Beyond the Indoor Care Crisis: Growing a Green Care Economy
- Monica Eastway
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
We are living through a unique moment in history. We face rapid population aging, accelerating climate change, and catastrophic loss of biodiversity that impacts current and future generations. To face these crises, it is advantageous that we rapidly transform how we care for each other and all other living beings on our shared home.
Confined Lives, Undervalued Hearts
Decades after my great-grandmother Tess was admitted to a sixth-floor skilled nursing facility with sealed windows, our care system remains largely stagnant, indoor-centric, and isolating.
Today, the average American spends approximately 90+% of their life indoors, often breathing air that is 2-5 times, even up to 100 times, more polluted than outdoor air (American Lung Association, n.d.).
Our chronic indoor lifestyles contribute to what researchers describe as an environmental mismatch with our
nature-adapted biology. This mismatch leads to chronic stress, reduced physical activity, disrupted sleep patterns, cognitive fatigue, and impairment in reproductive, immune, cognitive, and physical function (Longman & Shaw, 2026).
As our loved ones are confined indoors, the people who look after them are also being left indoors and left behind.
Nearly half of U.S. workers earn wages below a living wage threshold, making it difficult to meet basic needs without reliance on public assistance or financial strain (Arnold, 2026). In high-cost areas like Monterey County, caregiving wages typically range from $17 to $24 per hour, while the living wage for a single adult exceeds $30 per hour.
This gap fuels the metacrisis of workforce burnout, housing instability, food insecurity, and economic vulnerability for the very people we honor to care for our neighbors, families, and friends.
Growing a Green Care Economy
Care Outdoors Training is on a mission to begin moving beyond this fractured system. Grounded in the emerging field of Eco Gerontology, we are shifting the paradigm.
We don't view the nature experience as an optional luxury or a weekend activity.
We view access to the outdoors and connection with nature as a foundational, non-negotiable right.
We are growing a new green care economy with a pioneering force of care professionals: Care Outdoors Companions. These certified practitioners are uniquely trained to safely and intentionally weave evidence-based green care experiences into the daily lives of older adults, individuals living with disabilities,
and community members of all ages.
By placing our relationship with nature at the heart of how we support and care for ourselves and one another, we unearth a multi-directional wave of ecological, economic, and social impact:
For those receiving care: A life rich in sunlight, synchronized circadian rhythms, reduced loneliness, and active cognitive engagement.
For care workers: A profound renewal of professional identity, healthier work environments that reduce burnout, improved physical and mental health, and a structured pathway toward higher credentials and better wages.
For our communities: A vital link to age-friendly cities and livability, weaving nature-rich biodiversity directly into our urban and rural fabric to prove that more nature connection means more health for all.
For the natural world: A catalyst for reciprocal and relational care, where heightened nature connectedness drives pro-environmental behavior—restoring the health of our shared home, Earth, as we care in, with, and for nature.
Systemic and Policy Alignment
Growing a Green Care Economy provides a practical, transferable blueprint that directly addresses the intersection of rapid population aging, accelerating climate change, and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity impacting all generations.
Care Outdoors Training aligns with leading caregiving and longevity frameworks in the United States, including California’s Master Plan for Aging (MPA).
As California reaches the midpoint of its 10-year strategy, Care Outdoors Training serves as a direct vehicle to advance four of its five core public priorities:
Health Reimagined – We believe optimization of health and quality of life requires access to systemic, nature-based care at home. Reimagining health means transforming companion care so that preventative, nature-based services are readily available right in our local communities.
Inclusion and Equity, Not Isolation – We actively dismantle systemic isolation through structured, equitable access to nature-based engagement. This provides older adults and individuals with disabilities lifelong opportunities for active engagement, visibility, and leadership within the public sphere.
Caregiving that Works – We support a more sustainable, skilled, and resilient care workforce while driving scalable development across community colleges, universities, and continuing education systems. Our certified training prepares and supports families and professionals through both the rewards and challenges of caring for aging loved ones.
Goal 5: Affording Aging – Economic security for as long as we live requires a care economy that does not bankrupt families or exploit workers. By upskilling caregivers into certified Care Outdoors Companions, we establish a specialized tier of labor that commands higher, sustainable living wages, protecting the financial security of both the caregiver and the care recipient.
Sharing Care Outdoors: A New Green Care Paradigm
This Is Our Movement. Join Us!
Whether you are a family member looking for a deeper quality of life for a loved one, a caregiver seeking a career that honors your well-being, an educator ready to shape the future of care, or a forward-thinking organization ready to upskill your team, there is a place for you here.
Let’s Share Care Outdoors. Together, we can foster a future where care is economically sustainable, deeply valued, and fundamentally connected to the natural world.
Our next cohort begins June 25th:
References
American Lung Association. (n.d.). Clean air indoors: Learn more about indoor air pollutants and steps you can take to improve your indoor air. https://www.lung.org/clean-air/indoor-air
Arnold, P. (2026, May 18). Report shows a decline in U.S. workers that earn a living wage. Workspan Daily. https://worldatwork.org/publications/workspan-daily/report-shows-a-decline-in-u-s-workers-that-earn-a-living-wage
California Department of Aging. (2026, January). California Master Plan for Aging: Fifth MPA annual report. California Health and Human Services Agency. https://mpa.aging.ca.gov/
Longman, D. P., & Shaw, C. N. (2026). Homo sapiens, industrialisation and the environmental mismatch hypothesis. Biological Reviews, 101(2), 580-601.