Nature-based Solutions 3
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Their Relevance in Healthcare Settings
Across Geographies
As climate change, chronic disease, and mental health crises converge, healthcare delivery systems around the world are rethinking how and where healing happens. One approach that is gaining significant momentum is the integration of Nature-based Solutions (NbS)—strategies that work with and enhance nature to address societal challenges—into healthcare settings.
From rural clinics to urban hospitals, NbS are demonstrating that the natural world is not just a backdrop to health; it is an active agent of healing.
What Are Nature-based Solutions?
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines NbS as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.”
In healthcare, NbS can be applied across a wide spectrum of healthcare stakeholders:
🌿 Green hospital infrastructure that reduces energy use and improves air quality.
🌳 Therapeutic gardens and green spaces that enhance biopsychosocial well-being and patient recovery.
🛤️ Community trail systems that promote physical activity and chronic disease prevention.
🧑🌾 Urban agriculture initiatives to improve diet, nutrition and food access.
🏥 Biophilic design in clinical environments that reconnects people with nature.
Why NbS Matter in Healthcare.
The relevance of NbS in healthcare is rooted in their ability to address multiple crises at once including environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, rising healthcare costs, health inequities, and poor individual and population health outcomes.
Improving Patient Outcomes
Studies show that access to green space reduces physiologic stress, anxiety, and recovery times from injury and illness.
Hospital patients with exposure to biophilic-designed landscapes both inside and outside of the facility have shorter post-operative stays and require less pain medication.
Addressing Health Disparities
In underserved, marginalized, and vulnerable communities, green infrastructure projects can reduce urban heat, lower asthma triggers, and provide safe areas for exercise—building environmental and social resilience.
Supporting Health System Resilience
The natural world and its ecosystems can act as infrastructure—reducing flooding, buffering heat, and filtering air and water.
In an era of climate shocks, this “green infrastructure” helps healthcare facilities remain operational during disasters and emerging infectious disease outbreaks.
Promoting Healthy Lifestyles and Chronic Disease Prevention.
Parks, community gardens, and nature trails encourage movement, social connection, and healthy eating—key drivers of chronic disease prevention and mental health resilience.
Global Examples of NbS in Healthcare
Sweden: Nature Prescriptions in Primary Health Care
Doctors in Sweden, Canada, and Scotland are prescribing time in nature as a non-pharmacologic intervention for anxiety, depression, and high blood pressure.
Kenya: Green Clinics and Solar Health Centers
In rural Kenya, clinics are incorporating agroforestry and solar-powered water systems to promote community wellness and climate resilience.
United States: Green Infrastructure in Urban Hospitals
Health systems in cities like Chicago, Portland, and New York are creating rooftop gardens, rain gardens, and climate-smart hospital campuses that lower operating costs while improving air quality and aesthetics.
Brazil: Forest-Based Healing in the Amazon
Health organizations are working with Indigenous communities to integrate traditional healing practices and forest conservation with modern clinical care and public health services—preserving both culture and climate.
Challenges to Scaling NbS
Despite growing evidence, NbS in healthcare are often underutilized due to:
Lack of funding models that capture short-term ROV and long-term ROI.
Limited awareness among clinical and administrative leaders and governing Boards of Directors
Siloed policy frameworks separating both health and environment sectors.
Inadequate inclusion of vulnerable and historically marginalized communities in planning processes and their subsequent implementation.
These barriers must be addressed through intersectoral partnerships, inclusive design, and evidence-based healthy public and public health policy that prioritizes health prevention, health promotion, health protection, disease surveillance, disaster and pandemic preparedness, sustainability, and equity.
Moving Forward: A Global Imperative
As the world faces the threat of climate change, non-communicable diseases, and global health inequities, Nature-based Solutions offers a way to re-humanize healthcare service delivery while safeguarding person, place and planet.
NbS are scalable, adaptable, and culturally resonant across geographies. Whether in a rainforest village or a downtown trauma center, nature’s capacity to heal is universal—and urgently needed today more than ever.
By embedding the natural world into the global design, delivery, and philosophy of healthcare delivery, we can co-create systems that heal people, place, and the planet.
