Many kinds of organizations are engaged in collaborative work on environmental sustainability and climate resilience, from neighborhood, youth, and environmental justice groups to national civic and professional associations to public agencies at all levels of the federal system. Other institutions, such as schools and universities, community health centers and hospitals, green builders and businesses, farms and ranches, rank-and-file workers and trade unions, tribes and tribal nonprofits, play important roles in collaborative stewardship, planning, and resilience. National environmental organizations can also enable collaborative work and civic policy design, even if their main focus may be on advocacy and innovation in other ways.
Here we begin to list a range of organizations and networks that have developed noteworthy practices, partnerships, toolkits, and policy designs. Some are local innovators, others serve to build capacity across an entire field, and still others provide funding and administrative support for civic engagement in sustainability and climate resilience. Visit their websites for their latest newsletters, projects, toolkits, strategic plans, and partnership opportunities.
If we can include your organization in our profiles and toolkits, let us know: carmensirianni511@gmail.com
A
This program is part of AARP, with a focus on community-level civic action among older adults, as well as healthy and climate resilient communities. See its Newsletter, as well as its guide, AARP with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Disaster Resilience Toolkit: A guide to how local leaders can reduce risk and better protect older adults (Washington, DC: AARP, 2022). See also the book that emerged from these projects, Danielle Arigoni, Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2023). Order info.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
AASHE is the leading association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education. It serves a full range of higher education faculty, administrators, staff, and students who are change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. Established in 2005, AASHE is comprised of over 900 members (universities, nonprofits, businesses) across 48 U.S. states, 1 U.S. Territory, 9 Canadian provinces and 20 countries. While AASHE covers virtually all aspects of campus sustainability, it values active civic engagement on campuses and in communities, and provides resources to support this. See also its Member Directory, which includes relevant programs and resources from its members. Its weekly bulletin, annual conference, and various curriculum and professional development workshops serve to widely diffuse innovative cases, best practices, and critical lessons.
B
A partnership in Western Montana among private landowners, public agencies, nonprofit land trusts and others to preserve natural resources and a rural way of life in the Blackfoot River watershed. It is governed through collaborative, inclusive, and consensus-based decision making. See its beautifully produced toolkit: Blackfoot Watershed Stewardship Guide (March 2022).
The alliance works with dozens of neighborhood, park, watershed and other civic groups, as well as public agencies, schools and universities, businesses, regional nonprofits, and cultural institutions. Its core partnership is with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Its focus is restoration of the Bronx River watershed, while providing opportunities for education, art, recreation, and developing careers in ecological restoration and parkland management. The Bronx River Assembly takes place this year on March 20, 2025, at the New York Botanical Garden and will focus on the 2024 updated Bronx River Intermunicipal Watershed Plan. Community involvement, engaged education, environmental justice, and climate resilience are key components of the plan.
C
Campus Compact describes itself as “a national coalition of colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. We build democracy through civic engagement and community development.” Founded in 1985, Campus Compact has become the largest national nonprofit network advancing best practices in community-based learning, engaged research, and university-community partnerships, including in ecosystem health, climate action, and AmeriCorps programs. Member institutions include state Compacts and cover the full range of colleges and universities, including two- and four-year, public and private, tribal, Hispanic-serving, and historically Black colleges and universities. Campus Compact also offers a pathway for students, faculty, and administrators to earn a credential in higher education civic and community engagement.
Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)
CNT “delivers innovative analysis and solutions that support community-based organizations and local governments to create neighborhoods that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient.” Located in Chicago, CNT has been an innovative partner locally and in many other cities, as well as in national policy forums. See its report (with the Transit Center), Equity in Practice: Strengthening Transit through Community Partnerships (2024), with a case study of Los Angeles Metro and six community-based organizations.
Center for Collaborative Conservation
The Center, housed at the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, has been an important capacity building organization within the field of collaborative conservation. It develops leadership skills through graduate and undergraduate courses, fieldwork, mentorships, partnerships, and student and practitioner fellowships. Fellows work with watershed councils, land trusts, Native tribes, and rancher groups, and they assist with participatory research, collaborative process, and public communication. It also publishes a wide array of toolkits, such as Toolkit for Meaningful Engagement with Indigenous Peoples in Conservation (2023). The Center has also been key in convening and providing leadership for the Western Collaborative Conservation Network. See the Center’s 10-Year Report: Transforming Conservation through Collaboration.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF)
“CBF leads the way in restoring the Bay and its rivers and streams. For more than 50 years, we have created broad understanding of the Bay’s poor health, engaged public leaders in making commitments to restore the Chesapeake, and fought successfully to create a new approach to cleanup that features real accountability—the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint.” CBF works across the six-state, 64,000 square-mile watershed and engages in advocacy and litigation on a broad range of issues, combined with environmental education, student leadership, hands-on restoration with community partners, and environmental justice. See Stories from Our Communities. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, originally signed in 1983, has been updated several times to include climate resilience, as well as further engaging communities.
Colorado Watershed Assembly (CWA)
CWA emerged in the 1990s in response to watershed policy design at the U.S EPA, shifts in the state’s water quality control division, and the burgeoning of independent watershed associations from 6 to 40 across the state in just two years by 1998, and then to 80 or so in 2013. CWA now “supports collaborative efforts to protect and improve the conservation values of our state’s land, water, and other natural resources by providing the network to connect a diversity of interests with Colorado’s watershed groups and other decision makers.” The speaker bios of its most recent Sustaining Colorado Watersheds Annual Conference (October 2024) provides a good sense of the range of its work, as does its recent news, including restoration projects, partner agencies, and funding programs. CWA is also a contributor to the ambitious Statewide Water Education Action Plan (SWEAP) for Colorado 2020-2025.
Communities by Design (CxD)
A program within the Architects Foundation (the philanthropic partner of the American Institute of Architects, AIA), Communities by Design has decades of experience in the U.S. and around the world in partnering with engaged citizens and stakeholders to design democratically for housing equity and downtown revitalization, as well as sustainability and climate resilience and rebuilding in the face of disaster. It is deeply committed to equity and engagement by ordinary people, who work with CxD Design Assistance Teams to ensure a good match of professional expertise with local knowledge and values. Teams utilize an array of methods, including community tours, public workshops, and design studios. For a team report from the Rockaways in NYC after Hurricane Sandy, see AIA Communities by Design, The Rockaways R/UDAT: Bay to Beach (June 2013), as well as our CivicGreen Professionals entry on Architects.
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The Groundwork Network is a national network of community-centered nonprofits (called Groundwork Trusts) to engage new voices and new partnerships in building green, healthy, and resilient neighborhoods. It promotes leadership for collaboration among people, businesses, and other organizations. Focal areas include resilient and healthy communities, land use and green spaces, restoring urban waters, and youth leadership and workforce development. Groundwork currently includes more than 20 trusts in its network (links to each trust’s website here). Among its repots and toolkits are Planning with an Eye towards Implementation: What All Communities Can Learn from Using Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Approach (2017).
I
Institute for Local Government (ILG)
Across the state of California, “ILG empowers local government leaders and delivers real-world expertise to help them navigate complex issues, increase their capacity, and build trust in their communities.” ILG has provided resources and training for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, as well as for public engagement, including its T.I.E.R.S. Public Engagement Framework. The Imperial Valley Civic Ecosystem Initiative is a partnership between ILG, the Governor’s Office, California Energy Commission, California Strategic Growth Council, and the Latino Community Foundation to ensure local Imperial Valley communities aren’t left behind as the region gears up to bolster the state’s clean energy future. For the challenges of implementation in climate planning across the state, see ILG’s co-authored report, Getting to Implementation: The Status of Local Climate Action in California (2023).
L
League of American Bicyclists (LAB)
“The League is improving lives and strengthening communities through bicycling. We are more than 200,000 members and supporters strong with more than 1,000 state and local advocacy groups and bike clubs as well as thousands of businesses, universities, and communities together leading the movement to create a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.” The League combines advocacy with partnership, collaboration, and bicycle education among a broad array of organizations and institutions. It offers a variety of Resources for Smart Cycling, and in Reconnecting to the New Majority (2021) addresses the persistent need for strategies to include youth, women, and people of color in bicycling. The 2020-2025 Strategic Plan outlines its commitment to create a healthy, just, equitable, and sustainable transportation system that promotes safe and accessible bicycling for all.
M
“The Malpai Borderlands Group’s goal [is] to restore and maintain the natural processes that create and protect a healthy, unfragmented landscape to support a diverse, flourishing community of human, plant and animal life in our borderlands region.” It was founded as a nonprofit in 1993 in the 1,410 square-mile arid region of southern Arizona and New Mexico just north of the Mexican border to bring ranchers, scientists, and key agencies together. Today the Malpai Borderlands Group carries out a series of conservation program activities, including land restoration; endangered species habitat protection; cost-sharing range and ranch improvements; and land conservation projects. For a history with maps and photos, see Peter Warren and Tana Kappel, An Unexpected Journey through the Radical Center: 30 Years of the Malpai Borderlands Group (December 2024). For the rich civic and cultural processes, as well as land trust finance and ecological research involved, see Nathan Sayre, Working Wilderness, in our Bookshelf.
N
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
NAAEE is a professional association designed to promote EE through teaching, research, and service. It includes member organizations and practitioners across the entire field. NAAEE has been several times, including in the last two funding cycles, the lead partner in the consortia of organizations funded through the National Environmental Education and Training Program to develop in-service and pre-service training based upon existing quality EE programs and EE Guidelines for Excellence, as well as support for state-based infrastructure. In 2017, NAAEE developed the 170-page Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence, which includes a broad range of pedagogically sound principles and practices for engaged EE that is community-centered, collaborative, and inclusive, and that fosters healthy, resilient, and just communities.
P
Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS)
“BPS develops solutions to make Portland more equitable, healthy, prosperous and resilient. Through long-range planning, climate action, waste management, community technology and digital equity, and the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF), we build a better future for all.” Building on decades of civic engagement through neighborhood, watershed, bicycle, and other associations and university partnerships, the PCEF Climate Investment Plan (Amended December 11, 2024) provides hundreds of millions of dollars to community and environmental justice partnerships. The plan was developed with considerable community and stakeholder involvement. See also Climate Emergency Workplan: Priority Actions for 2022-2025.
“We are people who care about Puget Sound. We span borders and boundaries, sectors, and strata. We envision a future in which generations can hear the calls of whales, witness the spawning of salmon, taste locally harvested shellfish, swim in clean water, and experience the unique cultural fabric that ties our region together. Our vision includes a resilient ecosystem—one that can adapt to the impacts of climate change and the pressures of a growing human population, while meeting the needs of its native creatures. Our vision includes a thriving economy, sustainable farms and forests, and human communities with high quality of life and the businesses that support them. And most importantly, our vision includes a broad community of engaged citizens who commit to save Puget Sound.”
PSP is a partnership model within the National Estuary Program (enabled by the Clean Water Act revisions of 1987), and is now within the Washington State Department of Ecology, with further funding from the state’s Climate Commitment Act. Local Integrating Organizations (LIOs) are local forums that meet regularly throughout the year with local partners, including tribes, to collaboratively work to develop, coordinate, and implement strategies and actions that that contribute to the protection and recovery of the local ecosystem. For the websites of each of the ten LIOs, click here. See also the Draft Guide on community engagement and environmental justice, prompted by the Healthy Environment for All Act (HEAL), which requires 7 state agencies to develop and adopt community engagement plans.
R
Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE)
“RAE, its member organizations, its affiliate members and grantees collaborate to protect and restore coastal habitats nationwide for the benefit of all people. We have unmatched national reach and effectiveness; our projects restore coastal wetlands, open fish passages, remove invasive species, build living shorelines, transplant seagrasses, replant salt marshes, and restore shellfish habitat. RAE advances the science and practice of habitat restoration through on-the-ground projects, high-level meetings, national issues advocacy and our biennial National Coastal and Estuarine Summit.” See RAE’s Coastal Restoration Toolkit.
