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"The environment" is a broad topic, encompassing a wide variety of issues. Almost everything we do - build a house, drive a car, go shopping - has some impact on our natural environment, whether it is our water, our air, or our land. Environmental protection relates to pollution prevention, toxic waste cleanup, ecosystem and habitat protection, public health, industry regulation, pesticides, air, water, waste, and many other issues.
One of the primary goals of smart growth is to minimize the impact of our development patterns on our environment. Smart growth is growth that consumes less land, is less energy-intensive, produces less waste, and protects more open spaces than more sprawling growth. And because "environmental protection" is such a broad issue covering so many topics, there are a wide variety of smart growth strategies that have a positive effect on our environment, especially when compared to other, less "smart" development alternatives.