About EarthWays

Jesper Saxgren, foreman

Jesper has more than 40 years of experience as a project developer, teacher, course developer and consultant in the areas of environment/ecology, permaculture, project development, education/public information and international project work. Within the field of ecology and the environment, he has worked as a project advisor, planner, teacher and facilitator with agro-ecology, permaculture, ecological construction, regenerative land use planning, watershed and ecosystems management and climate change mitigation/adaptation in Denmark as well as with NGOs in Nepal, Ghana, Bolivia and Bhutan. Today he is vice-chairman of the Development Committee of the National Ecological Association, Ambassador for EARTH University in Costa Rica, co-founder of the association EarthWays and Founding Trustee in The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation.

Anne Weber Carlsen, Deputy Chairperson

Anne has worked with the development of people and organizations as a consultant and manager in a large number of public and private companies. During a secondment as a consultant for Oxfam-Ibis in Ghana, she was introduced to facilitation as a democratic management practice. Back in Denmark, in 2004 she founded the consultancy and course company Facilitator, which she has run since. In 2021, she helped found the consulting community Human by Nature who work with nature-based interventions and regenerative management and organizational development. She is concerned with what futures other than those that come from extending the present with boards might look like, and how we build bridges to them. In 2020, she completed the course Warrior for The Human Spirit with Margaret Wheatley and is now on a journey of discovery in nature and Nordic wisdom traditions with archers and shamans as teachers.

Jeppe Graugaard, treasurer

As a teacher, researcher and author, Jeppe has broad experience in communicating the basic issues of climate change and global ecology. He worked from 2016-2023 as a teacher at Ry Højskole's horizon line, where he e.g. has developed the subject The Globe Calls, which is about climate change, ecology and the alternatives to the consumer society. He also has teaching experience from primary schools, the university world, and various grassroots contexts. He has an MSc Climate Change and Ph.D. in grassroots innovation at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UK). He has previously worked with climate adaptation and green transition for a consultancy in London, where he was also associated with the New Economics Foundation. You can read more about Jeppe's work at jeppegraugaard.dk.

Aslaug Færch Johnsen, representative of Himmelbjerggården

Aslaug Færch Johnsen is head of Himmelbjerggården. Aslaug is a trained clothing designer, biosystemic psychotherapist, biodynamic craniosacral therapist and transformative art therapist. Her art deals with the feminine universe and inner presence. She moved to Himmelbjerggården with her daughter in 2017 after 18 years in Italy, and she is a visionary and dedicated social entrepreneur, where Himmelbjerggaarden is a life project and the result of many years of research in relation to being a frontrunner and active co-creator of concrete sustainable development.

Lone Belling

Lone Belling is an author, lecturer and organizational consultant. Lone writes books, teaches and gives lectures as well as participates in dialogues and debates out of a love for our common home, the blue-green planet. Lone is the ethical futurist who facilitates sustainable development for communities, companies and people. She designs strategic and co-creative processes that support commitment, courage and creativity, so that the transition process becomes both green and colourful. Lone navigates according to her ethical compass, where both internal and external sustainability must have a place. She has a lifelong meditation practice and is part of the spiritual community Vækstcenteret. Author of i.a. "Sustainable education - sketches for an empathic world" and "Sustainability - from moral index finger to ethical compass". read more on livoglederskab.dk.

Jacob Rask

Jacob Rask is a teacher, author and democratic entrepreneur. He is an external associate professor in economics at Roskilde University and has many years of experience as a lecturer and university teacher in politics, economics, climate, environment, ecology, horticulture, permaculture, innovation, cooperative thinking and entrepreneurship. Co-author of the books 'Bo.Fælles.Skab - Handbook for collectives, building and housing communities' and 'Cooperative Handbook - Entrepreneurship in the community'. Jacob is passionate about creating spaces for action and learning where young and old alike can strengthen their courage and dynamism through engagement in practical solutions to the climate and nature crisis. Has founded the association Copenhagen Donut, to inspire Copenhageners to work with Donut Economy in practice. He is educated in environmental planning (TekSam) from Roskilde University and economics from Schumacher College in England.

Dear Birk

Kåre is a college teacher at the Scandinavian Design College. Graduated industrial designer from the school of architecture in Aarhus. Trying to make hand and spirit equal in the general understanding. Trying to recover our lost knowledge and revitalize it. Incarnate, even a man does it – and a huge nature lover. Creative soul in a pragmatic body... Interested in people and our relationship with our planet/nature/universe. Wonders, marvels, doubts, observes, reflects, thinks, writes and shares - but most of all is just super curious. Will go a long way to leave the planet in a better condition for our descendants and with much more space for nature…

Sky Jin

Skye Jin is a visionary person who is best at the fringes of what we usually do and in the transitions between different cultures. As an artist, educated MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, she has worked collectively in one of Scandinavia's first BIPOC art collectives UFOlab and solo with a performative installation practice in interdisciplinary collaborations. Skye Jin is also a certified permaculture designer, teacher and soon Diploma holder in applied Permaculture. In 2019 she helped start the interdisciplinary collective Art+Science+Permaculture and in 2022 saw the forest garden and art movement Gardening is Activism the light of day. She is a board member of Permakultur Danmark and editor of the member magazine PERMAKULTUR. In 2020-2024, she has been appointed as a member of the Danish Art Fund's Project Support Committee for Visual Arts and as the front person for the Ministry of Culture's Illustrator prize. See more about Skye Jin at skyejin.dk.

Rune Engelbreth Larsen

Rune Engelbreth Larsen is a historian of ideas, author, poet and lecturer. Rune has a wide authorship behind him consisting of over 20 books in addition to essays, articles and chronicles in anthologies, journals and newspapers. In recent years, the biodiversity crisis and the importance of re-establishing wilder nature have been the focus of the authorship, most recently in the book 'Naturnationalparker og de store dyrs genkomst' (2023). In the book 'Animism, heritage and current affairs' (2024) animism is presented as the most widespread understanding of the world in time and geography. Rune is a member of the Naturfagligt Udvalg in Denmark's Nature Conservation Association and a former member of the Ethics Council (2017-2022). Married since 1994 and father of three beautiful children. Read more via polifilo.dk and runeengelbreth.dk.

Theis Scherfig

Theis has taught at Uldum, Fosen, Ry and Vestjyllands Højskole and has been educated in many different ways: from a master's degree in Social Sciences and Couture Meeting Studies at Roskilde University to teaching courses in Buddha's teachings at Erik Pema Kunsang. Theis has taught many different subjects: Sustainable Living, The Green Experiment, Anthropology, Yoga, The Good Life, Break the Echo Chamber, Podcasting, Project Management, Criminology and much more. He is also behind the podcast Where are we going?, a podcast that takes a stand on society and the values we live by. Theis is particularly concerned with building a bridge between the practical and the ideologically visionary in his work to create experience spaces that bring people closer to nature.

Michael Paulsen

Michael Paulsen is a trained philosopher, lecturer in pedagogy at the University of Southern Denmark and heads the new Center for Understanding Human Relationships with the Environment (CUHRE) which, among other things, works with eco-formation, wild nature and play in relation to understanding and responding to environmental and climate changes. Michael has worked with pedagogy, philosophy, education and nature for many years. You can read more about CUHRE at sdu.dk/cuhre  and about Michael's research on portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/persons/mpaulsen.