The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.
Brightstorm is a program of The Nature Conservancy. It embodies the organization’s spirit of innovation and drive to deliver tangible lasting results for both people and nature.
Brightstorm’s work is in support of The Nature Conservancy’s Goals for 2030.
Learn more about how The Nature Conservancy works »
What we do
Brightstorm brings together technologists, academics, public-sector leaders, stormwater practitioners, and communities to reimagine how stormwater is managed.
Brightstorm develops, demonstrates, and promotes advanced planning tools, data insights, and infrastructure upgrades designed for present-day and future stormwater challenges that communities and ecosystems face:
- We test and validate emerging stormwater technologies in real-world conditions. Through our “living lab” pilot in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, we generate the evidence that decision makers need to adopt new approaches and unlock access to private land—where most stormwater infrastructure is located—through collaborative partnerships.
- We build open-source, practical tools that strengthen local planning and compliance efforts and support the important work of stormwater practitioners. These tools analyze the full lifecycle of distributed stormwater infrastructure — from watershed planning to real-time operations, by pioneering innovation in automation and data-driven decision making, enhanced through artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- We create roadmaps for smarter decisions. Using smart controls, enhanced weather forecasting, and improved planning tools, we help decision-makers understand how stormwater impacts critical waterbodies, so they can create more informed design guidelines and regulatory requirements, direct infrastructure spending where it matters most, and deliver measurable outcomes for nature and people.
Brightstorm helps protect people and nature — by influencing stormwater policy, advancing technology, and unlocking the private land where it matters most.
We believe collaboration is the key.
Improving water quality and ecosystem health to create resilient communities is a shared goal where all perspectives are critical.
For the public sector, this means a direct pathway to program and policy innovation — grounded in open data, real-world evidence, and tools any community can use.
We have the shared goal of improving water quality and ecosystem health and creating more climate-resilient communities.
Brightstorm’s work is in support of
The Nature Conservancy’s Goals for 2030.
Our Team
The team of TNC staff and advisors have decades of experience in water resources engineering, technology development, environmental regulation, policy and markets, corporate sustainability, and conservation science.
Craig Holland
Brightstorm Program Lead
Craig oversees all aspects of the Brightstorm program, providing strategic leadership and identifying and managing key relationships to restore natural hydrology and advance digital water solutions across U.S. watersheds. He drives innovation, donor cultivation, and program integration across TNC and Brightstorm’s external collaborators to achieve ambitious conservation outcomes, positively impacting thousands of river kilometers and estuary ecosystems by 2030.
Craig has extensive experience developing private financing mechanisms for water and has advised global initiatives from Berlin to Beijing. He has served on key advisory boards, including the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board, the Federal Stormwater Taskforce, The World Economic Forum’s Task Force for Nature-Positive Cities, and is an Expert Reviewer for the upcoming IPCC report on Climate Change and Cities.
Matthew Rea
Director of Water Technology
Matt leads Brightstorm’s technology strategy, identifying transformative digital water solutions with the promise to accelerate data-driven stormwater management at scale. He cultivates partnerships, leads the design and implementation of foundational demonstration projects, and develops open-source tools to advance AI, IoT, and adaptive systems for watershed restoration.
Matt brings deep expertise in water technology and water resources engineering. He helped launch Opti, a pioneering water technology company, designed and implemented novel public-private partnership models utilizing emerging technology, and has managed multi-million dollar annual compliance programs for some of the world’s largest companies.
Jaysea Jennings
Geospatial and Data Analyst
Jaysea leverages the foundations of computational sustainability to provide Brightstorm with the data resources needed to enhance stormwater management in built environments. She provides technical expertise in spatial analysis, data management, data science, and the creation of custom maps to advance conservation goals and support collaboration with internal and external stakeholders
Who we are working with
The Nature Conservancy is working with a host of local decision-makers and experts, from the local water management districts to local universities, state-legislators and local community stakeholders. The Lab also receives engineering and computing support from collaborators.