The River Network was founded as a national association in Portland, Oregon, in 1988 to help nurture independent local organizations and then added capacity building for collaborative watershed work within a few years. It led the Four Corners Watershed Innovators Workshop that helped to shift national and state watershed approaches in the 1990s, and its organizational history has included many other projects since then. Its River Rally brings together hundreds of groups to share best practices, promote capacity building, and discuss policy options. At the Water Table includes stories of community action and the Urban Waters Learning Network, a partnership between River Network and Groundwork USA. River Voices serves as a monthly newsletter and includes an archive. Its State of the Network Survey (2022) provides an overview of the 752 organizations in the network. Two recent toolkits are Tools for Equitable Climate Resilience: Fostering Community Leadership (2020) and Tools for Equitable Climate Resilience: Fostering Community-Led Research and Knowledge (2021).
S
Student Conservation Association (SCA)
Founded in 1957, SCA is “a values-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to building the next generation of conservation leaders. We are guided by a commitment to stewarding our shared natural spaces, trust and the well-being of all. By fostering a culture of innovation, honoring diverse perspectives, and working together, we can create a lasting legacy for future generations.” SCA enlists high school students and young adults in summer ecosystem restoration and resilience projects on public lands, as well as within cities, with flexible entry and exit points, as well as older students in longer projects and specialized internships, such as its recently launched SCA Wildland Fire Academy, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service. For an overview, see FY2024 Annual Report.
T
“Founded in 1985, TCN is the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps. Our 150+ Corps provide young adults and veterans the opportunity to serve our country through projects on public lands and in rural and urban communities.” Corps are local organizations that engage young adults (generally ages 16 – 30) and veterans (up to age 35) in service projects that address conservation and community needs. They partner with AmeriCorps, federal land agencies, state and local government agencies, and many others in conservation and restoration work, building green urban spaces, and responding to wildfires and other disasters. Team-building skills, workplace preparation, and a civic ethos for a lifetime of collaborative civic engagement are essential to the Corps experience. See FY2023 Annual Report. For a list of Corps by state, as well as national and regional affiliates, click here.
W
Founded as an independent organization in 2007, the Waterfront Alliance now includes more than 1,100 organizations along the 700 miles of New York and New Jersey coastlines. “We are committed to preparing our coastal communities for the reality of sea level rise and the challenges of climate crises, creating healthy, resilient, accessible, and equitable waterways. Our goal is to maintain vibrant waterfronts that are alive with commerce and recreation, serving as a destination that reflects the vitality and diversity of our communities.” The alliance works to develop multi-stakeholder strategies for a resilient working harbor and its surrounding neighborhoods, as well as a collaborative adaptation planning process. Comprehensive, community-centered planning and the use of architectural Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines – WEDG® – inform collaboration with public agencies, as well as training among agency staff and civic associations. See its 2024 Annual Report.
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Founded in 1988 in West Harlem, New York City, WE ACT has focused on a broad range of environmental justice (EJ) issues locally and at the state level, as well as federally through its work on the National Environmental Justice Council and in other major forums. “WE ACT’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.” WE ACT has been directly involved in developing collaborative EJ policy designs and EPA grant programs for the past several decades, as well as a Northern Manhattan climate plan that includes climate disaster readiness. For its ambitious agenda, see WE ACT’s 2025 Policy Agenda: Campaigns & Initiatives.
Western Collaborative Conservation Network (WCCN)
“We are individuals and organizations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming—and expanding across the West—working in forests, grasslands, and watersheds.” WCCN is a network, founded in 2008 and housed at the Center for Collaborative Conservation at Colorado State University, that links community-based collaborative conservation leaders and practitioners, as well as a broad range of types of organizations. These include conservation organizations and land trusts, public land management agencies, academic institutions, private landowners, rural communities and tribes. WCCN promotes network learning, leadership development, and best practices for landscape-scale conservation. It convenes a biennial Confluence gathering (see the Confluence Program from the Tucson, Arizona, 2024 meeting), and publishes a quarterly newsletter (Collaborative Voices), which includes working groups, restoration stories, and news from member networks.