Welcome to the Green Communities Guide

The Green Communities Guide is an essential tool to help communities plan and implement nature-based solutions and strategies to conserve water, protect water quality, preserve agricultural land, and protect critical open spaces and wildlife habitat.

The Forgotten Solution

Why Green Communities? Because nature is one of the most effective ways of combating climate change and nature-based climate solutions - actions that are in harmony with nature that incorporate nature conservation and support biodiversity protection - can provide cost-effective approaches to mitigate climate change.

A Complete Online Resource

Designed for use by municipal planners, developers, community groups and more, this living resource highlights innovative, nature-based approaches communities are taking to managing development with respect to its impacts on our natural systems. This Guide features innovative approaches to sustainable development including riparian management, xeriscaping, naturalization, storm water wetlands, brownfield reclamation, permaculture and much more, and includes recommended practices and project considerations as well as the business, nature and community-side of each nature-based solution.

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The Stewardship Directory

A valuable companion resource to the Green Communities Guide, this online directory helps connect community stewardship groups, organizations, businesses and governments to share their experiences and lessons learned in stewardship and natural resource management.

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The Latest News

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More green spaces and trees needed to combat urban heat island effect in Hannover, Germany

A recent study on the urban heat island effect in Hannover, Germany showed that green spaces and treed areas have a mitigating effect on extreme heat conditions studied between 2018 and 2020, highlighting…

NBS more widely accepted and promoted at COP28

Nature-based solutions were more broadly accepted and promoted at COP28 than in recent years, as part of a suite of strategies to address climate change, which also includes transitioning to renewable…

British integrated engineering firm demonstrating benefits of NBS in Manchester

Buro Happold, an integrated consulting engineering and advising firm based in the UK, demonstrates the multiple benefits to people and nature that can be gained by implementing NBS in urban spaces. …

NBS remain underutilized in creating more climate change resilient urban areas

According to the Institute for Housing and and Urban Development Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, NBS are still underutilized in creating more climate change resilient urban areas. Some of…

NBS crucial in the fight against climate change

While countries must work to reduce carbon emissions, NBS are also critical to ensure biodiversity and ecosystem services that keep the planet habitable, including reducing both flooding and drought,…

Metro Detroit leveraging NBS for flood prevention in the face of a changing climate

Metro Detroit is working on a variety of nature-based solutions to mitigate the risks of flooding, which is on the rise due to climate change and - like most urban areas - the high prevalence of impervious…