Profiles of Business Leadership on Smart Growth

Companies are getting smart about “smart growth,” according to this report. “Some American business leaders are beginning to recognize that sprawl can raise the cost of doing business and reduce long-term profitability,” says the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals. Its report profiles 19 companies and business coalitions that “have found ways to grow while respecting and enhancing the communities they call home.” The report describes the U.S. business community’s emerging recognition of the costs and impacts of sprawl; barriers to business leadership on smart growth; strategies for overcoming those barriers; and actions companies can take. While there’s a lot of good news to be found in its 92 pages, the report also catalogs the many vexing institutional barriers, tax policies, and local and federal government regulations that must be overcome to making these practices more widespread.

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