AMC Newton for QHQ
March 2025
Fig. 1 Our future boardrooms could look like this?Photo by Shakib Uzzaman on Unsplash
Perhaps you’ve heard that our human-centred businesses are part of the problem that sees us collectively overshooting our natural resources, or you’re interested in moving to planet or life-centred ways of working? Do you see yourself as part of Nature? Are you interested in being an innovator, an early adopter ahead of the trend curve?
Read on to learn all about the innovative work of Lawyers for Nature who have helped two companies create a place on their Board of Directors for Mother Nature. AMC Newton sat down for QHQ and chatted to Jessie Mond Wedd about this novel concept, the challenges and benefits.
Fig 2: Jessie Mond Wedd, Lawyers for Nature.
AMC: Can we start by you telling me a little about yourself?
Jessie Mond Wedd (JMW): My name is Jessie Mond Wedd. I've been working for Lawyers for Nature now for a year and a half. I originally trained as a barrister, and I decided to do a master’s in environmental law at SOAS University. I wrote my dissertation on the idea of giving legal rights of nature and its intersection with Indigenous rights. I got really interested in it as a legal concept, and as a novel way of using the law to protect the environment.
I found out about the work that Lawyers for Nature were doing. Lawyers for Nature had been co-founded by Brontie Ansell and Paul Powlesland in 2019 and they set it up as a way of bringing lawyers together to work on behalf of Nature. They felt there was a gap in that lots of lawyers cared about the environment and wanted to do good work, but often they were having to do that in a piecemeal way. They wanted to create a collective where lawyers could focus on representing Nature. It was founded on the basis that you can use the law in imaginative ways to help to give Nature legal rights. I found out about what they were doing, contacted them, and I've been working for them ever since.
“…The idea of giving legal rights to nature is a concept where you are proposing - the whole of Nature, or parts of Nature, for instance; a river or a forest should have legal rights…”
AMC: And could you perhaps speak a bit more about, the legal concept of rights for nature and how that works, I imagine that's quite a novel idea for many people.
JMW: The idea of giving legal rights to nature is a concept where you are proposing - the whole of Nature, or parts of Nature, for instance; a river or a forest should have legal rights and the ability to act (via human representatives or guardians) in the legal system. In doing so you are ascribing legal rights, in the same way that humans or companies have legal rights, to Nature. We are protected by a system of legal rights, which means that if those rights are infringed, we can go to court to try and protect those rights or enforce them. At the moment, in this country, Nature doesn't have those kinds of legal rights, so Nature doesn't have the same protection that is afforded to humans or entities like companies.
Legal rights can be ascribed in a number of ways, through a legislative framework, for instance, in Ecuador, it's written into the constitution that Nature has rights, and therefore that can be part of a court action if those rights are infringed. The Wanganui River in New Zealand has its own legal personality granted by statute, and it's protected and represented by a system of guardianship. At Lawyers for Nature we work with specific areas that need protection and act as though it has legal rights, for instance, our co-founder, Paul Powlesland, lives on the river Roding, and he acts as a Nature guardian for the river. This is something anyone who cares for a piece or area of Nature can do.
AMC: I feel like you explained that well.
JMW: It's quite a big concept to explain.
AMC: Yes, so I wonder if we could talk a little bit about how we heard about you, which was through the House of Hackney advertisement for the Board of Directors and giving Nature a voice on a company board. I think that'll be relevant to our readers, because we're mainly from, fashion, textiles and home audiences.
I feel like House of Hackney might be the only interiors company to currently do that?
JMW: That's right, House of Hackney heard about the work that we had already done with Faith in Nature Lawyers for Nature and the Earth Law Center worked together to help Faith in Nature to appoint a Non-Executive Director for Nature to their board. Lawyers for Nature was appointed to be the Nature Director, Brontie held this role for two years and has now passed it to Juliet Rose from the Eden Project.
That was the first time in history that had ever been done. It was a completely new, innovative framework, and a way of introducing Rights of Nature without having to wait for the government to make legislative changes. You are introducing concepts around Rights of Nature because you are giving Nature a right to be in the boardroom, and a right to have a say on how issues are decided. You can also give Nature a right to vote on issues and a right to have access to information.
House of Hackney heard about the work with Faith in Nature, and they approached us and said, we want to do that! We want to make Mother Nature a director, and we also want to include a duty to Future Generations, which we helped them to do in 2024.
“…You are introducing concepts around Rights of Nature because you are giving Nature a right to be in the boardroom, and a right to have a say on how issues are decided.”
AMC: Do you know how that's working?
JMW: It’s been working really well. Brontie Ansell served as their first. Lawyers for Nature have helped create a governance framework that is accountable, transparent and robust, so that the Nature Director, or the Nature proxy can rotate, it can call on a committee of experts, because they are speaking on behalf of Nature. Brontie stayed in post to implement and then handed over to Dr Juliet Rose who now sits on the board of Faith and Nature. Brontie served on the board at House of Hackney for just for over a year, and she is now handing over to somebody else to take on that role, and that's why it's being advertised.
AMC: Say if one of our readers was interested in doing something similar in their company, what advice would you give them? Or how would they go about that? And what should they consider?
JMW: I think it's important to think about the philosophical and theoretical ideas which underpins this whole project and to read up on how giving rights to Nature has worked in other areas of the world. It's not just about saying, ‘oh, that job sounds interesting to me’. It's about understanding that it is less about you, and understanding you are speaking on behalf of Nature (and in this case, future generations).
