News + Updates
Collaboration with Google Platforms & Devices featured in White Paper
December 2025
Our work with the Sustainability team for Google’s Platforms & Devices on the potential for nature enhancement at manufacturing sites is summarized in a new white paper.
Empowering Local Youth To Become Community Scientists
November 2025
In partnership with Greenbelt Alliance and Latino Service Providers, Second Nature Ecologist Cesar Estien recently led a hands-on workshop empowering local youth to become community scientists.
Second Nature featured in The Guardian
November 2025
Director of Science Erica Spotswood, and our recent publication on urban biodiversity and human health, are featured in an excellent article in The Guardian.
Second Nature presents at World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi
October 2025
Second Nature's Kevin Vega presented "Nature-Based Development: Catalyzing Biodiversity through Buildings, Regulation, Design, and Markets"at the World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, sharing our work with IUCN and Holcim to advance biodiversity policies in European cities and highlighting inspiring examples of cities leading the way.
ASLA 2025: Rewilding New York City — History, Design & Ecology
October 2025
At the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture 2025 in New Orleans, Robin Grossinger, Founder of Second Nature Ecology + Design, joined Eric W. Sanderson (New York Botanical Garden) and David Seiter (Future Green Studio) to present Rewilding New York City: History, Design & Ecology.
Second Nature Selected for The Resilient Campus International Design Competition
October 2025
We're excited to announce that Second Nature is part of one of the seven teams selected for The Resilient Campus, an international design competition hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning!
Will Biodiversity Actions Yield Healthy Places? New Publication Released!
September 2025
Over the course of several years, and with a team of leading collaborators, Second Nature has created a novel synthesis of urban health research to apply to nature-based design.
SN Founding Principal Robin Grossinger invited to the Inaugural Biomimicry Co-Lab on Nature-Positive Buildings, Cities & Infrastructure
July 2025
Convened by The Biomimicry Institute, the Biomimicry Co-Lab is a 12-month collaboration bringing together global innovators, design practitioners, and implementation experts to explore and co-create the frameworks, tools, and strategies needed to realize a nature-positive paradigm shift in the building sector, using nature as our blueprint.
Meadowall Community Event
July 2025
Second Nature Ecologist Emily Erickson joined our Habitat Horticulture collaborators at a community event for our biodiversity-oriented living wall.
Plant Native: comparing biodiversity benefits, ecosystem services provisioning, and plant performance of native and non-native plants in urban horticulture
June 2025
Second Nature Senior Ecologist and Rutgers professor Myla Aronson and Rutgers ecologist Elena Tartaglia, Ph.D. recently released an important systematic literature review of over 150 studies on the value of native plants in cities.
Congratulations Drs. Cesar and James!
June 2025
Second Nature Ecologists Cesar Estien and James Barnes recently completed powerful research projects while gaining their doctoral degrees!
National League of Cities Article on Urban Biodiversity Policy
May 2025
In this guest article in CitiesSpeak, Second Nature Senior Policy Associate JD Brown expands on the "Catalysing Biodiversity on Buildings" report we recently released with IUCN and Holcim, with some additional US examples.
St John’s Terminal wins AIA New York Design Award and Citation for Biodiversity
February 2025
Google's St John's Terminal has received an AIA New York Design Award and Citation for Biodiversity.
‘Catalysing Biodiversity on Buildings’ Released
February 2025
Have you ever asked yourself how buildings can contribute to nature and biodiversity?
Biodiversity Benefit Accounting Landscape Assessment Released
January 2025
The first product of a collaboration between water and nature experts – to facilitate impactful and well-documented biodiversity outcomes in water stewardship projects – has been released.
Second Nature scientists contribute to Urban Biodiversity and Equity, a new book from Oxford University Press
January 2025
Urban Biodiversity and Equity: Justice-Centered Conservation in Cities is the first text to advance justice-centered biodiversity conservation in cities, demonstrating the necessity of, and tools for simultaneously addressing social inequities and biodiversity conservation.
Cities Can Be Wildlife Hotspots, Too: Interview with Second Nature Director of Science Erica Spotswood
October 2024
Learn more about the science of urban ecology and its importance to the future of cities, in this in-depth interview with Erica in Bay Nature magazine.
Second Nature Principal Robin Grossinger Presents at COP16 Colombia
September 2024
Second Nature was proud to participate in the international biodiversity summit and present at Nature in the City: toward nature-positive buildings and urbanization, a side event hosted by ICLEI, IUCN and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Google Campus Work Wins Pollinator Partnership Award
June 2024
Our work with Google’s California campuses has been recognized with the Monarch Sustainer of the Year Award from the Pollinator Partnership – awarded to Google after creating 20 acres of new monarch habitat from 2021 to 2023.