Nature-based development excellence for better urban environments.
Transforming our cities, such that they are defined by trees, living
landscape, and green open space.
Our Vision
We envision a future where cities are developed in harmony with nature.
A growing proportion of the global population lives in cities – humanity is now predominantly urban. As we face global-scale pressures and challenges of climate change and sustainability, the health and liveability of our precincts and cities, and their contributions towards addressing these global challenges is increasingly important.
Just as many of the sustainability challenges we face emanate from cities, so too are cities potentially the locations for the solutions to these challenges. Creating nature-based cities, in which trees, living landscape and green spaces are essential elements that are integrated in the urban fabric, the infrastructure and the spaces and places within our cityscapes, is critical for sustainable and liveable urban futures.
Our Purpose
To influence the shape of cities around the world, 
such that they are defined in the future by more trees, living landscapes and green open space.
We champion change by:
Credible Research
We commission commercially-credible research that supports a nature-based approach to development
and share it with the industry, providing developers with better information to base their decision-making on.
Advocacy
We advocate for change to the ESD rating tools to make living landscapes
mandatory and enhance their nature-based requirements.
Design Guidelines
We develop nature-based design guides and tools for developers and
consultants to use to incorporate more living landscape in the design of their projects.
Collaboration
We work with developers to showcase nature-based exemplars in their
projects and demonstrate commercial returns from nature-based investment.
Utilising Experts
We engage with experts in their fields as spokespeople and advocates for
Nature Based Cities to represent and advance its mission and purpose.
What it means to achieve
Nature Based Cities accreditation.
For Residents
The benefits of placing nature at the forefront of urban design.
Find out more
For Developers
Choose to major in nature for your ESD requirements.
Find out more
Nature Based Cities
Design Guidelines & Scorecard.
To promote, encourage and commend the inclusion of nature.
The Nature Based Cities Guidelines and associated scorecard is for developers who care about sustainable design and want to focus on nature-based solutions.

The Nature Based Cities guidelines build upon leading academic research and strategic industry recommendations to provide a series of practical design principles that property developers, owners and their design teams can implement at project commencement and integrate into the built form outcome.

The scorecard comprises a set of achievable landscape based design goals, which can be adopted as a design brief to guide architects and landscape architects. The scorecard sets the two following levels of achievement: 'distinguished' or 'exemplary'.

Once the schematic design is complete and submitted for approval, the scorecard is formalised based on actual outcomes. Submitting it with supporting documents secures the Nature Based Cities rating.

Nature Based Cities Design Guidelines and Scorecard Launching in October 2024.
Exemplary: 16+ Points
Exemplary projects are the highest accredited Nature Based Cities projects, designed in accordance with the Nature Based Cities Guidelines with a score of 16 points or more.
Distinguished: 10-16 Points
Distinguished projects are Nature Based Cities accredited projects, designed in accordance with the Nature Based Cities guidelines with a score between 10 and 16 points.
Nature Based Cities team.
Nature Based Cities brings together leading minds from business, development, research & planning to champion a better way to develop in harmony with nature.
“We are a part of nature - not apart from it – and our survival as a species depends on respecting how connected we are to it.”
Paul Hameister, OAM
Founder of Nature Based Cities & Executive Chairman, Hamton Property Group
Our Team
Paul Hameister, OAM
Founder of Nature Based Cities
Founder & Executive Chairman, Hamton Property Group
Paul is the Founder and Executive Chairman of developer, Hamton Property Group, which in the last 18 years has completed or current projects of around $4.5 billion in Melbourne’s aspirational inner and middle ring suburbs. 

Paul is the first Australian to have climbed the Seven Summits (the highest peak on every continent on Earth, including Everest) and complete the Polar Hat-Trick (North Pole, Greenland Crossing and South Pole), including setting a new route from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole. Other expeditions have included 1,000km through unexplored Peruvian Amazon jungle with Matses tribe support and a 400km crossing of the Sinai with Bedouin tribe support. 

Paul received an Order of Australia Medal in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours for service to exploration and to business. 

"With humanity predominantly living in cities, how then do we connect communities back to the significance of our natural world? Nature Based Cities believes that by putting nature back at the very heart of communities, we create the opportunity to re-connect with nature at an emotional and spiritual level. In this regard, we have much to learn from ancient and Indigenous wisdom, where, for most of our history humanity and the natural world were seen as intertwined and nature was revered.

