When designing for early learning, the most successful environments are those that are equally created to support parents and working families. By including early childhood programs, that include before- and after-school activities, larger goals that focus on parental...

To further support Natural Pod’s growth and impact in the world, we are delighted to welcome two new solutions team members: Tania Crosbie and Chris Jack. As education advocates, they will bring exceptional partnership to educators and planners who are working to...

The Global Education Guidebook: Humanizing K-12 Classrooms Worldwide Through Equitable Partnerships by Jennifer D. Klein, really is just that, a guidebook and essential resource for: 'Educators who are striving to connect their students to classrooms and experts in...

Natural Pod, a Canadian educational furniture manufacturer, curated with five leading sustainability-focused brands a mixed-material collection of furniture and textiles. The selected products not only aim to enhance the tactile experience and harmonious visual...

Bridgitte Alomes, our founder and CEO, had the opportunity to share more about the impact Natural Pod is committed to making in the world, with the support of local partnerships. ~ Article by Rebecca Keillor, published by the Vancouver Sun, BC, Canada....

Fortunately, sustainability in education has grown a huge amount in the last few years. Whether that's creating more energy-efficient schools, providing cleaner air, or increasing environmental education. But there's a long way to go. There is still a noticeable...

When you give children new items to interact with, it's such a joy to witness all the kinds of imaginative games and uses for them they create. So when it came time to try out our new Halfmoon bundles, that's what we did. These are items made of 100% cotton and linen...

The story begins with a Canadian brand – Natural Pod – a company that believes in creating beautifully designed, durable, sustainable products for students and educators to use in learning spaces. Natural Pod’s new Better Together partnership collection has led them...

This beautifully uplifting and inspiring book was published near the end of 2021, just when educators really needed to hear that the work they do matters, really matters. Because of a Teacher is a collection of personal stories, brought together to "offer hope for new...

As a young mother, when your child is sick from exposure to a toxic chemical, a plethora of emotions floods your system. Over ten years ago, that mother was me. I had all of those emotions as my little boy had an adverse reaction to a toy in his learning environment....

Never has it been more important for humans to gather and work together to solve some of the biggest problems of our time. The starting point, as always, is education. Too many institutions are operating within an outdated industrial model; which doesn't serve its...

In the United States, there is a group of seven days a year acknowledged in the month of May, which we call 'Teacher Appreciation Week'. But anyone connected to children or education (which is nearly everyone in some way) knows that to truly honor the dedication...

Our very own Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer of Natural Pod, is A4LE SchoolsNEXT Southeast Chair, National Co-Chair, and committed to the future of the SchoolsNEXT student design competition. Last year she documented her participation experience in the...

Natural Pod™ Play lofts were designed very much with the needs of early learners in mind. The intention was to create spaces that were all their own, where their imaginations could transform the space into any environment they wished, whether a fort, a castle, an...

Our work is not only to create high-quality, functional, beautiful and non-toxic learning furniture. But also to innovate within this space. To create new paradigms for how educational environments and experiences are thought about, and how those are tied to ethical...

Since the beginning days of the industrial model, learning environments have been anchored to direct instruction and information-giving models. A place where students, or pupils, show up to a building to learn because that location was the only place for it to occur....

The Natural Pod team has recently been gathering together online with the intention of reflecting on this past year. (We are an almost fully remote team so that's our normal regardless of the current state of the world). We've also been looking ahead to the next one...

Although it's been a challenging year in multiple ways, the Natural Pod team has been constantly uplifted by the inspiring work and perseverance of our community. Earlier this year to amplify the voices of those committed to creating better learning environments,...

Woo hoo! We're delighted that our Christine Play Loft is an Interior Design Best of Year Awards Finalist! It's wonderful to be recognized for our sustainable play and learning furniture, and especially for our most unique and popular Play Loft, the Christine! Named in...

It's hard not to be aware of the selling and buying messages flying around at this time of year. They're a good reminder to try and make sustainable and values-led buying choices whenever possible, as the decisions we make today can impact ourselves, each other and...

Now the new school year is in full swing, the comparative freedom of the summer may be a distance memory. A time when the majority of children probably weren't in the same place each day, hopefully they were outside more, naturally moving daily in a way that’s not...

With my upcoming webinar exploring a case study around indoor/outdoor learning studios, along with the increase in questions around the benefits of outdoor learning, I thought I'd collect some resources that may be of value to others looking into this subject. If you...

Our upcoming webinar 'Case Study: How Indoor/Outdoor Classrooms Deepen Students Learning' is sharing the key lessons learned from a unique middle school project based in California. Repurposed shipping containers were innovatively used to create indoor/outdoor...

We're delighted to be participating and bringing you this webinar after its previous re-scheduling. The webinar, ’How Indoor/Outdoor Classrooms Deepen Students’ Learning’, is taking place on Wednesday 8th December at 3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT. It's being brought to you in...

Whole school sustainability has a range of meanings. As a designer or planner of built educational environments how does one deliver a successful project when creating a sustainable school or learning environment? As the Founder and CEO of Natural Pod this has been my...

Although the majority of my working time is as chief strategy officer at Natural Pod, I thoroughly enjoy wearing other hats within education as well; I sit on the board of Green Schools National Network and I’m also the national co-chair and southeast chair of...

We highly recommend Healthy Buildings - How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, by Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber, for those who care about the health of our children, oneself, and the communities we belong to. This book couldn't be more timely, as...

Our very own Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer of Natural Pod, will be sharing the outcomes of her work as Southeast Chair of SchoolsNEXT at LearningScapes 2021 taking place on October 14-17th. The in-person session, Student Voice Informs Equitable Learning...