A new report was released by the Center for Clean Air Policy entitled, "Growing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change and Prosperity." Authors Chuck Kooshian and Steve Winkelman discuss how application of smart growth principles can improve the bottom line for businesses, households and governments by increasing property values, cutting fuel and infrastructure costs, creating jobs, enhancing public health and strengthening communities.
In the report, which was funded by Surdna, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation, the authors make the observation that application of smart growth principles can improve the bottom line for businesses, household budgets and government balance sheets by increasing property values, cutting fuel and infrastructure costs, creating jobs, enhancing public health and strengthening communities. Cities investing in public transportation and downtown development are experiencing cost savings, growing tax revenues, increased property values and booming retail sales, while pent-up demand for walkable communities is reshaping the real estate market.
As part of WNET's Blueprint America series supported in part by Surdna, this new documentary, Beyond the Motor City, examines how Detroit's past investments in infrastructure have shaped the city's physical layout, population growth and economic development -- and helped determine its current place as a symbol of the United States' lagging and outdated transportation system. The documentary takes viewers on a journey from the city's past -- when it boasted the nation's most extensive streetcar system -- to its present blighted urban landscape, before showcasing modern transportation innovations in Spain, California, and Washington, where 21st century systems are transforming cities and demonstrating the possibilities for a renewed vision of the role of infrastructure in Detroit and across America.
This report, put together with research by the Renewable Energy Policy Project in collaboration with the Blue Green Alliance, a Surdna grantee, examines how U.S. manufacturers can realize significant economic benefits from clean energy development. The report includes a set of policy recommendations that can help revitalize the American manufacturing sector by making the transition to clean energy production, and which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs for American workers. Especially in the Midwest, where manufacturing once provided the backbone for prosperous communities, a renewed focus on manufacturing may serve as a building block for the post-carbon communities of the twenty-first century. To read the report, click 
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