The other advice I would give is to understand how this role would be different from any other role you'd ever taken on before. There is going to be a level of accountability and transparency in the way that you do that role to make sure that you are genuinely speaking on behalf of Nature and not individual interests. In the case of House of Hackney, it would be textiles and homeware, so understanding the tensions that could arise in terms of how you would speak out on behalf of Nature as against what that company is doing, what they're engaged in, and maybe thinking about where you could call on expertise if you needed it.
Faith in Nature produce a report at the end of the year setting out how decisions have been impacted by having a non-Executive Director for Nature on their board. For example, they cite that it helped prompt an investigation into how they use palm oil in their products, and the Nature Director and experts helped them with that.
This is a role where you are channelling information from the outside world, and channelling Nature's voice and then you are feeding that back into the company. You should have a desire for knowledge and growth and a wider understanding that this role is about Nature’s voice, not about your own personal interests.
AMC: I want to address how this would be great to see in more companies, and I'm just imagining what the tension might be between the commercial aspects; the focus on profit making for shareholders and then having this voice of nature. So, if you could speak a little about that.
“If we don't have nature, we don't have a world, then we don't survive”
JMW: We are facing an unprecedented polycrisis. If we don't have Nature, we don't have a world, then we don't survive. Directors have a duty under section 172 of the Companies Act to promote the success of the company, but they also must also consider the impact of the company’s operations on the environment and the community (amongst other things) as part of their remit. There are numerous calls for tighter regulations and laws on companies to consider environmental, social governance frameworks, not just profit. For instance, the Water (Special Measures) Act 2005, which is being introduced to tighten laws for water companies, proposes bonus bans for breaching environmental standards. The Better Business Act, is a campaign for new legislation to enhance directors duties to place more of a positive duty on directors to consider the environment and all stakeholders alongside profit. Putting Nature on the Board is a chance to be ahead of the curve and to really show that you are going further and beyond regulatory and environmental laws.
I think we've also got to consider are these laws and regulations as they currently stand working? We can all see what's happening in the world, and we can see that there is a need for a greater consideration of us being part of something larger than ourselves. This idea that we're separate and distinct from Nature, and we can treat it as we want and do what we want with it is inaccurate and causing irreversible damage. We've got to consider ourselves as part of and connected to the wider environment, ecosystem, and to Nature, and therefore we need to bring it into our decision making, from board level all the way down to every other level of the way that we work and live.
“…this is a chance to be ahead of the curve and to really show that you are going further and beyond regulatory and environmental laws.”
AMC: So, I'm thinking in terms of the fashion sector; have you been approached by anybody in the fashion sector so far?
JWM: Yes, we have had conversations. House of Hackney run an event called The Garden of Tomorrow, which is a festival of ideas that Lawyers for Nature have spoken at in the last two years. This led to lots of people talking to us and being interested in wanting to go further than sustainability, people who have concerns about the impact that fast fashion has on the on the environment. We haven't worked with another organisation in the fashion world to put nature on their board, but we are in conversation with lots of other organisations at the moment.
AMC: And what are some of the challenges that you're coming across in this work?
JMW: I think there is always a tension, like the one that you raised about making profit and considering Nature and the environment. We haven't found that has hampered the work with House of Hackney, because they are so focused on wanting to be a regenerative business. But I think when we speak to new organisations who are considering this, there is sometimes a concern, and a question asked about whether this will harm profit? Will this create more bureaucracy? Will this make things harder for us? Will it slow things down?
Simeon Rose, who's a creative director at Faith in Nature, has explained that appointing a Nature Director has sped the process up for them, it's meant there's been an expert in the room, somebody who really knew what they were talking about and could call on external experts for specific topics and feed back to the board. Previously they could have spent a whole day debating on whether or not they should do something, they've now got a Nature Director who can tell them very quickly, this is the impact, this is what you should consider, and this is what I would suggest, and that's been a real guiding light for them, and it's sped up decisions. So, I think having that dedicated expert in the room can actually reinforce decision making and speed it up rather than slow it down. Their most recent impact report shows that sales are up, whilst carbon emissions are down.
AMC: I'm sure that will be exciting to hear for many, if any of our readers are interested in learning more about this. What's the best way for them to get more information?
JMW: We'd always be happy to talk to organisations who are wanting to do this. There is also the open-source documentation on Faith in Nature's website, which we had a hand in creating, which sets out what you know in quite clear, simple terms, what this means, what needs to happen. They have also created publicly available documents like end of year impact reports.
Simeon Rose also writes a blog called Nature on the Board, which sets out their whole journey and always talks about developments in this whole area, and who else is taking it on and doing it, and that's also a good source knowledge. We also have information and documents on our website.
AMC: My final question is, what is the most exciting thing that's happening at Lawyers for Nature at the moment?
JMW: Well, we are in discussions with a lot of third sector organisations, nonprofits and charities about the idea of putting Nature on the board, and that's really exciting development. Our co-founder, Paul Powlesland is doing exciting river guardianship work. We've just put out a blog with another job advertisement for the Voice of the River Roding, which Paul drafted alongside a declaration of rights for the River Roding. There are some exciting developments happening in the world of rights of nature and we're grateful to be working at the forefront of it.
AMC: I'll close the interview there. And thank you so much for articulating what you do and the complex concept of it so well.
We’re so impressed by the work that Jessie and Lawyers for Nature are doing that we are going to convene a group of brands and retailers to meet and discuss this concept of Nature on the Board in more detail, if you are interested in joining us, please fill in this short form and we will get back to you with more detail.
Further Reading & Resources:
Nature on the Board-open source guide from Faith in Nature
Guardian Article: New Zealand river granted same legal rights as human being
Interest in being part of the Nature on the Board meeting