Inspired by the world’s longest-lived cultures, Blue Zones helps communities live better, longer by improving their environment. Becoming a Blue Zones Community is a three-phase process. It all starts with Phase I, the Readiness Assessment, a structured exploration of your community and is powered by collaboration to build a plan for change.
Our community-led initiatives are so effective because we create lasting impact by changing the environment in which people live, work, and play. Creating a healthier environment is the foundation to reducing healthcare claims and cost, increasing workforce productivity, and changing the culture of well being in the community. Changing the environment begins with food policy and built environment policy work, and Phase II of Blue Zones Activate begins that foundational work immediately.
Phase III, a full Blue Zones community transformation, deploys the Life Radius® model—the perfect storm of change with a full focus on people, places, and policy. By impacting our manmade surroundings, systems, and social networks, Blue Zones improves the well-being of entire communities. As a result, people live longer, better, and communities enjoy lower healthcare costs, improved productivity, and boost national recognition as a great place to live, work, learn, and play.
“Blue Zones helped our community set amazing, aggressive, and achievable strategies that moved the public health agenda further in ten months than I could have expected in ten years.”
Lois Ahern
Director of Freeborn County Health during Albert Lea Project
What We Do
READINESS ASSESSMENT
Blue Zones experts will perform a structured exploration of your community, and collaborate with leaders to assess readiness and build a plan for change. During this period we will: Educate and mobilize local leaders and residents, evaluate the community’s current state of well-being, identify the highest priority strengths, challenges and opportunities, and produce and present a plan for community transformation.
ACTIVATE
Blue Zones will guide and support community leaders to implement key policy changes—permanent and semi-permanent—that drive broad and lasting impact. A Blue Zones Activate initiative will prioritize, adopt, and implement key policy changes; inspire citizen awareness and engagement; attract additional resources; and, raise the community profile.
COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
Improving the lives of the people starts with the people. The right people. Blue Zones Activate partners our experts with your leaders to build an ecosystem of change influencers that together, can drive this system of change.
Together with community influencers, we help build awareness of the Blue Zones lifestyle, help attract additional resources, and create the groundswell needed to ignite and empower your community towards a full Blue Zones Project.
BLUE ZONES SUCCESS
In 2009, Blue Zones worked in partnership with AARP and the United Health Foundation to apply the Power 9 to Albert Lea, MN. After just one year, participants added an estimated 2.9 years to their average lifespan and health care costs dropped by 49 percent.
Blue Zones has partnered with Sharecare to expand our work, and we have now helped 48 communities across the United States, impacting millions of people. Our work has occasioned double-digit drops in obesity, smoking, and Body Mass Index.
Activate in Action
ACTIVATE COMMUNITIES
The foundational work of creating happier, healthier communities has already begun in Scottsdale, AZ; Jacksonville, FL; Marshall County, IN; Barry County, MI; Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, WA; and Pierce County, WA.
ACTIVATE YOUR COMMUNITY
If your community is ready to make the healthy choice the easy choice, fill out the contact form at the link below.
“In an age when poor health seems so intractable, you’ve taken this community from a place of resignation to a place of hope.”
Dr. Vivek Murthy
U.S. Surgeon General after his orientation to the Blue Zones work in the Beach Cities, California
Want to Learn More?
Using evidence-based lessons of longevity from the blue zones, we optimize the Life Radius, where we live, work, learn, and play.
HISTORY OF BLUE ZONES
Using secrets discovered in Blue Zones areas—rare longevity hotspots—we help transform communities into areas where the healthy choice is easy.
Life Radius
The Blue Zones Project® and Blue Zones Activate focuses on optimizing the “life radius,” or the area close to home where we spend 90 percent of our lives.
Power 9
Residents of the original “Blue Zones” regions live in very different parts of the world. Yet they have nine commonalities that lead to longer, healthier lives.
“… the results are stunning.”
Dr. Walter C. Willett
Harvard School of Public Health
About Blue Zones Project
Walking Moais
Blue Zones Project Southwest Florida
Featured Media
Dan Burden, Blue Zones Director of Innovation and Inspiration, Named One of “100 Urbanists of All Time”
The Blue Zones Project Came to Our City and Changed Our Lives
Blue Zones Project News: Fort Worth’s Transformation From One of Unhealthiest Cities in America
Albert Lea Tribune
Residents Testify About Success of Blue Zones Project
Easy Reader
Beach Blue Zones Miracle: Beach Cities Show Big Health Gains
CNN
Remarkable Results in Albert Lea, MN
