Care Outdoors Program Graduate:
"What was most meaningful to me about the Care Outdoors Program was discovering a connection to Nature that I have never felt before. As a city dweller, I often move quickly through my days without really noticing the nature around me. This program encouraged me to slow down and pay attention to the small green spaces woven into my daily routines - many of which were in my own backyard! As an older adult, I appreciated feeling curiosity and presence return in a gentle, natural way. It reminded me that nature isn’t distant—it’s here with me, enriching my life in simple but powerful ways. It has been a wonderful learning experience, and Monica is an amazing educator."
– Georgene Nitzsche, MS (Gerontology, University of Indianapolis)

Aging in Harmony with Nature

Explore how our relationship with Nature shapes how we age, care, and flourish in a climate-changing world.

The Eco Gerontology Initiative

Advancing Research, Education and Practice in Eco Gerontology

Why Eco Gerontology Matters

We are living through a unique moment in history. Whether you are a caregiver, healthcare professional, educator, community leader, student, or lifelong learner, this is an opportunity to become part of a growing movement helping shape the future of aging.

As populations age, climate change accelerates, and social isolation grows, there is an increasing need for new ways of understanding health, wellbeing, care, community, and longevity.

The Eco Gerontology Initiative provides education, training, and leadership development for individuals and organizations seeking to place our relationship with Nature at the heart of how we understand and support aging.

Participants gain:

🌱 Evidence-informed knowledge and practical tools

🌱 A deeper understanding of aging in a changing world

🌱 Opportunities to strengthen Nature connectedness and wellbeing

🌱 A growing community of practice

🌱 New perspectives on care, community, resilience, and regenerative futures

🌱 The opportunity to help shape the future of Eco Gerontology

🌱 Practical ideas you can immediately apply in your work, community, and daily life

Together, we are cultivating the knowledge, leadership, and relationships needed to advance the emerging field of Eco Gerontology.

Choose the educational pathway that's right for you.

Care Outdoors Companion Training
Learn practical, evidence-based approaches that help people spend more meaningful time Outdoors while supporting belonging, quality of life, and healthier, more connected communities.

Care Outdoors Team Training

Organizational training designed to help teams integrate evidence-based, nature-connected care into aging services, healthcare, home care, and community settings while strengthening engagement, workforce wellbeing, and organizational culture.

Eco Gerontology Community Conversations
Join meaningful conversations exploring aging, nature, care, climate resilience, and the future of age-friendly, nature-connected communities.

Eco Gerontology Foundational Certificate
A pioneering learning experience exploring the ecological, social, cultural, and philosophical dimensions of aging in a changing world.

Speaking & Organizational Partnerships
Educational experiences, leadership development, and collaborative initiatives for organizations committed to healthy longevity, regenerative livability, and age-friendly futures.

Helping Shape the Future of Eco Gerontology

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“For those who are or are becoming Elders, with an interest in the Science and Spirit of Ecology and Gerontology, who may be seeking greater understanding of both fields, and how they interact, and who may be searching for a means of informed activism, this course is a wonderful springboard.”
— Beverly Flanagan

Every new participant helps strengthen the emerging field of Eco Gerontology while bringing these ideas into homes, organizations, communities, and daily life.

What is Eco Gerontology

As the pioneering field exploring aging in relation to ecological health, place, belonging, and regenerative livability, Eco Gerontology recognizes that human wellbeing is inseparable from the wellbeing of the living systems that sustain life.

In an era of population aging, climate change, and growing social isolation, its insights are increasingly relevant to how we live, care, age, and thrive together.

Rooted in Gerontology, Deep Ecology, Nature Connectedness, and Green Care approaches, Eco Gerontology seeks to foster conditions where people, communities, and ecosystems can flourish together.

Nature, Aging & Human Flourishing

The world's longest-lived populations do not thrive because of pills, supplements, or extreme exercise. They thrive because they live within environments that support movement, connection, purpose, belonging, and daily interaction with the natural world.

A growing body of research demonstrates that access to nature-rich environments supports healthy longevity, brain health, quality of life, resilience, and wellbeing across the lifespan.

Yet ecological health and our relationship with Nature remain largely overlooked within many aging policies, programs, and systems of care.

Eco Gerontology helps bridge this gap by recognizing the relationships among people, places, communities, and ecosystems that support healthy longevity and regenerative livability.

Growing Regenerative Futures for All Generations

Eco Gerontology invites us to expand how we think about aging, care, and community.

Rather than viewing aging solely through medical or economic lenses, Eco Gerontology recognizes that healthy longevity emerges from the relationships between people, places, communities, and the living systems that sustain life.

As societies around the world navigate population aging, climate change, and growing social isolation, there is an unprecedented opportunity to cultivate communities that support belonging, purpose, wellbeing, ecological health, and meaningful contribution across the lifespan.

Through education, leadership development, community engagement, and nature-connected practices, Eco Gerontology seeks to help grow a future where people and Nature can flourish together.

We Advocate for Living Environments that Nurture:

• Daily access to Nature and the outdoors

• Regeneration and ecological health

• Biodiversity and climate resilience

• Safety, stability, and belonging

• Meaningful connection across generations

• Lifelong learning and contribution

• Collaboration with shared purpose

• Reciprocal relationships among people, communities, and the living world

Aging in Harmony with Nature is not simply a vision for older adults. It is a vision for thriving communities and a flourishing future for all generations.

Selected Media and Public Engagements: