Ellen Windemuth
on Emotional Ecology
Can you imagine an eight-legged bear that is able to live almost anywhere and survive almost anything?
No, it’s not a cartoon. It’s a beautiful and real one: a Water Bear or Tardigrade, the most extreme animal on our planet. They can withstand the harshest conditions on earth and beyond, and teach us the lesson of resilience, as they are among the most successful lifeforms ever known.
After founding and running Off the Fence, a nonfiction production/distribution company for 27 years, Ellen Windemuth learned this lesson of resilience and implemented the incredible power of storytelling in her own life: “Every story starts with our relationship with nature.”
Ellen asked herself valuable questions:
What if we could turn people from passive viewers into active doers? Invite everyone to go from doomerism to domoreism? Turn filmmakers into change makers? Move from collecting awards to measuring impact? Jump head first from apathy to optimism?
This was the fuel that led her to found the company that celebrates this marvelous creature: WaterBear Network. A platform where inspiration meets action, a B Corp free streaming service and community that provides access to award-winning and inspirational content dedicated to the future of the planet.
Their stories related to nature conservation, disability, biodiversity, inequality, circularity, LGTBQ, climate and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals are available in 194 countries, as they have more than 80 partner NGOs and charities. Let yourself be amazed and watch their heart-warming documentaries like “The Black Mermaid”, “Cocaine Hippos”, “Broken Wings”, “Luchadoras”, “Raving Iran”, “Tide to Nature”, or “In my Blood it runs”.
Ellen Windemuth is also well-known for the BAFTA and Oscar-winning documentary, “My Octopus Teacher”, an emotional and unique story that beautifully demonstrates the importance of interspecies friendship and reconnecting with the non-human world. Created by the Sea Change Project in the Great African Seaforest, it’s a story about Ellen’s good friend, Craig Foster, who forged an unbreakable bond with an octopus. Watch this soulful documentary that embraces you with all its eight arms and shows you emotions, colours and moments you’ve never seen before.
A visionary, Ellen sees more opportunities for “emotional ecology”, because “reconnecting with nature is the source of human happiness; nobody has ever been converted by a pie chart, so are we surprised that people can’t absorb what the SDGs mean?”
Switch from mindless scrolling, be a Water Bear and read Ellen Windemuth’s inspiring answers for #inspirators!
Thank you, Ellen, for being an Emotional Ecologist!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Ellen Windemuth
Company / Institution: Waterbear Network
Title: Founder and Supervisory Board Chair
Website: www.waterbear.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellen-windemuth-543a583/
Country of origin: US/Germany
Country you currently live in: The Netherlands
Your personal definition of Regeneration: Regeneration is Economic Biomimicry.
Main business challenge you face: Blending linear standards of the old economy while building a circular company.
Main driver that keeps you going: Waterbear has to get done, lots of people want and need it.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Kindness, creativity and resilience.
The trait you most value in others: Kindness, creativity and resilience.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: A cup of coffee sitting by my little pond, surrounded by my animals.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
My friend, Craig Foster.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Start small, work step by step and make sure you can financially survive.
Most used and abused clichés about sustainability that bother you: Asking philanthropists for annual donations is great, but not sustainable for a media platform.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: Talk to your peers and mentors, comfort and encourage each other. After all, where else can you find so many kind and interesting people?
Books that had a major impact on you:
What makes you not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khentse.
Must-reads for any Regenerative professional: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - early classic by Michael Braungart and William McDonough.
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again: March of the Penguins.
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts etc. you visit frequently: WaterBear.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: All indigenous music.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: Africa - hooked since I was 18.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow: John Fullerton
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on: Agriculture / soil.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): B Corp network and digital media festivals.
Events we should attend: There are so many!!! Subscribe to newsletters, learn and go from there!
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: Again, too many to mention, depending on where you are in the world.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: The regenerative movement is one that will continue to grow!
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: Governments and business stakeholders plus polluters are slowing down the process to a dangerous extent.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Resilience, social skills, creative new ways to excite your team, and lead with consistent nurturing.
Quote that inspires you:
"It is much easier to incite positive action from the disadvantaged than from the advantaged."
(Chris Marais, Leaders for Conservation in Africa)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
