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Earth Day is a great opportunity to remember that the locations we chose for homes, office buildings, roads and other kinds of development have long-term environmental implications. Smart growth development decisions protect the quality of our air, water and land resources while ensuring that families, businesses and whole communities thrive.

Smart growth strategies protect air quality.
Building stores, schools, and workplaces near residential neighborhoods means shorter trips between each, and shorter distances driven mean cleaner air in our neighborhoods and lower greenhouse gas emissions on our planet. Buses, trains and car sharing not only help get cars off the road but reduce traffic congestion as well. Read more >>

Smart growth strategies protect water quality.
Smart growth development requires less pavement per home built, a practice which allows rainwater to soak into the earth as it falls and prevents environmentally-damaging stormwater runoff. Smart growth’s air quality benefits, mentioned above, protect water quality as well: by reducing pollution that goes into our air, smart growth also prevents it from falling into our water as rain. Read more >>

Smart growth strategies preserve open land.
Paving natural or farm land is often easier and cheaper than reusing existing developed land, but building on undeveloped land destroys farming space and wildlife habitats. Encouraging reuse of existing developed lands preserves these valuable environmental areas. Read more >>

This Earth Day, support development strategies that benefit local economies AND the environment. Support smart growth!