1.     Abundant Biodiversity

The Challenge: To embrace the ethical obligation to promote native species diversity for the sake of humans and nonhumans alike. To reverse wherever possible losses in species biodiversity, native habitat, and ecological connectivity. To envision cities as arks where biodiversity can co-exist, regenerate and even flourish with urban density.

Edmonton, Canada

For more than 25 years, Edmonton has ecologically restored city green spaces through naturalization. The city is implementing projects throughout the urban landscape - along roadways, stormwater ponds, park spaces, and in new development communities. View the map of naturalization projects.

Wellington, New Zealand

The Wellington City Council has documented a 10-year 50% increase in native birds within the city! To support these findings, the city collects data at more than 100 different stations located within the city’s parks and reserves. Playing a significant role is Zealandia, a 40-acre acre bird sanctuary within the city that is enclosed by predator-free fencing.

Austin, Texas

As part of a 10-year plan to revitalize Pease Park, the city’s oldest park, the city worked with consulting architects to design plans to remove invasive species and ecologically rehabilitate the existing tree canopy (consisting of hundred-year-old oaks and elms), upland and riparian zones, and native soils.

2.     Creating a Movement

The Challenge: Create and support the capacity of a generative social impact network that includes public and private partners to implement the concepts of biophilic planning and design in the form of adopted policy and practice.

Birmingham, England

The city has adopted a 25-year City of Nature Plan to restore and expand Birmingham’s nature, starting in the areas of least accessible nature. The plan seeks to aid the city in adapting to climate change in part through the sustainable management and funding of the city’s parks and green spaces.

Edmonton, Canada

Edmonton is currently collaborating with Parks Canada, the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, the Métis Nation of Alberta, and the province of Alberta to explore the potential for establishing a National Urban Park in the Edmonton area. This initiative is part of a federal program lead by Parks Canada to support conservation in urban areas, including biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation, to increase access and provide opportunities to learn about local nature and culture in urban spaces, and advance reconciliation by working in collaboration with Indigenous partners.

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh has adopted a Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP) with the main objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing equity, and building community resilience.  The city will share a first implementation report and dashboard of metrics will in early 2023.  Biophilic cities concepts are built into the CCAP as an educational opportunity to illustrate the opportunities for climate action and biophilic city planning and design.

3.     Ecological Wonder

The Challenge: Invite appreciation of the intangible qualities of nature across the urban landscape through education, art and experiences that inspire a sense of awe, a connection to the larger world, and a stewardship responsibility.

Miami-Dade County, Florida

As a prelude to the 75th anniversary celebration of the creation of the Everglades National Park, the county held a two-day festival celebrating the creation of county’s own Crandon Park in the same year. The festival affirmed the commitment of the county to developing a more resilient future through sustainable parks. Festival programming included horticultural competitions, workshops, and flower installations.

Capital Nature (Washington, DC)

As a regional convener of nature happenings in Washington DC metro area, partner Capital Nature oversaw diverse programs in 2022 including neighborhood nature discovery, forest bathing, and collaborating in an area bioblitz with the goal of bringing nature into the lives of Washington Metro area residents and visitors. Capital Nature maintains a robust calendar of area nature opportunities.

Phipps Conservatory (Pittsburgh, PA)

Phipps’ monthly biophilia series brings in speakers focused on different aspects of human-nature interconnection. The series has included presentations from local chefs, nature pre-school teachers, artists, scientists, community organizers, grant-makers, and architects. In 2022, Phipps welcomed 531 guests to this speaker series – more than previous years.

4.     Equitable Nature

The Challenge: Ensure that nature is equitably accessible for all citizens across the urban landscape by bridging both physical and psychological barriers to access; in particular, in the communities where access to nature has historically been the most limited and where increased access to nature can have the greatest impact in terms of quality of life, community resilience, health and safety.

Austin, Texas

Austin is moving forward with implementation of its Climate Equity Plan with the goal of equitably reaching net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The plan includes a strong emphasis on equity in recognition that while climate change affects everyone, the impacts are not felt equally among all communities. To help address these disparities, the plan was created with input from a diverse range of city stakeholders with all elements of plan was evaluated through an equity tool that accounted for outcomes related to health, affordability, accessibility, community capacity, cultural preservation, accountability, and a just transition to green jobs.

Birmingham, England

The Birmingham Future Parks Accelerator Project is the first UK local authority to develop a measurement tool for environmental justice to respond to the issue of unequal access to green space. Working with partners, the city developed a map of Birmingham that shows where in the city impacts of nature deprivation are most acutely felt, including urban heat island effects, flood risks, and health inequities.

