We are excited to share with you the next interview in our “Beyond the Page” series featuring Lydia Stevens and Grattan Donnelly.
What if the key to transformative coaching isn’t about adding climate awareness to your practice, but recognizing it’s already there? Climate biodiversity coach Lydia Stevens and regenerative leadership coach Grattan Donnelly challenge us to look “upstream” beyond immediate client concerns to the interconnected living systems that shape all human experience.
The powerful metaphor they share illuminates why this matters: villagers downstream rescue bodies floating in a river but rarely venture upstream to discover why people are falling in. Similarly, coaching that ignores ecological context addresses symptoms rather than root causes. “Business as usual is downstream,” explains Donnelly. “Until we start thinking about what kind of world we really want to live in.”
This expanded awareness doesn’t require changing client agendas. Stevens points out that climate consciousness isn’t something “outside” coaching—it’s embedded in everyday life. The framework they share expands traditional coaching domains (self, team, organization) to include land, workspace, wider ecosystems, and biosphere, recognizing that all human activities exist within living systems.
Their methodology often involves nature itself. Donnelly conducts sessions as outdoor “walk and talks,” letting nature serve as co-coach. This practice activates the calming parasympathetic nervous system, allowing clients to literally see challenges from new perspectives. “When I slow down, I see twice as much,” he notes. This integration of “head, heart, gut, and earth” creates conditions for profound mindset shifts without forcing climate topics.
At its core, climate-conscious coaching recognizes what Donnelly calls the false “story of separation” between humans and nature: “We’re not a part of nature, we’re not apart from nature. We are nature.” Through this reconnection, clients discover new possibilities for relating to themselves, others, and the world around them.
In this episode, I talk with Lydia and Grattan about their article published in our March 2025 issue.
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