Nature-based Home Solutions

Motivation for Nature-based Home Solutions (NBHS)

Alright, so maybe lounging in a hammock isn't a typical symbol for motivation, but the photo represents our central purpose: to improve human quality of life through cooperation with Nature. The Great Lakes region is experiencing increases in rainfall, extreme heat, and vector-borne diseases¹ as well as rapid loss of biodiversity. NBHS offers an evidence-based starting point for homeowners looking to join the movement toward nature-based solutions, especially green stormwater infrastructure.

¹Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments, “Climate Hazards and Impacts in the Great Lakes,” October 2023, PDF, accessed April 9, 2026, https://glisa.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Climate-Hazards-Great_Lakes_GLISA_October_2023.pdf

Save Clients Money and Improve Quality of Life

In partnership with homeowners, NBHS identifies ways to save clients money, improve quality of life, liberate natural beauty, and increase readiness for an uncertain future. Our interventions:

• Offer health benefits, including: clean air and water, stress reduction, tick and mosquito control • Reduce costly basement flooding and foundation damage • Establish trees and shrubs that produce food year after year • Reduce area of lawn that requires mowing • Save on municipal stormwater infrastructure and treatment costs, which are passed on to residents through reduced tax burden and/or stormwater credits² • Save on utility bills through: shading from trees, water conserving landscapes, rooftop solar power, and/or geothermal heating/cooling • Reduce icing of driveways and sidewalks • Provide due diligence for clients looking to buy a house or land so that hidden pitfalls can be identified before the buyer “bets the farm”

²City of Ann Arbor, “Stormwater Credits,” accessed April 17, 2026, https://www.a2gov.org/systems-planning/water-resources/stormwater/stormwater-credits/.

Create Nature-based Livelihoods

NBHS creates skilled, dignified, comfortable livelihoods that do not rely upon fickle external funding and will not be replaced by robots. Nature has been efficiently automating processes for billions of years. Working with (rather than against) these ecological processes can radically minimize landscaping costs, physical labor requirements, reliance on heavy equipment, and carbon emissions. The NBHS model offers very low barriers to entry for professionals going into the growing field of green infrastructure and ecological landscaping.³ In addition to our field-proven techniques, we train our specialists in state of the art analytical tools, such as GIS and LiDAR. Whether or not people who work with NBHS ultimately choose it as a career, they will develop a strong service ethic and become vastly more effective land stewards.

³U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Planting for the Future: Native Plants, Green Jobs, and Adaptation,” October 23, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/planting-future-native-plants-green-jobs-and-adaptation

I. Improve Water Quality and Reduce Flooding

Southeast Michigan is getting wetter, and that extra water often shows up in our streets, basements, and rivers. NBHS analyzes your property on the ground and from the sky to pinpoint high-impact locations for green infrastructure such as bioswales, rain gardens, permeable pavement, tree pits, etc.

• How (Actions)

III. Control Disease-spreading Pests

Humans have long struggled to manage disease-spreading pests such as mosquitoes and ticks. This situation is further complicated by a warmer and wetter climate. NBHS brings integrated, ecological solutions to this inherently ecological challenge and increases Nature's benefits while minimizing its downsides.

• How (Actions)

V. Support Native Biodiversity

Join a vibrant and growing community of people working ultra-locally to protect our imperiled natural wealth. NBHS supports native wildlife through: planting native species, controlling invasives, and capturing carbon in biomass. In addition to reducing stormwater runoff, the simple act of mowing less often within runoff channels can dramatically increase lightning bugs and critical pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

• How (Actions)

Scaling-up Positive Impact

Our work on individual properties already offers many benefits to the broader community, including: job creation, improved water quality, lowered disease risk, reduced stormwater management costs, and more. That said, NBHS can also work directly with local governments and watershed organizations to help them comply with regulations and plan nature-based solutions at a larger scale (e.g. "Sponge cities"). Jurisdictions can greatly increase their positive impacts by sharing our insights for direct use by local: engineers, architects, real estate developers, landscaping contractors, schools, churches, homeowners/HOAs, etc.

Below is a link to a powerful green infrastructure planning tool created by our partner organization, AdaptGeo. The interactive web map can be created for an entire jurisdiction, though the map below is only for a small sample of Ypsilanti, MI. Many additional map layers are possible, such as: soil types, storm drains, zoning, water table depth, FEMA flood risk, etc.

• Web Map Example