Climate Ready America: A nationwide support system for local climate action
Climate Ready America ensures local leaders across the U.S. have access to the information and resources they need to implement effective climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies.
A bold solution built from the ground up
We began helping communities confront the climate crisis in 2008. Everywhere we went we saw a recurring pattern: capable leaders ready to act but unsure where to start, strong climate programs that could not reach communities on the ground, and funders unsure how to support systemic progress. There had to be a better way.
Starting in 2020, Geos Institute began weaving fragmented efforts into a single, coherent initiative called Climate Ready America. With input from partners across the country, we developed a set of guiding principles, conducted a 50-state landscape analysis, and launched a four state demonstration project in the Southeast. More Climate Ready America origin story
It is a bold new way to approach climate resilience. Instead of telling communities how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to climate change, we build the structure that equips partner organizations in each state to work directly with communities on their climate goals. Regional and national experts provide support by sharing information and helping solve big challenges. Climate Ready America brings together in-state partners, technical service providers, funders, and government agencies—combining their strengths to support local climate action.
We are deeply grateful to the Walmart Foundation for their visionary investment in Climate Ready America. Their support made it possible to launch our Southeast demonstration project, helping dozens of communities access critical climate tools and begin building long-term resilience.
Our origin story
As an organization initially dedicated to conservation, we began to recognize the impact climate change would have on natural systems, particularly if local governments had to address those impacts without adequate support. That realization led to conversations with other organizations who also saw the urgent need for community climate adaptation strategies. We expanded to organize around the concept of adapting to changing climate conditions as a core part of our nationwide response to climate change.
As early pioneers of the climate adaptation field, the Geos Institute began helping communities understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change in 2008. Our first effort to make raw climate change data talk to GIS systems took three months of full-time effort, but it was worth it. Over the years, we have seen, and contributed significantly to, the development of the field, particularly in ensuring the needs of natural systems are considered equally alongside those of human communities.
Through our work with communities, we came to understand the importance of breaking down siloes between local government departments as well as between local governments and their community partners. We brought this learning together in a climate adaptation planning framework called “Whole Community Adaptation,” and used that framework for our subsequent climate adaptation work.
Through our ClimateWise program we provided one-on-one consulting for communities ready to build climate resilience from 2008-2024. But as private consultants filled that space, we recognized a deeper need: a civil society system that helped every community, not just the well-resourced, can take effective climate action.
In 2016, we co-led the development of the Climate Adaptation Service Bureau, a first-of-its-kind resource offering:
- Help Desk – connecting local leaders to expert guidance and technical support
- Registry of Adaptation Professionals – linking communities with skilled practitioners
Today, these tools are managed by the Climate Smart Communities Initiative, continuing to strengthen climate resilience efforts nationwide.
What Climate Ready America does
This nationwide system empowers local leaders to create community-driven strategies that cut climate pollution and build long-term resilience by:
- Delivering one-on-one support through Navigators working with marginalized and frontline communities
- Coordinating technical assistance through Climate Innovation Centers in each state and territory
- Tackling complex issues through Regional Collaboratives that closely coordinate with Navigators and Climate Innovation Centers
- Leveraging existing tools and expertise while filling critical service gaps
- Fostering equity by supporting locally led, culturally relevant climate action
- Promoting nature based solutions that support ecosystems and communities
- Sharing learning across a nationwide network to accelerate impact and innovation
The components of Climate Ready America
Climate Innovation Centers
These are the service and information hubs of the Climate Ready America system, one-stop shops for climate action in every state and territory. Each is led by local experts who understand the landscape, identify service gaps, and tailor support to meet the unique needs of the communities served by each center. The first center is launching in Georgia.
A network of Navigators
Navigators are climate resilience experts who help under-resourced and frontline communities access climate tools, funding, and planning support. They work side-by-side with local leaders, guiding them through an often fragmented system of climate resources, tools, and services to implement effective community-led strategies.
Being a Navigator Host Organization has given us the opportunity to learn what multiple North Carolina communities are facing for climate hazards. This informs the entire work agenda of the State Resilience Office because it’s clarified where there may be gaps in the resources and programs the State offers.
Regional Collaboratives
Climate Ready America is organized at the regional level, using the regions identified in the National Climate Assessment. We bring together climate leaders across each region to strengthen Navigators and Climate Innovation Centers, scale what works, solve multi-state challenges, and support a more connected nationwide response to the climate crisis.
A nationwide learning system
At its core, Climate Ready America is built to learn, using an approach designed to encourage and leverage radical collaboration, innovation, and accountability. Insights from every element of the system are shared across the network to improve tools, approaches, and outcomes nationwide. The system evolves in real time through a robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning process.
Real-world impact
The Southeast demonstration project is already showing the effectiveness of Climate Ready America. Supported by the Walmart Foundation, this pilot is helping us reach some of the most vulnerable communities in the country with hands-on, locally relevant climate solutions.
We actually didn’t know we were a CDRZ community until the climate Navigator made outreach to my community’s grant manager.
An assessment by EcoAdapt found:
- The structure is an effective tool for engaging under-resourced communities and building their capacity for climate resilience.
- Navigator support increased the rate at which communities that received Community Disaster Resilience Zone (CDRZ) designations applied for funding and technical assistance programs.
- CDRZ communities supported by Navigators had greater knowledge and skill around accessing climate information and resources to support community resilience building.
- The resources and support obtained through Navigators led to effective, equitable, and ecologically sound resilience projects.
And a preliminary assessment by the Urban Institute found:
- Communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia received support through the network of Navigators to take advantage of funding and technical support and began moving along a climate resilience pathway that leads to tangible benefits.
- Navigators consistently highlighted the responsiveness, honesty and accessibility of Geos Institute’s program leadership.
- Geos Institute consistently connected Navigators with both existing and new technical assistance providers allowing for more tailored, state-specific support.
Looking ahead
Climate Ready America is already active in four Southeast states, and we are expanding the system nationwide. With over 55 partners ready to launch Climate Innovation Centers and host Navigators, and a scalable system design, this work can rapidly expand to serve thousands of communities across the U.S.
Expanding Across the Southeast
Recent developments at the federal level provide a clear case that this type of civil society-led system is essential for supporting local action to cut climate pollution and build community resilience, regardless of federal leadership. We are actively working to expand the Climate Ready America system first across the 11 southeastern states and then across the nation.
Future Regions
Building out this system nationwide will deliver measurable climate benefits across the country, cutting emissions, strengthening resilience, supporting a growing climate workforce, and helping our nation do its part in addressing the global climate crisis. We will expand into future regions as funding and opportunities allow.
Get involved in Climate Ready America
Whether you are a community leader, policymaker, service provider, or funder, we invite you to become part of this evolving system.
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Frank is the former President of the Reinsurance Association of America. Frank currently serves on the Advisory Board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large-Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management Advisory Board.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.