How do we make that shift from a mindset where nature is perceived as a resource to a new way of thinking and feeling where nature is instead a daily marvel with which we have a profound connection? How do we recover our bond with the natural world? Nature Based Cities uses science, intellectual research and rational advocacy to drive better nature-based decision making in the hope that the built form outcomes will result in an emotional and spiritual response in our cities that helps shifts humanity’s world view back to one that realises a more sustainable future for all life forms on this planet."

Paul Hameister
Janis Fischer
Director, Landscape Architect, Tract
Nature Based Cities Advisory Council

Janis is a landscape architect with over 25 years’ experience. She has contributed to numerous award-winning projects of various scales and types but is best known for her work in creating urban infill neighbourhoods. She believes that landscape architects play an important role in shaping the future of our cities and enhancing wellbeing, providing a sense of community, and mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss. At Tract she is a leader in climate and biodiversity positive design, advocating for nature based outcomes in all projects.

“The built environment sector plays a key role in driving urbanisation and is a significant contributor to climate change and biodiversity decline. With the need to provide more housing in our major cities and urban centres, we must strive to do this in a way that not only minimises our negative impacts but provides positive outcomes for both human communities and urban ecology. How can we build new urban communities that fulfill our needs as humans, whilst providing benefits to nature through enhanced biodiversity? As a designer I have a responsibility to actively address these challenges in my work and provide industry leadership through advocacy and the delivery of exemplar projects. Nature Based Cities aligns perfectly with my professional commitment to achieve nature based project outcomes and encourage developers and other designers to do the same.”

Paul Hameister
Bec McHenry
Founder, To Good Use
Nature Based Cities Advisory Council 

Bec is the founder of To Good Use and an expert in placemaking with a passion for optimising assets and property portfolios. With a wealth of experience as a director and entrepreneur, Bec was the Founder of Australia’s second ever B Corporation, proof of her ongoing committed to pursuing purpose and profit through all her work. She is best known for helping clients address key challenges through the delivery of people- first, place-centric, impact- driven, and activation-based strategies and solutions. Passionate about supporting startups, small businesses, and non-profits, Bec offers strategic advice, insights and investment, helping to drive their success.

“People call me a “place maker”, a role I am proud to own on many projects supporting many clients, including Paul and the team at Hamton.

But my answer to the question “what is your legacy” surprises people. Whilst I invests a considerable amount of my time and energy helping clients create great places that people love, that are activated and successful, I have invested a considerable amount of my revenue supporting causes and projects for nature. Over 12% of my revenue in fact, which equated to over $150,000 over the years since To Good Use was established.

Why? Because without nature, I realised we will have no great places. We will have no spaces to “activate”. That might sound grim, but the truth can be a bit like that at the moment. That’s why I’m here, and proud to be supporting Paul and the rest of the team at Nature Based Cities.”

Paul Hameister
Jan Talacko
Director, Ark Resources
Nature Based Cities Advisory Council 

As a keen sailor who has experienced the extremes of weather from the equator to Cape Horn, Jan has always felt a deep connection to nature and the need to live sustainably within its constraints. Concerned about emerging environmental degradation, he founded ESD consultancy, Ark Resources 25 years ago at a time when the risks of climate change were not widely understood, and regulations were non-existent…how things have changed!

"Throughout my 25 years’ of working collaboratively with all stakeholders in the property sector, I’ve always favoured a pragmatic approach to sustainable design which encourages design initiatives which meet prevailing environmental expectations but also improve amenity. Whilst we are making steady progress in relation to energy and carbon emissions from buildings and the range of tools available for benchmarking projects is impressive, there has been much less emphasis on encouraging biodiversity and tackling the urban heat island effect. These are now becoming prominent issues in our cities on both precinct and local scales and need to be tackled urgently.

The Nature Based Cities initiative responds to a gap in the suite of tools currently used be the property development sector which in my opinion, don’t provide sufficient incentive, or recognition of the integration of landscaping and greenery. The Nature Based Cities Scorecard is a very practical tool which is designed to encourage truly green buildings and spaces and give recognition to projects that provide better amenity for residents and contribute to urban biodiversity."

Paul Hameister
Resources.
Your go-to resource for the leading research and experts on the benefits of nature-based development.
The University of Melbourne
Research Report
Nature-based cities: Greening for
Sustainability & Liveability

Image by © Robyn Oliver

Urbis Research Report
Growing Value of Green Space
Ark Resources Research Report
Nature Based Cities: Review Of Australian ESD Rating Tools
Get in touch
We’d love to hear from you if you have any suggestions, ideas or feedback.
Please get in touch via email at contact@naturebasedcities.org.au