What If Love for People and Planet Guided Teaching? A Conversation with Eddy van Hemelrijk

The role of business should be to do good for society and the planet," Eddy declares. "Business and being a business person is not about individual wealth and fame." Having transformed from what he calls "a regular businessman trained in a very neoliberal way" into an educator, Eddy embodies the personal transformation that many in this series describe: reaching a point where "we couldn't continue the way we were doing." But what makes Eddy's approach distinctive is what he identifies as his driving force—"the major element for me is love for people and love for nature"—and how students feel it. Teaching business ethics, he provocatively asks students whether that's an oxymoron, helping them see the tension between conventional business paradigms and regenerative futures. Eddy emphasizes getting students back to nature, learning from biologists and biomimicry, discovering how energy can flow in a room, and understanding that sustainability - doing less harm - isn't enough. "We need a thriving society and flourishing society," he insists. From debating utopian versus dystopian futures to seeing rising inequality in cities as a call to action, Eddy demonstrates how personal values can fundamentally reshape what and how we teach.Key themes: Love as pedagogy, business for good, personal transformation, nature connection, beyond sustainability to thriving, intergenerational justice