We solve complex land and water management problems
Using insightful analytical models and collective-impact approaches, we align political, institutional, and economic forces to make critical conservation work possible.
ICS helps clients build a world where people and nature thrive. Our clients include landowners, governments, NGOs, and partnerships. Our services promote:
- land and water conservation (to protect the environment and safeguard food production);
- equity for agriculture and rural communities (addressing threats imposed by rapid growth and climate change);
- “good-neighbor” urban paradigms (recognizing urbanization’s impacts extend beyond municipal boundaries); and
- the cessation of unsustainable land and water development practices.
If current land and water development practices feel like a race to the bottom, if environmental degradation is increasing and entrenched path dependencies are preventing innovation, ICS would like to work with you to develop a brighter, more hopeful alternative.
Our History
ICS was conceived at Harvard University where ICS founder, Scott Campbell, was the 2014-2015 Lincoln-Loeb Fellow. Scott recognized the need to better assess and guide the impacts of regional land use and water management practices on the larger systems necessary for human existence—climate, freshwater, food production. He launched ICS to develop decision-support frameworks that empower people to protect these larger systems while promoting local economic interests. Land and water conservation drives the work. Sophisticated GIS analytics, robust economic modeling, and exploratory scenario planning underpin the approach.
Our Aptitudes
Addressing entrenched, systemic problems.
To address complex land and water management problems, ICS focuses on big picture wins with a triple bottom line: social, economic, environmental. Designs that integrate communities and natural systems keep the triple bottom line at the forefront of all ICS projects.Launching new endeavors.
Design inspires, but action delivers. Substantive outcomes require action, and ICS is adept at pioneering new ways of doing business, advancing novel ideas, and helping nascent efforts get off the ground.Selling change.
Impactful writing, detailed reports, and compelling presentations sell change. ICS products are long-lived, meticulously researched documents that help clients advance a vision for a better world.Structuring change processes.
Systems change is complex. Structuring processes that help individuals and organizations link desired outcomes to their big-picture vision is an ICS hallmark.Solving problems through collective impact.
ICS is skilled at bringing together disparate groups to solve complex problems when institutions with the resources or mandates to solve those problems do not exist. Collective impact goes beyond collaboration or conflict mediation. It creates operational structures for unlikely partners that facilitate joint fact-finding and the development of a common agenda to address social, economic, and natural resource goals.Our Approach
ICS operates as a creative studio, bringing practitioners from different organizations and disciplines together to solve complex problems through project-based work. Our associates—the best in their field—contract directly with us. Many have been with us since our launch, and ICS continues to expand its practitioner network to meet the needs of specific client projects. Strong teams, enduring commitment to tackling entrenched problems, and multidisciplinary approaches enable ICS to initiate complex systems change at multiple levels: within institutions; throughout communities and watersheds; and across broad, collective mindsets.
Example Projects:
Bessemer Ditch
ICS assembled a diverse, multidisciplinary team to create buy-and-dry alternatives on Colorado’s Bessemer Ditch following a major agricultural-to-municipal water transfer. Read More
Fountain Creek Watershed
ICS led a team of Nature Conservancy scientists, policy analysts, and program managers to develop an institutional plan to restore the 927-square-mile Fountain Creek Watershed through forest health initiatives, collaborative stream management planning, and green-infrastructure partnerships. Read More
Frost Ranch
ICS helped Frost Livestock Company launch conservation, business, and succession planning endeavors to strengthen operational viability on its 24,000-acre Frost Ranch. Read More
Get In Touch
1518 Winfield Ave
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
(303) 981-8015