History and Foundations traces how First Nations people have long integrated nature into decision-making, and how the rise of legal personhood has opened new possibilities for imagining nature as a stakeholder. From the lived practice at Regen Melbourne and other case studies, you will discover the psychological and cultural shifts that occur when we recognise nature as a subject, not merely a resource.

Module 2: Nature’s Wisdom teaches ecological models that inform resilient governance. Exploring succession, nutrient cycles, systems thinking and the adaptive cycle, you’ll see how ecosystems offer profound lessons for boards. We’ll examine how nature experience drives innovation, creativity and holistic problem-solving.

Module 3: Models in Practice introduces four key approaches: Shareholder/Stakeholder, Executive Role, Non-Executive/Advisory, and Guardian/Trustee. Drawing from case studies from over 30 organisations. The Regen Melbourne case study anchors this module, showing how Dr. Dominique Hes’s Voice of Nature role was part of what contributed to decision-making quality and organisational culture in practice.

Module 4: Your Practice is interactive and personalised. You’ll think about your organisation’s readiness, design which model fits your context, and create an action plan for introducing nature’s voice. The course will touch on legal frameworks, and how they vary by jurisdiction but focuses on lived practice.

The intention is that by week four, you’ll have a concrete approach to bring nature into your governance and join a growing community reshaping how organisations make decisions.