For many of us, life is largely lived indoors. Between desk-bound days and the hours spent sleeping, it may feel like we have little time to spend with nature.

It’s logical, then, to seek out ways to integrate more nature into our human-made spaces – and to find ways to use those spaces to better support nature.

From something as simple as growing herbs in a box on a kitchen window sill to residential towers draped in thousands of trees and plants, people around the world are finding creative, meaningful ways to weave nature back into the fabric of their daily lives.

Here are five ways to help nature at home, ranging from simple applications in your garden or living room to more complex approaches to nature-focused architecture.

Cultivate your own green space

Green space in and around your home doesn’t have to be complicated to make a difference. One simple way is to plant a garden with local vegetables and flowers for your own consumption.

Aside from saving on grocery bills, that can have far-reaching environmental benefits, such as reducing the energy needed to transport food to your local supermarket. It can also encourage pollinators, such as certain types of bees, wasps, hornets, flies, moths, butterflies and hummingbirds.

Depending on the climate where you live, you could include plants like nasturtiums, chives, garlic, lavender, rosemary and basil, as well as chrysanthemums, which are effective at natural pest control. Even gardening boxes and planters on your terrace or balcony, or an herb box on the window sill, can help you feel more connected to the natural world.

In you’re feeling ambitious, build a birdhouse, sometimes known as a nest box, to encourage birds that not only are relaxing to watch but offer such ripple effects as spreading seeds to create new plant life far beyond your home.

Design and decorate with nature in mind

Green design and décor can also be simple. Take a cue from many warm countries and add shutters or blinds on windows to block direct, dazzling sunshine on over-heated days.

Research in Algeria found that roller shutters can cut energy consumption, particularly for air conditioning, by as much as 21 percent.

If you live in a colder climate, skylights and large windows can trap sunshine and warm air to help heat interiors.

Biophilic design is a concept that encourages better health and wellbeing by reconnecting us with the natural world. That could be as simple as organizing furniture to face out of the windows rather than turning our gaze inwards.

Don’t underestimate plants, either. In homes and offices, green life can not only lift spirits and reduce noise but also improve air quality.

Research from Wageningen University in the Netherlands found that greenery in the workplace increased aesthetic appeal and worker satisfaction, led employees to report better air quality and resulted in measurably lower rates of work-related illness.

Make your building work for wildlife

There are still places in the world where eaves on barns and old trees with hollows provide safe spaces for birds to nest. When such places are hard to find, you can play your part when building or renovating.

Hollow bricks, or ‘swift bricks,’ are an inexpensive, quick fix, offering safe spaces for at-risk, cavity-nesting birds like house martins, starlings, bats and swifts.

The latter has become a threatened species in the U.K., and was added to the British Trust for Ornithology’s “red list” of endangered birds in 2021.

Scotland has taken the lead in this field, recently passing a law that requires builders to use a hollow brick in all new construction. And while the rest of the U.K. doesn’t yet have a similar regulation, brick manufacturers there report that demand is steady for the bricks, which are already covered by the British Standards Institution’s codes.

These maintenance-free bricks slot discreetly into a wall, don’t require maintenance and are designed to last the lifetime of a building. They can also be retrofitted into existing structures.

Other ecological enhancements include tree planting, bird boxes, ponds and hedges to encourage wildlife to live alongside humans. Even very small measures like tiny ‘hedgehog holes’ cut into fences support biodiversity.

Think local, build green

Buildings account for around one-third of global energy consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. That figure includes not only emissions from construction but also temperature control, lighting and appliances.

Traditional building materials can help reduce those impacts while offering a quietly radical alternative.

In Iceland, turfed roofs and shared walls make for a warmer indoor environment during bitterly cold winters while reducing buildings’ carbon footprint.

Green roofs, which are roofs designed to integrate thriving plant ecosystems, help clean the air, manage stormwater, reduce urban heat island effects and support pollinators.

Green walls – also known as plant walls, vertical gardens or living walls – are seen all over the world. They provide a natural layer of insulation in cold weather, while keeping buildings cool and reducing the need for air conditioning on hotter days, and can also attract local wildlife including frogs, bees and birds, especially when nesting boxes are installed.

Natural construction materials, such as wood, require far less energy to produce compared with conventional steel and concrete. Global steel and cement production has more than doubled over the past 20 years and now accounts for about 15 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

In Colombia’s Antioquia province, the community of San Rafael is turning to the traditional practice of bioconstruction by using branches from a type of bamboo, which can be harvested without destroying the tree.

They also use a type of palm called palmicho (Prestoea acuminata), which are locally abundant, resistant, easy to work with, durable and beautiful.

Appreciate green architecture

At the bold end of the scale, innovative architects like Stefano Boeri are re-imagining what buildings can be, with such residential spaces as his Vertical Forest project in Milan, Italy, covered with ample greenery.

Another one of his designs in Milan, the Nuovo Ospedale Policlinico hospital, boasts a lush hanging garden of over 7,000 square meters located on the roof for use by patients and staff alike. Other Boeri projects can be found as far afield as Dubai, Cancún and Shanghai.

These concepts aren’t just designed for the rich. The Trudo Vertical Forest, a social housing project in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, caps rents at EUR 600 per month. Similarly, a portion of the Secret Gardens complex − a forested residential development in Montpellier, France – also offers social housing.

Meanwhile, the Rainbow Tree condominium tower, completed in 2019 in Cebu City in the Philippines, was inspired by the psychedelic colors of bark from the native rainbow eucalyptus tree. Its 300 tenants are tasked with maintaining its over 30,000 plants, shrubs and tropical trees spread among the wood-constructed apartments.