  Citation: Walshe, N.; Moula, Z.; Lee, E. Eco-Capabilities as a Pathway to Wellbeing and Sustainability. Sustainability 2022, 14, 3582. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14063582 Academic Editor: Ans Vercammen Received: 17 February 2022 Accepted: 14 March 2022 Published: 18 March 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Eco-Capabilities as a Pathway to Wellbeing and Sustainability Nicola Walshe 1, *, Zoe Moula 1 and Elsa Lee 2 1 IOE, UCL’s Institute of Education and Society, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; z.moula@ucl.ac.uk 2 School of Education and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK; elsa.lee@aru.ac.uk * Correspondence: n.walshe@ucl.ac.uk Abstract: Eco-Capabilities is an AHRC funded project situated at the intersection of three issues: a concern with children’s wellbeing; their disconnect with the environment; and a lack of engagement with arts in school curricula. It builds on Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities as a proxy for wellbeing, developing the term eco-capabilities to describe how children define what they feel they need to live a fully good human life through environmental sustainability, social justice and future economic wellbeing. A total of 101 children aged 7–10 from schools in highly deprived areas partici- pated in eight full days of arts in nature practice. The study drew on arts based research methods, participatory observations, interviews and focus groups with artists, teachers and children. Findings suggest that arts in nature practice contributed towards eight (eco-)capabilities: autonomy; bodily integrity and safety; individuality; mental and emotional wellbeing; relationality: human/nonhuman relations; senses and imagination; and spirituality. This was facilitated through four pedagogical ele- ments: extended and repeated arts in nature sessions; embodiment and engaging children affectively through the senses; ‘slowliness’, which envelops children with time and space to (re)connect; and thoughtful practice, which facilitates emotional expression. We suggest that, through these elements, arts in nature practice supports children’s wellbeing, and guides them towards a more entangled relationship with nature and a clearer understanding of themselves as part of it, thereby motivating them to take better care of it. Keywords: eco-capabilities; environmental and sustainability education; wellbeing; arts; nature; artscaping; outdoors; mental health; school; children 1. Introduction Global interest in children’s wellbeing is growing and is now central to major interna- tional policy documents regarding children’s life quality (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing [1]). Research suggests that children’s wellbeing is linked to developing positive learning attitudes and coping successfully with change [2]; conversely, low emotional wellbeing can lead to mental health problems [3]. Critically, one in six children in England suffer a severe mental health illness and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people [4]. However, this is not uncommon within the ‘Global North’, with Biddle et al. [5] reporting that Ireland, Portugal, Germany, and Finland have the highest rates of reported depression in Europe for those aged 15 years and over [6]. In Australia, there are 1.2 million mental health related general practice encounters for young people annually, and this has increased by 21% during the 2000s [7]. These figures are higher for vulnerable groups, such as those from low income households, those with special educational needs/neurodevelopmental differences (SEN/ND), or those who have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences [8]. There is also increasing evidence that climate change and the ecological crisis is further impacting the mental health and wellbe- ing of children and young people through eco-anxiety [9,10]. Worryingly, 70% of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems in the UK have not received appropriate support at a sufficiently early age [11], yet the National Service Framework Sustainability 2022, 14, 3582. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063582 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability