January brings the opportunity to look back at the previous year and reflect on highlights, challenges and growth to gain insight, understand progress, and determine future goals. At Civiltech one of the highlights of 2025 was the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Book Club.
Book clubs provide a platform with which to build community, provide exposure to varied interests and perspectives, and create social connection. With the NbS being a new service department at Civiltech, the book club also provided a way for staff in other departments and disciplines to learn more about how the natural environment impacts our daily lives.
Civiltech launched our NbS department in 2024, which focuses on natural and nature-based feature planning and design. Nano Burke joined the company in January of 2025 and serves as an Ecological Engineer in the NbS department. Nano had the idea for an NbS book club as a way to get to know other Civiltech staff and to share and learn together. Civiltech’s NbS Director, Barry Stuedemann, connected Nano with John Rosak, a Senior Designer in Civiltech’s Design Services department who is a reading enthusiast and had been involved in a Civiltech book club decades earlier as well as very knowledgeable in nature-based design solutions.
Together, Nano and John launched the NbS-focused book club in April 2025. Since the launch the book club has met every two months and read and discussed four books in 2025. Teams provided the meeting venue as some participants are remote.
Nano stated that the most robust book discussion in 2025 came from the book Crossings by Ben Goldfarb which addresses the field of road ecology. This book was especially relevant to Civiltech staff with our primary focus on Transportation Engineering which is complimented by our NbS department. The theory in Crossings is that while human habitat connectivity (roads) is important, non-human habitat connectivity is critical as well. The book’s name, Crossings, led to a discussion of how roadway design should be navigable for animals as well as cars. John shared that the discussion of Urban Jungle, by Ben Wilson, allowed Barry to share current NbS ongoing projects and provided a backdrop to ongoing camaraderie building.
In 2025, the books included in the book club were selected by Nano and John. A goal for 2026 is to have the selected book chosen by staff vote. Book selections are listed on the Roundabout, Civiltech’s intranet where people can submit book suggestions. John states that he hopes to see that the list becomes a running list that anyone at the company can reference for their next read.
When asked what he most enjoyed about the NbS Book Club, Nano explained that he enjoyed hearing perspectives from people across Civiltech who are interested in similar topics. Also, people shared funny stories from their experiences with nature, both inside and outside of the City. John shared that he enjoys when participants have a personal connection to something they have read and that the discussions often lead to a better understanding or perspective of the book’s content.
In terms of the books themselves, Nano stated that he has found it particularly interesting that each book presents a different understanding of what “nature” is. Most books give a brief history of how humans and nature interface which makes you question what you understand “nature” to be and where its value is derived. Is it the frozen-in-time wilderness of Yellowstone? Is it the dandelion growing through the cracked concrete? Does it include or exclude humanity? In a rapidly changing world, Nano explained that our approaches to working with nature need to be similarly dynamic if we are to realize the true mutual benefits that can come to human society and the natural world alike.