Beyond the Checklist and How ANFT Relational Forest Therapy Brings ESG to Life
Written by Juna Ting-Wei Chang, Forest Therapy Guide
Juna Ting-Wei Chang is a forest therapy guide and founder of Shinrin-Yoku Taiwan, specialising in evidence-based forest therapy and Shinrin-yoku. She supports individuals and organisations in slowing down and gently returning their attention to themselves and the more-than-human world through nature.
Companies everywhere are being asked to show that they care about people and the planet. Here is how a practice built on relationship, not resource, can turn ESG from a report into a lived culture, seen through Taiwan’s emerging forest therapy industry.
Open the annual report of almost any large company and you will see three letters: E, S, and G. Turn to the pages on employee wellbeing and nature, and a familiar picture often appears: a tree-planting day, a smiling team, and a promise to do better.
I work as a forest therapy guide in Taiwan, and I am regularly invited to guide organizations, from government bodies to private companies. One question keeps coming back to me: does ticking the box change how people think, feel, and decide? I believe Relational Forest Therapy™, the approach taught by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT), offers a different kind of answer.
What is ESG, really?
ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. The term spread after June 2004, when a group of financial institutions, invited by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, published the report Who Cares Wins. Its recommendations asked the financial industry to bring these three areas into investment analysis and asset management.[1]
The three letters in plain language
Environmental: how a company treats the planet, from emissions and resources to biodiversity.
Social: how it treats people, including employees, communities, and supply chains.
Governance: how it is run, through transparency, ethics, accountability, and the way decisions get made.
Investors, regulators, and customers increasingly want companies to show, not just say. Yet E, S, and G are usually handled by different departments. A forest does not divide them at all.
Where forest therapy enters the picture
Taiwan offers a revealing example. In December 2024, the Forest Stewardship Council reported that 100% of Taiwan’s public forests, nearly 1.6 million hectares and 71.5% of the country’s total forest area, had been FSC-certified. The same announcement listed forest therapy among the non-timber services the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency wants to grow.[2]
The profession is growing alongside it. As of August 2025, the agency reported 89 certified forest therapy guides nationwide, with the stated aim of industrializing the profession, and it had held more than 80 forest therapy events since October 2024.[3]
From my own work, I see forest therapy and sustainability as inseparable. The choice of site, the design of activities, and the people we serve all need to rest on sustainability principles, so that the environment, society, and economy can thrive together. I also see the gap: for most practitioners in Taiwan, myself included, forest therapy income is not yet a stable single source, and many of us keep other work alongside it. That is why my research turns to the question of how the industry itself can be built.
The sharing economy question
My research examines how a sharing economy platform could support the development of Taiwan’s forest therapy industry.[4] Scholars describe the sharing economy as platforms that let people temporarily access assets that would otherwise sit underused.[5] In forest therapy, those assets include trained guides, suitable forests and trails, and local partners, while demand comes from companies, schools, and communities looking for credible experiences.
Through an ESG lens, I read such a platform as touching all three letters. Local guides could reach steadier work (S). Existing forests would be used with care, with no need for new construction (E). And shared standards for safety, quality, and fair pricing would make the whole system more trustworthy (G).
E, S, and G through a relational lens
Environmental. Many corporate nature programs ask employees to do something for the environment for a day. Relational Forest Therapy starts by building a relationship with a place. In my experience, when people get to know a piece of land, they begin to belong to it, and we protect what we belong to. People who have sat quietly in the same forest are more likely to care about forests, including the ones hidden in their company’s supply chain.
Social. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that 12 billion workdays are lost every year to depression and anxiety, at a cost of nearly US$1 trillion to the global economy, and that 15% of working-age adults live with a mental disorder.[6] A walk cannot solve that alone, but a practice that helps people slow down, notice, and feel connected speaks directly to it. The social impact also reaches outward. For a group visiting Taipingshan in Yilan, for example, I closed the walk with local farmers’ black tea and rice cakes, so that the experience quietly channeled value into the community.
Governance. This one surprises people. In a forest therapy circle there is no podium. A guide offers invitations rather than orders, and every participant’s experience counts equally. For leaders, that is a rehearsal for how good governance can feel: listening before deciding, and making room for quieter voices.
Why relational goes deeper than a wellness perk
Most corporate nature activities, however well meant, treat the forest as a resource: a pleasant setting for a team day or a wellness benefit. That model is easy to schedule and easy to report, and it is also where the risk of greenwashing lives. A company can tick the box without anything changing inside it.
ANFT’s approach starts from a different premise: the forest is the therapist, and guides open the door. The forest is a partner, not a backdrop. Our walks typically begin with sensory activation, inviting people to slow down and arrive in the present moment, and they often close with food made from local ingredients. Because the experience belongs to each participant rather than to a program script, what people take away is personal, and that is what travels back to the office.
From one walk to a changed culture
How the ripple moves outward
Individual mindset: Many of us live in a constant state of “Doing.” The forest invites “Being”: allowing ourselves to pause and notice without needing to prove our worth through output.
Team culture: Shared silence and sharing circles build trust, and colleagues begin to listen differently in meetings.
Organizational decisions: Leaders who feel connected to a place and to their people weigh sustainability and wellbeing earlier, not as an afterthought.
Society and environment: The company’s choices reach suppliers, local communities, and ecosystems, and its ESG claims have lived experience behind them.
One honest note: research on forest therapy’s effect on whole-company culture is still emerging, and a single walk will not transform an organization. The most credible path is regular practice, led by certified local guides, with follow-up reflection and a concrete reciprocal action, such as supporting local forest stewardship.
The door is open
ESG asks companies to care about people and the planet. Relational Forest Therapy gives them a place to practice what caring actually feels like.
Read more from Juna Ting-Wei Chang
Juna Ting-Wei Chang, Forest Therapy Guide
Juna Ting-Wei Chang is a forest therapy guide and founder of Shinrin-Yoku Taiwan, now part of Green Shower. She is the first Taiwanese guide certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) and also holds the Taiwan Forest Therapist Certificate. With a background in languages, cross-cultural experience, and landscape and recreation management, Juna brings science, tradition, and lived experience together in a warm, grounded way. Her work supports individuals, organisations, and international groups in cultivating emotional resilience, presence, and sustainable wellbeing through nature-based practices.
References:
[1] United Nations Global Compact, & Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. (2004). Who cares wins: Connecting financial markets to a changing world. https://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/Financial_markets/who_cares_who_wins.pdf
[2] Forest Stewardship Council. (2024, December 19). Taiwan becomes first in Asia-Pacific to achieve 100% FSC certification for public forests.
[3] Yeh, E. (2025, September 19). Agency certifies forest therapy guides. Taipei Times, p. 3. https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/09/19/2003844073
[4] Chang, T.-W. (2024). 共享經濟平台應用於臺灣森林療癒產業發展之可行性 [The feasibility of applying sharing economy platforms to the development of the forest therapy industry in Taiwan] [Master's thesis, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology]. https://doi.org/10.6346/NPUST202400262
[5] Frenken, K., & Schor, J. (2017). Putting the sharing economy into perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 23, 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2017.01.003
[6] World Health Organization, & International Labour Organization. (2022, September 28). WHO and ILO call for new measures to tackle mental health issues at work.
