About the Geos Institute

Geos Institute builds innovative systems to help communities access the support services they need to address the climate crisis regardless of their size, location, or wealth.

In all our initiatives we focus on ensuring that all communities can build climate resilience in ways that prioritize the needs of ecosystems and those on the frontlines of climate change.

The Geos Institute is a passionate team of climate resilience practitioners dedicated to making it easier for all communities to build climate resilience. We are climate resilience experts with over 15 years’ experience helping local leaders prepare for climate impacts. By developing holistic solutions in partnership with other allied organizations, we create opportunities for large scale innovation in the effort to help communities build climate resilience.

• Holistic Approach: Effective solutions work across multiple sectors of a community and natural ecosystems.
• Science-Based:​ Rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific information is the basis for effective climate change solutions.
• Nature Matters:​ Natural systems and wildlife have intrinsic value and provide important services to people.
• Frontline First:​ A community’s highest priority actions to build climate resilience should prioritize the needs of those who bear a disproportionate burden of climate change impacts.
• Local Knowledge:​ Effective solutions come from engaging diverse stakeholders who have a deep understanding of their community.
• Innovation: Innovative thinking, idea sharing, and calculated risk-taking are key to long-term success.​
• Results Driven: Progress is measured by the real-world change that results from our work.
• Accountability: Transparent decision-making, honest communication, and holding ourselves and others accountable are critical to effective action.

You can also find our most recent Form 990 here.

Since 2008, we have worked with local leaders in Oregon, California, Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Texas, Kentucky, Indiana, Hawaii, and Alberta, Canada to help them understand the impacts of climate change, determine what they mean for their communities, and create effective strategies to lessen those impacts.

Our team has attended and presented at all National Adaptation Forums held since the inaugural forum in 2013. We have presented to a variety of organizations, such as the American Planning Association, National Association of Counties, Resilient Virginia, National Association of Development Organizations, Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, National Forum for Black Public Administrators, Alaska Tribal Conference on Environmental Management, International City/County Managers Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, California Adaptation Forum, Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation, Sustainable Cities Conference, League of Oregon Cities, Alaska Forum on the Environment, Association of Washington Cities, League of Oregon Cities, US Climate Alliance, American Association of State Climatologists, and more.

You can also learn more about our past initiatives.

Below are some of our accomplishments over the years:

• Confirmed Convener and Navigator Organization partners in 48 states and four territories to build out Climate Ready America.
• Supported the team of Navigators who are assisting Community Disaster Resilience Zone communities build climate resilience through our in-state partners in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida
• Secured funding for the first Tribal Navigator in our system, which will serve Tribal CDRZ designations in the southeast
• Expanded our Technical Support team in the southeast to include five partners: Alloy Fundraising, Climate Access, Project IN-CORE, Resilient Cities Catalyst, The Resiliency Company
• Launched the Regional Support Team comprised of regional climate service providers in the southeast to support our Navigators and the soon to be launched Georgia Climate Innovation Center
• Brought representatives of Tribal, rural, and frontline communities onto our National Strategy Team
• Supported the Georgia Conservancy and the Leadership Circle in Georgia in developing a strategic launch plan for the first Climate Innovation Center in the country
• Served on the Climate Smart Communities Initiative Core Team to provide over $1 million to help 11 underserved communities in the US build climate resilience.
• Presented at the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Building Resilience Conference
• Completed a Climate Ready Communities planning process with a cohort of eight communities in Indiana
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 14 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat

• Launched the Southeast Navigator Network to help communities with Community Disaster Resilience Zone designations build climate resilience in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida

• Identified partner organizations in states and territories across the country to build the Climate Ready America system

• Were awarded the 3rd annual $50,000 Lightship Prize for Climate Action

• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 11 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat

