Miami Beach, FL – The City of Miami Beach today announced the launch of Blue Zones Ignite, a well-being initiative that uses an evidence-based approach to make healthy choices easier in all the places people spend the most time. The effort begins with an in-depth readiness and feasibility assessment of Miami Beach that will help determine how to make the city a healthier place to live, work, grow up and grow older.

“We want this initiative to be the catalyst for transformational change for the residents of our city,” said Miami Beach Vice Mayor Tanya K. Bhatt, who championed the partnership with the Blue Zones organization. “Our aim is for every person to ultimately benefit from better health, happiness and quality of life.”

On Feb. 5-7, the City of Miami Beach is launching a 6-month Blue Zones Ignite, which is an in-depth readiness and feasibility assessment. Blue Zones employs a proven solution in collaboration with communities to help people live better and longer lives. The company’s work is based on research and principles developed by National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author Dan Buettner, who identified the cultures of the world — or blue zones — with the healthiest, longest-living populations.

A public keynote and town hall will be held on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. in New World Center’s Truist Pavilion to seek input from the community. The New World Center is located at 500 17 St. The Blue Zones approach focuses on the largest determinant of health: the environment in which we live. Instead of focusing solely on individual behavior change, Blue Zones helps communities make permanent and semi-permanent changes to policies, systems, streets, surroundings and social networks so it's easier for residents to eat wisely, move naturally, and connect more with others as they move throughout their day.

By improving the Life Radius^® — the area close to home where most Americans spend 90% of their lives — Blue Zones transformations have been able to move the needle dramatically in improving overall population health and well-being. Participating communities have seen double-digit drops in obesity and smoking rates, economic investment in downtown corridors, grant funding awards to support policies and programs to improve health equity as well as a measurable savings in health care costs.

“We are thrilled to launch Blue Zones Ignite in Miami Beach and combine our evidence-based approach with the vibrant energy and strong leadership of the city and its people. We know that together, we can build a plan that supports healthier, happier lives for generations to come,” said Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and Co-founder of Blue Zones Project.

The Blue Zones expert team will connect with Miami Beach leaders and organizations to begin immediate work assessing the strengths, needs and challenges that residents are facing today. Blue Zones will then create a policy-focused transformation plan that, once implemented, can drive widespread improvements in well-being, reductions in health care costs and improve economic vitality in the region.

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About Blue Zones

Blue Zones employs evidence-based ways to help people live better, longer. The company's work is rooted in explorations and research done by founder and National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner in blue zones regions around the world, where people live extraordinarily long and/or happy lives. The original research and findings were released in Buettner's bestselling books The Blue Zones Solution, The Blue Zones of Happiness, The Blue Zones, Thrive, Blue Zones Challenge, and Blue Zones Kitchen—all published by National Geographic books. An Emmy-award winning docuseries, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, was released on Netflix in 2023. Using original Blue Zones research, Blue Zones works with cities and counties to make healthy choices easier through permanent and semi-permanent changes to our human-made surroundings. Participating communities have experienced double-digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs. For more information, visit www.bluezones.com.

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