For Dr Lucy Hone, sustainability is not just about the planet - it’s about people. It’s about how we live through grief, how we support one another in hardship, and how we cultivate resilience in the face of life’s inevitable ups and downs. Her vision of sustainability looks like the harakeke: tough, adaptable, and forever regenerating, nourished by deep connection - to people, to place, and to purpose.

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Lucy’s path was irrevocably shaped by the tragic loss of her daughter and close friends in a car crash. It shifted her understanding of grief from academic theory to lived experience - and it transformed her purpose. Since then, she’s devoted her work to reshaping how we navigate loss, bringing grief literacy into the heart of communities, workplaces, and systems.

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“Sustainability, for me, means creating the conditions where we can all feel and function as well as possible - whatever life throws our way,” she says. This ethos underpins her mission to shift societal perceptions of grief from something passive and private to something active and shared.

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Her inspiration draws from both personal memory and ancestral wisdom. The whakataukī, “Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi” speaks to the collective nature of healing. It’s also echoed in the Indigenous practices she deeply respects, particularly tangihanga, the Māori approach to mourning that prioritises community, connection, and dignity - something Lucy believes the Western world has much to learn from.

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Through her work, Lucy challenges the outdated idea of grief as a tidy, five-stage process. Instead, she encourages people to embrace its nonlinear nature, moving between moments of sorrow and re-engagement with life. “Grief isn’t a life sentence. It’s a human experience,” she says. “And it’s one we can handle with more honesty and grace.”

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She’s now focused on scaling her research-informed tools to help more people navigate grief, not just professionals. Her call to action? Let’s build communities and organisations that understand grief - not ones that flinch from it.

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If Aotearoa is to lead the world in sustainability, Lucy believes its strength lies in whakapapa - our deep, intergenerational sense of connection. It’s this connection, she says, that holds the power to make our future more compassionate, resilient, and truly sustainable.

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Read Lucy’s reflections for BLOOMING Sustainability and take this with you: “Treat every experience as data for designing a life that makes sense to you. Curiosity and humility will take you further than certainty.”

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BLOOMING  Sustainability Questionnaire

Name: Dr Lucy Hone
Company & Title: Adjunct Fellow, University of Canterbury; Author, Resilient Grieving
Website & LinkedIn Profile: drlucyhone.com | LinkedIn/IG/FB @drlucyhone

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​* Guiding Values | Kaupapa 

If sustainability were a flower blooming in your life, what would it look like? What nurtures it?  

It would be the hardy harakeke. Deeply rooted, thriving in all conditions, and always regenerating. What nurtures it is connection: to people, to place, to purpose.

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A quote, personal motto or whakataukī that reflects your vision:  

“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.”
With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.
This reminds me that creating a better world is never the work of one person alone and that we are always better together.

I also hold close this adaptation of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ words, that my dear (departed) brother sent me when I was in my 20s. They’ve stayed with me ever since, encouraging me to face the day and step forward whatever life throws at me.
“Sometimes we must sail with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we will, not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
They remind me that while life will inevitably bring both tailwinds and headwinds, what matters most is that we keep moving with purpose and courage, one moment at a time.

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If you could mentor a rising change-maker in Aotearoa, what advice would you share?  

Navigating change is the work of a lifetime. It’s not about single grand gestures, but about small acts of courage performed in the micro-moments of our days. We need bravery to walk forward into the unknown, trusting that the path we’ve taken will make sense over time. We can’t predict the future, so we must learn to trust the process as we go.

My advice to the young people I’m lucky enough to be asked for advice from is always this: look upon your career as an adventure. You don’t have to have all the ‘right’ answers. Instead, regard each phase as a teacher. Make damn sure you learn from it – slowly gathering and accumulating insights about what you loved, what you loathed, where, when, and for whom you work best. Pay attention to the conditions that suit you most. Are you someone who needs the fresh air and freedom of the outdoors, or do you thrive in structured indoor environments? Do you value the energy of being part of a team, or prefer the autonomy of going it alone? Do you want every week to be different, or find your best work emerges through longer projects? These things are important for our sustainability. Pay attention. Notice. You can serve others better if you are thriving yourself.

