In the Company of Nature: Regenerating Business, Community, and the Living World

Gormley, cofounder of the British luxury interiors brand House of Hackney, debuts with a flowery account of how she and her husband, Javvy M. Royle, created an environmentally conscious business. Attempting to “reweave business back into its right relationship with people, place and planet,” Gormley describes how the company, founded in 2011, not only takes inspiration from nature, designing earth-inspired wallpapers and home goods, but also has a regenerative relationship with the natural world. She recounts how they implemented a “Nature License Fee,” redirecting 1% of sales toward protecting nature; achieved carbon-neutral status by measuring, reducing, and offsetting their emissions; and committed to offering employees wages that could truly cover the cost of living. In 2021, House of Hackney became a certified B corporation, a recognition given to businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, and in 2023, it legally appointed Mother Nature to its board. There are intriguing anecdotes, including how Gormley and Royle wrested back their company’s ownership from private equity, but readers will find few practical details about how House of Hackney achieved an ecologically balanced operation, and the text gets bogged down by Gormley’s musings on bucolic virtue and noble impulses. This is more sanctimonious than inspiring. (June)