Research

By Chris Pinney, et al.

Arlington, VA (April 29, 2012)- This guide lays out an ambitious agenda to redefine the purpose and value of corporate foundations and giving programs so that they can meet the challenges of corporate citizen- ship. Economic uncertainty around the globe demands greater commitment, adaptability, and courage on the part of corporations and their foundations and giving programs. This guide seeks to engage the corporate philanthropy community in discussion so that it can continue to increase its impact as a significant contributor to society and enhance its value to the companies they represent.

By Jeffrey Odefey, Stacey Detwiler, Katie Rousseau, Amy Trice, Roxanne Blackwell, Kevin O'Hara, Mark Buckley, Tom Souhlas, Seth Brown and Pallavi Raviprakash

Washington, DC (April 1, 2012)- Across the country, communities are struggling with how to fix and replace failing and outdated infrastructure and meet new demand to manage stormwater and protect clean water. American Rivers worked with the American Society of Landscape Architects, ECONorthwest, and the Water Environment Federation to release the "Banking on Green" report to build on the current understanding of the cost-effectiveness of green infrastructure and examine how these practices can increase energy efficiency and reduce energy costs, reduce localized flooding, and protect public health.

By Stephanie Y. Searle, Matthew H. Turnbull, Natalie T. Boelman, William S.F. Schuster, Dan Yakir and Kevin L. Griffin

New York, NY (March 5, 2012)- Urbanization is accelerating across the globe, elevating the importance of studying urban ecology. Urban environments exhibit several factors affecting plant growth and function, including high temperatures (particularly at night), CO2 concentrations and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. The study found an eightfold increase in biomass in urban-grown seedlings relative to those grown at rural sites.

By Suzanne Ozment

Washington, DC (February 15, 2012)- Today, many managers want to know how ecosystem service considerations can be integrated into business performance systems. This issue is addressed in the World Resources Institute’s new report, Nature in Performance, a guide that helps business managers incorporate ecosystem service considerations into environmental management systems, sustainability reporting, and other performance systems.

By Dana R. Fisher, Lindsay Campbell, and Erika S. Svendsen

New York, NY (February 1, 2012)- This study investigates how the organizational structure of urban environmental stewardship groups related to the diverse ways that civic stewardship is taking place in urban settings. The findings of a limited number of studies that have explored the organizational structure of civic environmentalism are combined with the research on civic stewardship to answer this question.

By David J. Nowak and Eric J. Greenfield

Syracuse, NY (January 17, 2012)- Paired aerial photographs were interpreted to assess recent changes in tree, impervious and other cover types in 20 U.S. cities as well as urban land within the conterminous United States. National results indicate that tree cover in urban areas of the United States is on the decline at a rate of about 7900 ha/yr or 4.0 million trees per year.

By Karen Stagoll, David B. Lindenmayer, Emma Knight, Joem Fischer, and Adrian D. Manning

Canberra, Australia (February 2, 2012)- Large trees are considered keystone structures in agricultural and forestry production landscapes, but research demonstrating this in urban landscapes is currently limited. This study encourages mature trees to be recognized in policy to ensure their ongoing existence. Researchers studied the role of large native trees for birds in urban parks in Canberra, Australia.

By Alisa Valderrama, Larry Levine, Starla Yeh, and Eron Bloomgarden

Philadelphia, PA (February 1, 2012)- Philadelphia has taken the lead among cities nationwide by establishing a parcel-based stormwater billing structure that provides a very significant credit (up to nearly 100 percent) for non-residential owners who can demonstrate onsite management of the first inch of rainfall over their entire parcel. Philadelphia’s incentive it creates for private property owners to install stormwater retrofits complements the city’s Green City, Clean Waters program, which recently received approval from state regulators. That program requires the city, over the next 25 years, to retrofit nearly 10,000 impervious acres of public and private property to manage an inch of stormwater runoff onsite.

By Sadie Miller

Cambridge, MA (January 16, 2012)- In the working paper, Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance, researchers from Harvard Business School analyzed the adoption of various environmental and social policies among 180 companies and found that High Sustainability companies outperformed their counterparts on the stock market and in accounting performance.

College Park, MD (January 10, 2012)- Trees and urban forests produce enormous benefits for people and communities. They improve our environment, our economy, our health, and our quality of life. Research by top scientists has begun to quantify the diverse benefits of urban forests, proving the many ways trees enhance our cities and towns. Alliance for Community Trees has compiled these statistics into Benefits of Trees and Urban Forests: A Research List.

Washington, DC (December 6, 2011)- The HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities and the USDA has released Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities, a report that discusses how the four agencies are collaborating to support rural communities.

Washington, DC (December 1, 2011)- The USDA Forest Service Forests to Faucets project uses GIS to model and map the continental United States land areas most important to surface drinking water, the role forests play in protecting these areas, and the extent to which these forests are threatened by development, insects and disease, and wildland fire.

By Nate Berg

Los Angeles, CA (November 21, 2011)- Cities are hot spots. Their paved surfaces and dark rooftops absorb energy from the sun, which creates localized areas of high temperatures. Expanded out from the building scale to the city scale, these hot roofs and blacktops collectively create a blanket of retained warmth in a city, raising temperatures an annual average of about 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

By Charles C. Branas, Rose A. Cheney, John M. MacDonald, Vicky W. Tam, Tara D. Jackson and Thomas R. Ten Have

Philadelphia, PA (November 11, 2011)- Headed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Health, Safety, and Greening Vacant Urban Space pieced together an interesting picture of how cities with greenspace can improve the health of its residents.

By Noah Garrison, Karen Hobbs, Anna Berzins, Emily Clifton, Larry Levine, and Rebecca Hammer

New York, NY (November 16, 2011)- This research, sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, provides case studies for 14 geographically diverse cities that are all leaders in employing green infrastructure solutions. The goals are to address stormwater challenges while simultaneously finding beneficial uses for stormwater, reducing pollution, saving money, and beautifying cityscapes. These cities have recognized that stormwater, once viewed as a costly nuisance, can be transformed into a community resource.

Durham, NC (November 1, 2011)- More than half of eastern US tree species aren't adapting to climate change as quickly or consistently as predicted, according to a new Duke University-led study.

By Eric Jaffe

Portland, OR (September 30, 2011)- Most people enjoy a good tree, especially the rare one found inside city limits, but typically they leave it at that. Not so with Geoffrey Donovan of the U.S. Forest Service in Portland, Oregon. As Donovan told SF Gate in May, it's the fact that most people stop there that keeps him going:

Washington, DC (September 29, 2011)- Investors and buyers have funneled record amounts of capital into forestry projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by conserving forests and capturing carbon in trees, according to a global survey of carbon market participants published on Thursday by Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace.

New York, NY (October 27, 2011)- Although corporate philanthropy increased in 2010, corporate giving by industry has followed strikingly divergent paths since 2007, a new report from the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy finds.