Curiosity and humility will take you further than certainty. Treat every experience as data for designing a life that makes sense to you.​

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* Leading Change | Arataki

A key moment in your journey that shaped your path:  

Losing my daughter and friends in a tragic road accident changed everything for me – and my approach to/understanding of handling loss and unwanted change. It took it from academic to real and deeply personal. It taught me that life is precious and precarious, and that highlighted for me that what I care about most is helping people through the ups and downs of life.

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What’s the main challenge you face in driving sustainability within your sector?  

Overcoming the idea that our approach to grief and loss should be passive and individual. Over the past decade, I’ve been struck by how many people want to be active participants in their grief process. That doesn’t mean forcing themselves to feel happy, but it does mean seeking out ways of thinking, acting, and being that help them cope and adjust. Abi’s loss taught me that it is possible to live and grieve at the same time; I want to do the same for others, on a much bigger scale. That’s how I want to make my dent in the world.

Similarly, grief is not a solo endeavour. It could be made so much less painful if we built greater grief literacy within our communities and organisations. Too often, people feel awkward around grief because they don’t understand it – which only deepens the sense of isolation for those grieving. If we could reduce that awkwardness, stigma, and silence, and replace it with understanding and support, it would ease the burden for so many and create healthier, more compassionate workplaces and communities. That’s what sustainability means for me – that we are all provided the most supportive conditions so we can feel and function as well as possible, given the context of our lives.

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An area you need more support with:  

Scaling my research-informed grief education tools so that it helps support everyday people in their masses, not just forward-thinking professionals. I’m looking for partners to help bring my vision to fruition.

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An Indigenous perspective you admire and want people to be mindful of:  

The depth and wisdom of te ao Māori perspectives on grief and death. Tangihanga, for example, offers collective rituals that hold pain with dignity, connection, and respect – something Western systems can learn greatly from.

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What do you think is Aotearoa’s superpower in creating a sustainable future?  

Our whakapapa – an inherent understanding that we are all connected, to each other and to the land.
 

​ * Surfing the Green Wave | Kakariki

Books, podcasts, courses or other resources that profoundly shaped your approach to sustainability

Start With Why – Simon Sinek

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Rework – Jason Fried

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Because I recognise the importance of understanding our own sense of purpose and meaning in life, these two books helped me clarify my mission and cultivate a more sustainable approach to my work. They’ve helped me focus my attention more mindfully, and say no to projects that don’t serve my mission as effectively.

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If your work could plant one seed of change for the future, what would it be?

That people learn to recognise, understand, and talk about grief more openly. Loss is universal – both death losses and living losses - yet we continue to live in grief-illiterate and death-phobic societies. Of course, te ao Māori holds far greater wisdom here, offering collective rituals and openness that WIERD societies have largely lost.

Leaving grief in the shadows does untold harm. We need to be braver – to come together with more openness and honesty about our feelings and struggles. If we could talk about grief, loss and life’s challenging transitions, without awkwardness or fear, we’d ease suffering, build stronger communities, and become better humans and better leaders along the way.

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* One actionable takeaway for our readers to make a change today for a brighter tomorrow:

Understand that there are no ‘five stages of grief’. This entrenched fallacy – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance – continues to cause harm because people think there’s something wrong with them if they’re not moving neatly through those stages.

Contemporary grief theory teaches us that, in reality, grief doesn’t follow a tidy sequence. It’s far more typical – and healthy – to oscillate. Sometimes we approach our loss directly, feeling all the agony, sadness, and yearning it brings. At other times, it’s perfectly okay (and necessary) to re-engage with life, to distract ourselves, and to find moments of relief. Knowing this helps people be gentler with themselves and with others. Grief is not a linear journey; it’s a constant dance between holding on and letting go, remembering and rebuilding. And that’s not just normal – it’s deeply human. We all suffer, I want to teach people that that’s okay and how to handle it with more honesty and grace.