Charlotte Akers Dunphy - Alumni Impact Award

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Since 2020, alongside a small team, I have helped build and develop Earthed (www.earthed.co). Part of the Initiative Earth charity, Earthed is a membership-based learning platform enabling access to on-demand courses in ecosystem restoration and regenerative agriculture.
Earthed courses are led by our ‘Nature Leaders’: incredible individuals based around the world engaged in impactful projects. These courses teach the skills needed for anyone to start actively engaging in positive action for the health of ecosystems, communities, and themselves. We currently have 8 courses, with a further 30 in production, covering a range of topics including river restoration, no-dig growing, harvesting rainwater, building local economies, coral reef restoration - and much more.
Our innovative platform leverages the Global Online Education Market to make accessible the skills, networks, and funds needed to build healthy ecosystems and resilient communities. For too long ecosystem restoration has been viewed as solely a top down approach, considered too large-scale, technical, and challenging to engage with as an individual or community. But we envision a world where every balcony, farm, city and garden, can burst with life.
Whilst developing Earthed, we ran a popular education campaign through which we found many individuals wish to act for the planet, but feel powerless beyond simply being ‘conscious consumers’. We identified an opportunity for individuals to transition from passive consumers to active citizens; from growing carrots on a windowsill to building a permaculture food forest, through Earthed, restoring ecosystems and building healthy communities is something we can each aspire to.
After years of development, acquiring key partners, and crowdfunding, Earthed launched in May 2023.
Enabling wide-scale ecosystem restoration to take place around the world positively advances progress across all of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Whilst Climate Action, Life below Water, and Life on Land are evidently addressed in the development of Earthed, a large part of our educational campaigning prior to launch was also framed around the intersection of environmental degradation with poverty, inequality, and health. Indeed we would argue that ecosystem restoration and regenerative agriculture address each of the UN SDGs.
Community supported agriculture increases access to healthy food, lowering living costs; community run city gardens improve equal access to nature and wellbeing; regenerative farming increases biodiversity, decreasing threats to food security; localisation builds community resiliency, with increased job opportunities and boosted local economies. Indeed, the UNEP’s research shows that every dollar invested in ecosystem restoration creates up to $30 in economic benefits.
Beyond quantitative targets, Earthed comes from our deep belief that helping people to reconnect with nature is integral to securing healthy individuals and strong communities. *
We have global goals, with teachers located across the world and courses currently being translated into three languages. We also hope to develop an app to further increase. As Head of Partnerships and Comms, my role has supported bringing together global partners, advocates, and ambassadors, including the UNEP Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, incredible grassroots organisations, and high-influence cultural figures as Ambassadors to enable us to continue growing, collaboratively and inclusively.