• Identified five pilot states for our Climate Ready America initiative
• Began providing technical support to a cohort of 8 communities in Indiana that are building climate resilience plans using our Climate Ready Communities program in partnership with the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University
• Co-led a workshop with NOAA’s Climate Program Office for federal agencies working to build climate resilience
• Accepted into the first practitioner training cohort for NOAA’s Steps to Resilience training program
• Presented at the National Adaptation Forum in Baltimore, MD
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 13 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat
• Completed a Climate Vulnerability Assessment and recommended resilience strategies for Maui County

• Led the nationwide effort to develop an integrated system of climate services – Climate Ready America
• Co-led development of a climate resilience strategies database
• Completed a landscape analysis of climate services for local governments across all fifty states
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 13 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat

• Co-led with the American Society of Adaptation Professionals the process to develop guidance from the adaptation field in response to Request for Information released by the House of Representative’s Select Committee on the Climate Crisis
• Launched Climate Ready Communities – an “assisted do-it-yourself” climate resilience planning program for small to mid-sized and under-resourced communities.
• Invited participant in the Resilience Ecosystem Workshop sponsored by NOAA and the Climate Resilience Fund
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 13 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat
• Developed a climate adaptation plan for the Louisville Metro Government
• Developed a climate adaptation plan for the Town of Truckee, CA

• Authored the Practical Guide to Building Climate Resilience
• Reviewed the manuscript of “A Civil Society Consortium for Conducting Applied Climate Assessments: Collaborations and Knowledge for Confronting Climate Risk – Report of an Independent Advisory Committee on Applied Climate Assessment” for publication in Weather, Climate and Society – the American Meteorological Society
• Participated in a two-year Delphi study conducted by Virginia Tech and EcoAdapt to determine consensus around appropriate outcomes and best practices for multi‐stakeholder, place‐based climate adaptation workshops in the United States.
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 13 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat

• Invited participant in the Resilience Ecosystem Workshop sponsored by NOAA and the Climate Resilience Fund
• A Roundtable with Mississippi River Mayors and the Insurance Industry – with UN Environment North America and the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative we coordinated the roundtable to bring together mayors from the full length of the Mississippi River Corridor and global leaders from the insurance and re-insurance industries, to discuss reducing vulnerability to natural disasters along the waterway, and building resilience for the future.
• Served as a special advisor to the American Society of Adaptation Professionals’ Living Guide to the Principles of Climate Change Adaptation
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 14 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat
• Developed a climate vulnerability assessment and strategies for the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership

• With the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative we successfully advocated for FEMA to modify its Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program rules to allow proposals by states for projects to address resilience over large landscapes that cross state boundaries.
• Participated in the Sustained Assessment: Co-Design and Strategy Meeting hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists Office
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 12 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat
• Developed a climate vulnerability assessment for the Native Village of Georgetown

• Began and co-led a three-year effort with thought leaders in the climate adaptation field to develop a national Climate Adaptation Service Bureau, elements of which are now found in the Climate Ready Communities program
• Served on the Project Advisory Committee for the Kresge Foundation’s Assessment: Climate Adaptation: The State of Practice in U.S. Communities 
• Led the process to develop guidance on climate adaptation for the incoming Trump Administration through the American Society of Adaptation Professionals
• Supported the Drinking Water Providers Partnership in awarding grants to 11 projects in Oregon and Washington that protect community drinking water supplies and native fish habitat

• Developed our Whole Community Adaptation Planning Framework (See Koopman, M. E. and T. Graham. 2015. “Whole Community Adaptation to Climate Change.” Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. Elsevier.)

• Invited participant of the Climate Adaptation Service Providers and Practitioners Workshop aimed at developing a shared understanding of the resources available for climate adaptation practitioners.

• Co-sponsored the first national gathering of climate adaptation practitioners with the Kresge Foundation. The Practitioners Workshop on Climate Change Adaptation: Integrated Strategies for Human and Natural Communities was the pre-cursor to the National Adaptation Forum, which began in 2013.

• Became a national pioneer in translating raw climate modeling data into GIS software to make it usable for local decisionmakers.