Many kinds of organizations are engaged in collaborative work on environmental sustainability and climate resilience, from neighborhood, youth, and environmental justice groups to 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@gmil.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 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. 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.
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.
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.