The kingdom your workplace greening plan forgot: flora, fauna and funga
Plants get the plan, pollinators get the hotel - and the kingdom that builds the soil gets forgotten. Here is what to do about it.
By Adi Staempfli - founder of Urban Mushrooms London, a South London non-profit growing gourmet mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds.
Your greening plan has two kingdoms. Nature runs on three
Look at any workplace biodiversity plan and you will find the same two chapters: plants (the roof garden, the beds, the living wall) and animals (the pollinators, the bird boxes, the bee hotel). Both worthy. But the kingdom that makes the other two possible is almost never mentioned. Fungi - "funga", to give the kingdom its proper collective name alongside flora and fauna - are the infrastructure of every terrestrial ecosystem, and they are missing from nearly every corporate nature strategy in the country.
What fungi actually do for your planting
Underground, mycorrhizal fungi partner with plant roots, extending them into a network that moves water and nutrients far beyond the reach of the roots themselves - most land plants depend on these partnerships. Above and within the soil, saprotrophic fungi do the other half of the work: breaking down dead material and turning it back into fertility. A planting scheme without a thought for its fungi is a garden standing on ground it is slowly exhausting. With them, soil becomes a living system that improves year on year.
Why this matters to an ESG lead, specifically
Three reasons. First, credibility: biodiversity commitments are increasingly scrutinised, and a plan that covers the full picture - flora, fauna, funga - reads as literacy rather than decoration. Second, engagement: fungi are the most quietly fascinating subject you can put in front of staff; a lunch-and-learn on the network under the office lawn outperforms another slide deck about recycling. Third, circularity you can touch: fungi are the working proof of the circular economy. At Urban Mushrooms London we grow gourmet mushrooms commercially on recycled coffee grounds and straw - waste in, food out, spent substrate back to compost and gardens. When a team sees that loop running on a table in front of them, the concept stops being abstract.
What a workplace can actually do
Practically, and in rising order of ambition: audit what your grounds already have (older trees usually mean established fungal partners worth protecting); feed the soil rather than replacing it - mulch, compost loops, less disturbance; include fungi when you brief your landscape designers, because almost nobody does; bring the subject indoors with a hands-on session - growing oyster mushrooms on your own building's coffee waste is a genuinely popular team format; and if you have a roof garden or planting scheme, take advice on the fungal layer the same way you took advice on the planting.
Start smaller than you think
This does not begin with a budget line. It begins with someone on the sustainability team learning what the third kingdom does, and asking the landscaping contractor one new question. If you want that conversation to happen at your workplace - as a talk, a hands-on workshop, or honest advice on your own grounds - that is exactly what I do.
Frequently asked questions
Is 'funga' a real term?
Yes - it is the collective term for the fungal kingdom, adopted in conservation language to sit alongside flora and fauna, precisely because fungi kept being left out of biodiversity planning.
Can fungi really grow on office coffee waste?
Yes - oyster mushrooms grow well on spent coffee grounds mixed with straw. It is how we produce commercially, and it makes a compelling hands-on workshop for teams.
Do you install or maintain planting?
No - your landscapers keep that role. I bring the fungal knowledge to your plans and your people: sessions, advice, and the questions worth asking.
Put funga on the plan
A talk, a hands-on session, or honest advice on your own grounds - start the conversation.
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