In the fall of 2017, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Louisville and other partners launched the Green Heart Louisville Project to examine the link between urban greening and community health. This project will provide the first longitudinal clinical trial to test urban greening in the same way a new pharmaceutical intervention would be tested. Specifically, the research team assessed whether a significant increase in trees and shrubs would contribute to better heart health and other health outcomes.
In August 2024, after years of caring for the trees and monitoring results, the partners announced the study’s groundbreaking findings.
Researchers at the University of Louisville’s Envirome Institute found that people living in the neighborhoods where the project planted trees and shrubs showed lower levels of a blood marker of inflammation strongly associated with cardiovascular health, as well as diabetes and some cancers. This finding is significant, because it means that adding trees to a neighborhood may reduce community members’ risk of heart disease. The Green Heart Louisville Project is the first study to show that an intentional increase in trees and shrubs in a neighborhood can indeed improve human health.
The full story on this research was recently published on The Nature Conservancy’s website. Click here to read more.