About NRDC: Annual Report

This document is also available as a PDF file that includes photos and illustrations.

Walking your children to school. Catching a train to work from a station close to your home. Buying a few groceries without getting into your car. These aren't just the features of an inviting neighborhood, they are key pieces of the plan to reduce America's oil dependence. And this year, NRDC and our partners launched a visionary program to bring pollution-busting blueprints to hundreds of cities around the country.

Due to suburban sprawl, American vehicle use has more than tripled in the last three decades. And the more we drive, the more planet-warming carbon dioxide we emit. Vehicles -- not factories -- are now the largest source of hazardous air pollutants in the country. In response, NRDC is working with Congress and Detroit to improve fuel efficiency in cars, ensuring that biofuels made from American crops are grown sustainably, and helping cities shift to cleanburning truck and bus fleets.

But moving beyond oil is not just about driving cleaner; it's also about driving less. NRDC is bringing much-needed redesigns to our communities that will reduce our reliance on fuel-hungry ways of getting around.

Smart-growth communities offer walkable neighborhoods, housing near jobs, and easy access to public transportation. These features help residents dramatically reduce their gas use. That's why NRDC has assembled a comprehensive array of clean solutions designed to encourage developers and urban planners to help cities grow smart.

Our experts realized that America is facing a critical moment in time. Over the next few decades, many of our communities are forecast to expand by as much of two-thirds. If just 60 percent of that development follows smart growth principles, we could slash global warming pollution from transportation by 7 to 10 percent.

To deliver those savings, NRDC is following the model we used with enormous success to promote green building. More than eight years ago, NRDC worked with the U.S. Green Building Council to develop the groundbreaking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard for new buildings. In just four years, nearly 5 percent of all new commercial construction had signed up to follow these criteria, and LEED became the de facto construction standard for all new federal buildings.

We put this proven blueprint for success to work creating smarter communities. Together with the U.S. Green Building Council and the Congress for New Urbanism, NRDC created LEED for Neighborhood Development. The rigorous LEEDND standards reward developers for a variety of smart growth features. For instance, developers earn points if they use abandoned urban lots instead of farmlands, or if they design compact neighborhoods that allow residents to walk rather than drive to stores, offices, and parks.

Because of the standards we set, developers now have green goals to strive for and communities have a tool to measure their performance. Accreditation can help developers win zoning approvals, and community members can use our tools to measure how new projects will impact local environments. But a tool is only as good as its performance, so in February 2007 we invited developers to participate in a trial run of the standards. Our experts expected about 100 builders to apply for the pilot program, but almost 400 did. Now there are more than 250 registered projects in 39 states and in six countries striving to meet our smart growth standards. Moreover, local jurisdictions are already expressing interest in adapting the standards for guiding development in their own communities.

See the complete Move Beyond Oil section of this report (in pdf format, 468k) for more about our work, including how NRDC helped Congress get serious about breaking America's oil addiction.

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