The Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania has awarded the 2025 Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal in City and Regional Planning to the University of Louisville’s Green Heart Louisville Project. The award was presented at a public ceremony on Nov. 12.
The Green Heart Louisville Project is a groundbreaking scientific study that is testing the hypothesis that introducing more green trees and shrubs into a neighborhood can directly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide.
“Receiving this award is a great honor not only for our investigators, but also our partners and communities,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at University of Louisville and project leader for Green Heart Louisville. “It validates years of work which has shown that thoughtfully planned greening can improve cardiovascular and community health, and it affirms that the Green Heart project is not only good science, but also a model for how to improve human health in urban environments. The recognition gives us new momentum to scale this work across Louisville and beyond.”
The Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal in City and Regional Planning was established in 2019 by William Witte, an alumnus of the Weitzman School, and his wife, Keiko Sakamoto to recognize a firm, team or professional for an exemplary plan that advances the field of plan making in at least four of the following areas: social equity, environmental quality, design, public health, mobility, housing affordability and economic development. The juries for the Witte-Sakamoto Family Medal and Prize were chaired by Megan Ryerson, UPS Foundation Chair of Transportation, chair of city and regional planning, and professor of city and regional planning and electrical and systems engineering at Weitzman.
“Green Heart Louisville exemplifies a holistic way of looking at public health – a marriage of design, planning and science to emulate,” said Fritz Steiner, dean and Paley Professor at Weitzman, and a member of the jury who selected Green Heart Louisville for the award.
Launched in 2018 by UofL’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute with support from The Nature Conservancy, the study investigates whether and how living among more densely greened surroundings contributes to better heart health. The Green Heart team applied the treatment – the addition of thousands of mature trees and shrubs – to the center of a four-square-mile area in south Louisville.
The first clinical outcomes from the study, announced in August 2024, indicate that people living in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs was more than doubled showed lower levels of a blood marker of inflammation than those living in the control area. General inflammation is an important risk indicator for heart disease and other chronic diseases.
The Green Heart Project’s work to establish a scientific link between nature – specifically urban greenery – and human health is already influencing projects worldwide. The first clinical outcomes announcement garnered widespread national media attention. Many research papers, posters and talks on the project have been delivered to both scientists and laypeople since the project’s inception, and robust research and outreach for the project continues.
