Let's Enjoy Walking for the Benefits of Better Health -- Smart Wellness Point Project

ParkRx, as one of many new programs spanning several states, allow doctors to give out Park Prescriptions to their patients in order to encourage them to go to parks and get physical activity. These programs are a way to encourage exercise, open patient and doctor dialogues, and reduce the use of medications or procedures.

Faced with an obesity epidemic, communities in Australia are making changes to become healthier and promote a healthy lifestyle. Programs have included increased education around grocery shopping with a nutritional mindset as well as increasing exercise through initiatives that encourage children to walk to school. Since making changes, individuals in the communities have attested to the effectiveness and obesity and overweight rates in some regions have notably decreased.

After a clean air zone was created in London, where vehicles have to pay a daily fee to enter unless they meet strict pollution standards, more young students in the area began walking and biking to school.

Under an innovative scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous communities are obtaining the legal right to own and manage the forests where they reside. This ownership has shown success in slowing deforestation of the Congo rainforest and creating new economic opportunities for residents in these villages. “Rather than just being an add-on, community forestry is now being considered as a mainstream model for forest management,” says a coordinator for the Rainforest Foundation UK.

The UK is home to an artificial surfing lagoon that aims to help those with disabilities have access to water sports they otherwise may not be able to participate in. Acting as both a physical and mental rehabilitation methodology, The Wave was designed "to make sure the space was accessible physically and in terms of culture, to make sure that all people have the same opportunities on site as each other and to normalise being around people who have got physical or mental health issues."

Exercise has long been regarded as healthy, but it's now being used as a way to combat addiction. From specialized gyms that require 48 hours of sobriety to addiction recovery centers emphasizing exercise, people battling addiction are finding comfort and community to keep them on a healthy track.

In the United Kingdom, an initiative known as parkrun, is working to bring people together for a weekly free 5K run in order to inspire physical fitness as well as community interaction. Although the US is not seeing as much success with its iteration of the initiative, there are several key lessons – such as corporate sponsorship and government involvement – that the advocates of the initiative can learn from.

As climate change alters environments across the United States, it has become increasingly important to manage watersheds as a preventative measure to wildfires. Amid responses across the country, one private-public partnership, the Rio Grande Water Fund, is leading the way, demonstrating enough success that the model has become federal policy. The Fund brings together government agencies, NGOs, businesses, and residents to fund watershed restoration which, in turn, creates jobs and build more resilient ecosystems.

Slightly more than eighteen percent of the Dutch population is sixty-five or older and with this aging demographic comes new challenges. To combat the very serious risks that living alone and aging poses to seniors, the Netherlands has seen the rise of a new class: one that teaches elderly people how to fall.

Edinburgh has begun a conservation project where roof space is transformed into a habitat for butterflies. The success of the project is being closely monitored with hopes of helping butterflies survive in the area, and attract new butterfly species to the area.