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The nonprofit that helped create environmental conflict resolution runs more than 15 programs, from tigers to clinics. It asked us for a brand that ties them together.

3 min read

A split brand frame: laughing children on the left, a man speaking into a microphone on the right, between the words “community” and “empowerment,” with the line “there is a divide”

RESOLVE helped create the field of environmental conflict resolution in 1977, and it has spent the years since walking into problems other groups avoid. This month it asked Buena for a new brand narrative, a refreshed identity and a new website. The brief comes down to one question: what do all of RESOLVE’s programs have in common?

A pioneer with a long résumé

Few organizations have a track record like RESOLVE’s. Its National Wetlands Policy Forum produced the consensus behind America’s “no net loss” wetlands policy. It has worked on safe drinking water, committed to building the first conflict-free mineral supply chains out of Central Africa, and helped launch the Global Safety Net for biodiversity and ReGrow West Africa after Ebola.

RESOLVE, as we start

  • 1977the year RESOLVE was foundedIt helped create environmental conflict resolution, the practice of bringing opposing sides to one table.
  • 15+programs, from tigers to clinicsSeparate initiatives for people and the planet, each with its own partners and audience.

Too much good work to explain in a sentence

Today its programs run from TrailGuard AI, a camera that warns rangers about poachers, to Salmon Gold, HealthGrid’s clinics in Sierra Leone and the Peace Diamonds initiative. Its partners range from Apple and Tiffany & Co. to the Environmental Defense Fund.

That range is RESOLVE’s strength. It also makes RESOLVE hard to explain to a funder, a partner or a new hire. The brand lists the work, but it doesn’t say what ties it together, or why RESOLVE is the group you call when an issue is stuck.

  • One idea

    Big enough to hold every program, from wildlife protection to rural health.

  • A refreshed identity

    A look that gives a 1977 institution a voice on screen.

  • A new site

    A system where every program gets a page, and the next one doesn’t break the story.

What came next

We wrote three brand narratives, and one fit everything: the divide, the gap between a problem and its solution, where conflicts start and global issues get stuck. RESOLVE steps into it. The O in the wordmark became two halves closing a gap, and resolve.ngo split every hero image into two words. It launched on October 23, 2024: read the launch story and see the case.

A split brand frame: a rhino grazing in golden light and the same rhino at night, between the words “life” and “the dead of night”

Go where others fear to solve.

The work didn’t stop with RESOLVE. TrailGuard AI, one of the programs on the new site, grew into a company of its own, Nightjar. We wrote its narrative, Nature is watching, and built nightjar.tech, which launched on July 15, 2025 (the story, the case).

Buena and RESOLVE

  1. Early 2023

    The brief

    RESOLVE asks Buena for a narrative, an identity and a website.

  2. Spring 2023

    Strategy

    The programs mapped, and three brand narratives written as manifestos.

  3. October 23, 2024

    Launch

    The new brand and resolve.ngo go live.

  4. July 15, 2025

    Nightjar

    RESOLVE’s spinout launches with a brand and site of its own.

An organization that has spent nearly 50 years stepping into hard problems deserves a story that says so in one sentence.

WebsiteRESOLVE

Resolve

A brand and site for the nonprofit that steps into conflicts others won't touch, since 1977.

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