Restorative Nature ExperiencesBen Porchuk
A professional pausing beside a pond inside a Nature Sense Ground

Step out. Step in.

Nature Sense Grounds

A handful of parking spaces turned into a natural ecosystem. At work, at school, or in the urban core.

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Step outside the door and into a living, breathing ecosystem with native plants, moving water, birdsong, and the quiet intelligence of nature doing what it does best.

A Nature Sense Ground is not décor. It is a daily reset for the nervous system, a refuge from screen fatigue and concrete, right where you work, learn and live.

Rendering of a Nature Sense Ground at a corporate office
A rendering of a Nature Sense Ground at a corporate office, prepared in response to an enquiry.
Rendering of a Nature Sense Ground in an urban core setting
A rendering of a Nature Sense Ground in an urban setting, prepared in response to an enquiry.
If native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, trees, and flowing water can function as an outdoor classroom, can double as a place for active adventure, and triple as a shared space for returning wildlife, why would we ever invest in a plastic and metal apparatus to try to replicate nature?
Cynthia F., London, Ontario

Why invest

Infrastructure, not landscaping

A Nature Sense Ground turns unused corporate or institutional grounds, a parking strip, a courtyard, a patch of lawn, into a living ecosystem people actually use. Native plants, moving water, walking paths, birdsong.

What it does for people

  • Lowers blood pressure and strengthens cardiovascular health
  • Reduces stress hormones and eye strain from screens
  • Restores focus and attention
  • Sparks creativity and innovation
  • Supports mental wellness through daily nature contact
  • Offers therapeutic walking paths for sensory healing and reconnection

What it does for the organisation

More productive, more engaged people, with measurably better physical and mental health. This is not a wellness perk bolted onto the building. It is ground level infrastructure that pays back in retention, focus and morale.

This experience allowed me to step outside and connect with nature in a profound way, engaging all my senses, providing a very energizing and humbling feeling. I returned to work so energized.
Monica S.

What this looks like, by setting

Investment range

This is a capital investment in the people who use the space every day, not a landscaping upgrade. Every site is different, so these are starting ranges rather than quotes.

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Schools$750K to $3M
Corporate headquarters and business$1M and up
Downtown core and urban centre$3M and up

Video

The first Nature Sense Ground, at the Jackman Institute for Child Studies

A laboratory school in the middle of Toronto’s theatre district, where children now step straight out of the classroom into a working ecosystem.

For corporations, businesses and urban centres

The Nature Sense Ground pamphlet

Nature Sense Grounds pamphlet for corporations, businesses and urban centres, page one
Diagram defining what a Nature Sense Ground is
Defining a Nature Sense Ground.
Nature Sense Grounds pamphlet, page two
Nature Sense Grounds pamphlet, page three, showing what a Nature Sense Ground looks like
What a Nature Sense Ground looks like.

For schools

Looking to see what might be possible at a school?

A menu of possibilities, from a single sensory path to a full schoolyard ecosystem.

Menu of possibilities for a Nature Sense Ground at a school

Start a conversation

Request a consultation or an estimate

Tell Ben whether this is for a business, an urban setting, a school or an Indigenous community, along with a little about the site. He will follow up to book a call.

The more you can share about the site, the timeline and the budget you have in mind, the more useful the first call will be.

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Or open a prefilled email: request an estimate.