Our Story
Created by a small team of passionate ecologists and technologists, Natural Neighbours aims to connect urban communities together under the common cause of nurturing nature.
Where it all began
Back in summer 2021 our co-founder and CEO Jules was wondering how much human-friendly nature a city like his home town London could host. Believe it or not, that’s a question with a direct bearing on your health and on our ability as a species to meet the global challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises.
The science of ’nature connection’ is rapidly evolving but it’s already abundantly clear that regularly experiencing nature is good for us physically and mentally, and helps us get along with each other. Cities are also where most people now live, and since a daily experience of nature makes people more inclined to care for wildlife (and each other), it clearly follows that making a place for nature in our urban lives will help build popular support for green policies.
But how can you connect with nature if there isn’t any nature there to connect with? This is a problem in cities the world over, and especially so in nature-depleted countries like the UK. The answer is that we need to provide connected networks of habitat that wildlife can move along and between. Sounds simple, but that throws up another question: how do you create these ecological networks when urban land ownership and management is so hyper-fragmented? The answer to that is that we create social networks of nature-nurturers who collaborate across neighbourhoods and workplaces to create ecological networks of habitat.
Turns out, it’s all about making connections.
And so Jules reached out to some old friends in tech, and some new friends in academic ecology, and their energy, ingenuity and enthusiasm connected, condensing like a new sun, to build The Natural Neighbours app and its sister charity Natural Neighbours CIO.
Where we’ve got to, and where we’re headed
Thanks to those amazing people, some of whom are profiled below and some of whom play their lion’s parts invisibly in the background, we have turned a summer’s musings into a working product – The Natural Neighbours App. You can download the app now and use its playful and informative agentic AI to discover what you can do for select wildlife given the unique context of what’s already provided or missing for them in the area around you.
We’ve also been immensely privileged to have been invited to test the app with volunteers at Hackney Borough Council and Royal Parks. Thanks to all our critical friends test-driving the app our small but growing team of eco-technologists have been able to iron out bugs and test new features.
We’re excited to say we’re picking up the pace too, with new energy and resources enabling an accelerating growth in functionality and experience. Together, we’re building the world’s first urban micro-habitat map, with all the valuable insights that generates for individual, local and city-wide decision-makers aiming to bring life back to urban living. Perhaps more importantly, we’re making that fun, accessible for all, and rekindling a sense of community and belonging.
Check the App Updates blogs on the What’s New? page for the latest developments.
Discover wildlife habitat with our AI guide
Choose Projects, like which animal to support
Get tips on making your space wildlife-friendly
See how your efforts improve the wider area
Some of our contributors
Julian Kirby - Co-Founder/CEO
Hackney dad Julian has a background in mental health and environmental campaigning and a foreground in urban nature connection. He’s co-founder of EcoSocialNet, the company building The Natural Neighbours App, and our sister charity Natural Neighbours CIO.
Nick Nettleton - Co-Founder/CPO
Nick is an award-winning AI and technology expert with a passion for designing and building things that make our lives better.
He is a mentor for startups and accelerators and brings decades of design thinking, development and leadership experience.
Ramal Cooray - Developer
Ramal has worked in tech as a full stack developer for over 5 years, including at FTSE 100 companies. He’s hard at work building the bits that make our app feel seamless, friendly and informative.
When not coding he enjoys hiking and volunteering outdoors.
Thomas Jarratt - Developer
Thomas is an ambitious young software developer with a keen interest in the environment. He works primarily on the back end databasey bits of The Natural Neighbours App, where he blends his interests in technology and nature to help promote biodiversity within our cities.
Helen Bostock - Advisor
Helen is Senior Wildlife Specialist for the RHS, based at Wisley, and Vice Chair of the Wildlife Gardening Forum. She played a lead role in development of the RHS’s Plants for Bugs and Plants for Pollinators lists and is dedicated to helping gardeners become stewards of nature.
Assistant Professor Mark Goddard - Advisor
Mark is a VC Fellow of Northumbria University at Newcastle and a trustee of The Wildlife Gardening Forum.
Mark’s PhD thesis, on the ecological and social drivers of bird and bee diversity in residential landscapes, was one of the major inspirations behind The Natural Neighbours App and he and Helen in particular have given us a huge amount of advice and support since we reached out to them in summer 2022.
Adam Cochrane - Advisor
Adam is a marketing and communications specialist who has spent the last 15+ years in leading agencies and consultancies, working with some of the world’s best known consumer brands.
As a father of two living in Hackney, Adam is passionate about the importance of nature in our urban environments, and can often be found walking on Hackney Marshes with his family.
Dr. Tom Fry - Advisor
Dr. Tom Fry is Research Associate at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, and affiliated researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford. His current research focuses on urban garden landscapes, and on urban rewilding and nature recovery. He is particularly interested in understanding how and why diverse residents relate to the cosmopolitan ecologies of London’s green spaces, and how these can become sites of multispecies flourishing, an aim he shares with Natural Neighbours.
Samantha Otter - Advisor
Sam is a commercial and operational leader with over 20 years’ track record driving growth, transformation, and value creation across the technology, travel, and telecom sectors. We’re blessed to be able to draw on her experience helping fast-growing ventures align, transform, and scale.
