At SplashMaps we want everyone to gain an interest in the outdoors. How great that the Green Halo partnership recognise the connection between our maps and significant well-being benefits. They’ve invited SplashMaps to join!
We know there are unlimited well-being benefits from “being out there”. You don’t need to run like an express train or cut the wildest line as a mountain biker. Often just “being” in the outdoors is enough to elevate us.
An investment in well-being is an investment in being well! But could it also lead you to plant a tree or deliberately flood a field? I see close friends shed pounds thanks to their rediscovery of bicycles and I know I battle my own demons dailywith an energising run or ride. It’s clear that much of the money we spend on fixing ourselves with drugs and insurance could be dramatically reduced if we got outside more often.
On most media we’re pursuaded into well-being ambitions for six pack stomachs and top-flight performance. But the top 0.1% performers and celebrities are hardly representative of the majority. Surely a more compelling story about recovery or higher ambition can come from more ordinary people who’ve faced phsical and mental challenge rather than ego driven performance goal chasing? I enjoy tweeters like heart running girl. Her own recovery from a heart operation necessitates a regime that’s health conscious and inspirational to anyone at any stage in their wellness ambitions. Even our own Scott Forbe’s story is one of recovery from a collision with a car.
So many of the people I meet are acutely aware of their physical well-being, and this is great! Physical wellness is probably only best appreciated when you’re unwell. With Worldwide obesity having tripled since 1975 and an aging population, society pays dearly for over-stretched health services. These now eclipse other essential spends in many country’s budgets.
Physical aspects of any problem are often the most obvious, but these are often the tip of a much deeper iceberg. And there are a lot of these icebergs! 41 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2016. According to the World Health Organisation a further 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016. It’s a global problem and only collectively can we face it down.
The good news is that, not only is the outdoors the ideal place to deal with the physical symptoms, but also a reliable route to dealing with the mental programming often at the root of the problem.
Natural capital is a new way of looking at all these things combined PLUS the more tangible value that trees and open spaces offer us. I met Simon Eden of the Green Halo partnership last week who explained the “Trees in the New Forest have been valued at £45-£65m if you only consider their worth by the direct services they provide”. This is stuff like cleaning polluted air, enriching the soil, generating Oxygen and adsorbing Carbon Dioxide. But in fact, he explains, these primitive measures miss vital inputs such as a number for the vast array well-being impacts. As a former CEO at Winchester City Council Simon can illustrate how a natural capital approach to land management can prevent massively expensive city floods while providing vital outdoor space for well-being.
So, we’re joining Ordnance Survey and the New Forest National Park Authority in signing-up to Green Halo, a partnership of businesses in our area of the New Forest, Hampshire and Dorset, who value the natural assets of our region. Unlike the traditional green-wash nonsense found in most corporates, each partner participates in projects and approaches that assure a respect for Natural Capital.
Our Green Halo’s first glimmer is in the well-being of our map users and our unique supply chain that assures hundreds of thousands of bottles each year will be converted into maps and beautiful garments rather than clogging our rivers seas and landfills. Over the coming months we’ll extend these credentials along with a growing number of businesses in the region. Time to join?
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