Project

Community Climate Action

Collaborative climate action for climate-ready communities.

We engage with coastal communities, combining local knowledge and expertise with the best available scientific data to envision — and realize — a climate-resilient and thriving future. Together, we co-develop and deliver programming in climate literacy, community science, outreach, vulnerability assessments, climate action planning, and capacity strengthening across Maine and throughout New England.

Our Approach:

  • Science-based and community-driven.
  • Deep, empathetic, and authentic community engagement grounded in trust.
  • Meaningful youth participation in community climate action.
  • Connections and cooperative collaborations with local organizations.
  • Commitment to the research process as the foundation for informed practices and continuous learning.
  • Equity, which we prioritize in all our efforts.

Research Projects

Explore our research projects where we collaborate with national experts and local partners to design and develop innovative best practices in community climate action. Our research projects translate into collaborative climate services, ensuring that climate action is informed by the most reliable and up-to-date data, best practices, and is grounded in community voice.

  • Assessing Coastal Flood Risk with Maine Communities

    Assessing Coastal Flood Risk with Maine Communities

    To understand what water level and weather conditions lead to local flooding, we’re expanding Maine’s network of tide gauges and pairing that data with community …

  • Climate Smart Working Waterfronts

    Climate Smart Working Waterfronts

    To ensure working waterfront communities thrive in a warmer world, we’re developing a statewide model approach for working waterfront climate planning that can be used …

  • Community Resilience Training

    Community Resilience Training

    In collaboration with Upswell, the Island Institute, and University of Maine RISE Center, we co-developed a process to move from climate knowledge to action through …

With over 5,000 miles of tidally-influenced coastline, and some of the most rural regions in the nation, Maine’s coastal communities face unique challenges in addressing the impacts of climate change. Given Maine’s significant cultural, social, and economic dependence on the ocean for their livelihoods and well-being, communities must adjust to many climate impacts including coastal flooding from sea level rise and storm surge, extreme precipitation, and changes in marine resources resulting from ocean warming and acidification.

Through collaborative climate services and research, we are co-developing and delivering programming in climate literacy, community science, climate action planning, and capacity strengthening for municipalities across Maine and throughout New England. We engage and collaborate with coastal communities, combining local knowledge and expertise with the best available scientific information to envision — and realize — a climate-resilient and thriving future.

GMRI brings real data to this necessary conversation, which is very valuable — particularly for sharing ongoing and future needs with our community.

Sarah White Tremont Sustainability Committee Member

We lead and collaborate with partners in the Gulf of Maine region on research and exploratory projects to support, develop, and enhance climate services and research processes. Through this work, we support our partners and municipalities in implementing innovative best practices for community-engaged projects, ensuring that climate action is informed by the most reliable and up-to-date data and grounded in community voice.

What We Do:

  1. Offer technical assistance to community leaders and those they serve to advance their understanding of climate hazards, impacts, and response options.
  2. Combine community-held values and local knowledge with relevant data to identify and create opportunities for action that embolden feelings of hope, inform decision-making, and enhance climate resilience.
  3. Equip communities with tools and resources to visualize and document coastal flooding impacts, engage community members, and deliver educational programming about sea level rise and coastal flooding.
  4. Forge and strengthen partnerships with local, regional, and state organizations to expand community access to resources, scientific data, engagement opportunities, and funding to enhance efficiency within and across projects.
  5. Leverage the in-house expertise here at GMRI in intergenerational and fisheries engagement, curriculum development, marine research, coastal and ocean dynamics, business sustainability, and climate finance to support community resilience.
  6. Co-design and conduct research projects to improve localized understanding of climate impacts, develop tools, and identify best practices through knowledge-sharing efforts that ensure local climate solutions remain effective and contextually appropriate.

The solutions we develop in the Gulf of Maine both inform — and are informed by — those developed around a warming world as we seek opportunities to collaborate, build partnerships, and develop projects with other organizations, communities, and professionals locally and globally.

Learn more about where we have collaboratively worked by exploring our offerings and research projects.

We participate in and host fellows and interns from the Greater Portland Council of Government’s Resilience Fellowship program, the Colby Buck Lab, and the Maine Climate Science Information Exchange. If your institution has an existing internship program, please reach out!

Community Climate Action Team

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