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

Helping people and organizations strengthen wellbeing, care, quality of life and resilience by cultivating healthier relationships with Nature.

The Eco Gerontology Initiative advances research, education, consulting, and leadership development for organizations and individuals helping shape the future of healthy longevity.

Whether you're a healthcare organization, community agency, university, nonprofit, business, or lifelong learner, The Eco Gerontology Initiative offers practical pathways for creating healthier people and places.

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.

Burnout, Social Isolation, Climate Change, Economic Inequity, Care Crisis, Housing Crisis, Food Crisis, Disconnection from Nature.

These challenges are often treated separately, yet they are deeply interconnected.

Eco Gerontology offers a different way forward by recognizing that human wellbeing is inseparable from the wellbeing of the living world and by helping people and organizations cultivate healthier relationships with Nature, one another, and the places we call home.

What Becomes Possible:

🌱Co-Create healthier relationships with Nature, people, and place.

🌱 Foster belonging, resilience, and wellbeing.

🌱 Support human flourishing and more meaningful care.

🌱 Reimagine workplaces and communities through a regenerative lens.

🌱 Build confidence applying evidence-based, nature-connected practices.

🌱 Join a growing international movement shaping the future of aging and care.

Choose Your Path

Whether you're beginning your Eco Gerontology Adventure, deepening your professional practice, or seeking to transform your organization, there are many ways to become involved.

Learn & Connect

Eco Gerontology Community Conversations

Free • Registration Required

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

Seasonal At-Home Nature Retreats

Slow down with the changing seasons through guided weekends that transform your home and nearby natural places into places of restoration, reflection, and renewal.

Blending live community gatherings with meaningful moments outdoors, each retreat offers practical, evidence-based experiences that enhance wellbeing, deepen your connection with Nature, with Home, and bring the Spirit of Retreat into everyday life.

Retreat Benefits

• Apply your retreat tuition toward the Care Outdoors Companion Training or The Eco Gerontology Certificate when you enroll within three months.

• Eco Gerontology Initiative Founding Members attend all Seasonal At-Home Nature Retreats for $100.

Grow Your Practice

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

The Eco Gerontology Certificate
A pioneering learning experience exploring the ecological, economic, social, cultural, and philosophical dimensions of Aging in a Changing World.

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

Founding Membership in The Eco Gerontology Initiative

Enrollment in The Eco Gerontology Certificate includes Founding Membership in The Eco Gerontology Initiative.

Your learning continues beyond the certificate through ongoing seminars, professional dialogue, and participation in a growing international community advancing the emerging field of Eco Gerontology.

Members receive:

• Ongoing access to Eco Gerontology Community Seminars

• Invitations to member discussions exploring emerging research and practice

• Opportunities to connect with a growing international community

• Continued learning beyond the certificate

• The opportunity to help shape the emerging field of Eco Gerontology

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

Partner With Us

Care Outdoors Team Training

Help your team integrate evidence-based, nature-connected care into healthcare, aging services, home care, and community settings while strengthening engagement, workforce wellbeing, and organizational culture.

Organizational Partnerships

Partner with The Eco Gerontology Initiative to strengthen workplace wellbeing, redesign care, inspire your team, develop leaders, and create more regenerative communities.

We offer consulting, keynote presentations, leadership retreats, professional development, team training, and collaborative initiatives for organizations committed to healthy longevity, regenerative livability, and age-friendly futures.

The Emerging Field of 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.

Rooted in Gerontology, Deep Ecology, Nature Connectedness, Green Care and the Wellbeing Economy, 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 the Great Outdoors and 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. How does our economic system shift when we place care for and with the living world as our shared purpose?

Growing Regenerative Futures for All Generations

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

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

Join the Growing Field of Eco Gerontology

Whether you're exploring Eco Gerontology for the first time, growing your practice, or seeking to transform your organization, there are many ways to become involved.

Explore our educational pathways, join a Community Conversation, Partner with us, or become a Founding Member through The Eco Gerontology Certificate.