Norfolk, Virginia

The city has adopted a new Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which, among other priorities, ensures a diversity of parks and recreation offerings and equity of access (10-min walk).  To aid in the plan’s development, the city created a map of locations of natural areas in Norfolk overlaid with the median incomes of every census tract in the city in order to highlight disparities in open space and nature allocation. The city plans to update this map annually to track and address the distribution of nature in Norfolk over time. 

5.     Flourishing Health and Wellbeing

The Challenge: Build consensus that daily contact with nature is an essential element of positive health and wellbeing, longevity, and quality of life. Support documentation that enabling engagement with nature is a cost-effective investment in preventative health.

Portland, Oregon

Portland has developed a Youth Conservation Crew, which is a program for 14- to 18-year-olds run by Portland Parks & Recreation that sends crew teams to plant trees, clear trails and remove invasives in city parks. The program aims to provide green infrastructure jobs and health benefits of time in nature for youth in communities that are underserved in the terms of access to nature and employment opportunities.

Edmonton, Canada

The city is facilitating community design around the development of a central downtown Warehouse Park. The park project is one of a network of green infrastructure projects Edmonton has developed as part of an overarching “green and walkable” downtown strategy to invite use of the area through improvements in healthy nature and pedestrian infrastructure.

6.     Markets for Social Impact

The Challenge: Support broad investment in natureful cities by diverse public and private participants through the communication of the socioeconomic benefits of biophilic planning and design, the establishment of standards and metrics, and the transformation of underlying legal, cultural and social systems that prioritize, encourage, and incentivize investment in biophilic planning and design.

Arlington, Virginia

Adopted in February 2022, the Pentagon City Sector Plan includes extensive recommendations related to biophilia and biophilic design, particularly in the area of public space design and a planning area-wide new pedestrian network dubbed the “green ribbon”. The plan also includes ambitious goals for increasing the tree canopy, introducing biophilic design in and on buildings, within streetscapes, and are parks and plazas.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A green schoolyard project for La Eschuela Fratney, a citywide dual language elementary school, features permeable surfaces, bioswales, trees, and outdoor learning spaces, among other elements, that both capture and treat stormwater and afford students opportunities for outdoor learning and education. The project was a collaborative partnership that included the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Milwaukee nonprofit Reflo.

Raleigh, North Carolina

Residents approved the largest parks bond in the city's history with a vision to provide improved equitable, resilient park, and greenway access across the city.

7.     Nature Based Resilient Communities

The Challenge: Enable community and ecosystem sustainability and adaptation through nature-based solutions to the conditions of changing climate, environmental degradation, natural disaster, and social unrest.

Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

The Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council has initiated a project for the naturalization of school playgrounds. The project seeks to transform these outdoor spaces to adapt them to climate change and incorporate them into the city's green infrastructure system, with the active participation of educational communities, incorporating the perspectives of coeducation, inclusion, and sustainability as principles for intervention.

Washington, DC

The city has adopted new protections for large trees within the city, including a category of “heritage trees” (those larger than 100 dbh) that must be retained when healthy. After a few well documented violations of these protections, the city adopted further measures to allow city arborists to issue stop work orders to prevent the cutting of protected trees when there is compliance with local tree protection regulations.

Singapore

Singapore is utilizing a variety of different technologies to monitor and care for trees in the city. Through the TreesSG online database, users can access a database to find trees near them, report any issues they might have spotted, and even email the trees to say thank you for the natural benefits they bring! The city is using satellite imagery to spot trees with a lower chlorophyll rate, showing up as yellow or brown, alerting the city that trees need immediate attention. The city has also attached wireless tilt sensors to trees potentially at risk of falling, offering data on how much they may be leaning.

Fremantle, Australia

The city exceeded 2022 targets set for in its Urban Forest Plan for new tree plantings by 78%. The plan has set a long-term target to increase the city’s overall tree canopy coverage by 20% by 2027.

8.     Symbiotic Built Environment

The Challenge: Foster the design of living architecture by integrating nature directly and indirectly into the fabric of urban infrastructure to respond to the innate evolutionary connection that humans have with the natural world. The aim to create a personal and collective connection with the built environment with resulting identifiable, beneficial impacts for social cohesion, productivity and wellbeing.

San Francisco, California

The city has completed a 30-year vision to rejoin segments of Presidio Park through the use design and development of a 14-acre park, called the Presidio Tunnel Tops, that sits atop of underground roadways that previously bisected the park.

Austin, Texas

Biophilic design is taking root in local building design throughout Austin, including the redevelopment of an old shopping center, the underutilized former waterfront HQ of the Austin American Statesman newspaper, and a contaminated former fuel storage facility.