The Problem
For decades, unchecked urban sprawl has paved over Canada’s best remaining farmland and sensitive natural areas. Inefficient land use has compromised ecosystems and the wildlife that inhabit them, polluted water supplies, and has cost taxpayers billions in unnecessary infrastructure costs.
The Solution
We need a strong leadership that understands the importance of growing smarter. Directing growth to existing urban areas improves the protection of farms, nature and water. It also saves taxpayers from paying for expensive sprawl, lowers our carbon pollution, and reduces congestion. This allows us to create communities with better access to services like public transit, recreation and shopping. By growing smarter, we all win.
Permanently protect vital farmland and water sources by growing the Greenbelt
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Support smarter growth in cities and towns
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It’s possible. We can build housing, fight gridlock AND expand the Greenbelt
Learn MoreReports
Transit over Traffic
New Frontiers: Alberta’s Path to Economic Renewal
Mid-Rise Manual
Concrete Consequences
Big Oil’s Big Year:
GAS IS NOT GREEN
PUTTING WHEELS ON THE BUS
PAST DUE: Tallying the Costs of Oil and Gas Cleanup in Canada
DEVELOPING DISASTER
Still Left Holding the Bag
Review of Existing Housing Unit Capacity Identified in Municipal Land Needs Assessments
CLOSING ENBRIDGE’S LINE 5 PIPELINE
Bringing biodiversity home: COP15 expectations for Canada
PROFITING FROM POLLUTION
What Canada must deliver at COP27
HIGHWAY 413:
Roadmap to a Sustainable Financial System in Canada
The Freight Escape:
Recycling Failure
Backgrounder: Report Preview – Roadmap to a Sustainable Financial System in Canada
PASSING THE BUCK
The Running List of Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies in 2022
HOT HOT AIR (and other gases): A REVIEW OF THE PAST FOUR YEARS OF ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE (IN)ACTION
50 Years of Sprawling Tailings
Buyer Beware: Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Carbon Capture Fairy Tales in Canada
Canada’s Big Oil Reality Check
Missing the Forest: How Carbon loopholes for logging hinder Canada’s climate leadership
2021 Annual Report
A Plan For Green Buildings, Jobs and Prosperity for Ontario: Reducing Carbon Emissions from Fossil Gas
What makes a strong climate plan?
Canada’s State of Climate Action
FAQ: Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Canada
Is Canada’s Impact Assessment Act working?
Enbridge’s Line 5 – The pipeline’s ongoing environmental risks to the Great Lakes and the climate
CAR WARS: EVs versus SUVs and the Battle for a Cleaner Future
Briefing: Net Zero Producers Forum
Paving Paradise: The Impact of Highway 413 on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Air Pollution and Suburban Sprawl
Towards Canada’s Fair Share: New research on achieving a stronger climate target
Paying Polluters: Federal Financial Support For Oil and Gas in 2020
Drawing from Despots
Steady Path: How a transition to a fossil-free Canada is in reach for workers and their communities
Yours To Recover: A Progress Report on Ontario’s Climate Change Actions
Plastic Pollution in Canada
2020 Annual Report
Big Oil Reality Check: Assessing oil and gas company climate plans
Is Building Highway 413 the Best Option for Moving People & Goods in the GTA West Region?
Briefing: Export Development Canada’s role in bailing out the oil and gas sector
The Logging Loophole: How The Logging Industry’s Unregulated Carbon Emissions Undermine Canada’s Climate Goals
Not Just A Canadian Phenomenon
Green Strings: Principles and conditions for a green recovery from COVID-19 in Canada
Clearing The Air
Policy Brief: A New Canadian Climate Accountability Act
Still Digging: G20 Governments Continue to Finance the Climate Crisis
Who Benefits?
No Time To Waste
Canada’s Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies in 2020
Reject Teck’s Frontier Mine
Toxic Ten chemicals to avoid in skincare products
Oil, Gas and the Climate
Two Steps Back: How BC’s fossil fuel subsidies lock in carbon emissions
Strong Towns and Cities
Failure To Launch
The Biggest Barrier to Climate Action in Canada: The Oil and Gas Lobby
2019 Annual Report
Read the expert panel study the government doesn’t want you to see!
Doubling Down With Taxpayer Dollars
The hidden cost of receipts: How BPA and BPS find their way into our bodies
Carbon Pricing in Alberta
Canada’s Oil and Gas Challenge
Ontario Climate Change Plan Report Card
Risking It All: How Export Development Canada’s For Fossil Fuels Drives Climate Change
Pollution Solutions
Media Backgrounder: Monsanto Papers
Talking Trash
Public Cash for Oil and Gas: Mapping Federal Fiscal Support for Fossil Fuels
Incineration is not recycling
What’s in your lunch?
Less is More: The benefits to Canadians mount as emissions of oil and gas methane decline
Smart Growth Toolkit
#StopFundingFossils: New poll shows Canadians want to end public subsidies for oil and gas companies
Canada’s Climate Change Commitments: Deep Enough?
Report: Media Backgrounder: Grow The Greenbelt
Report: Alberta’s Tailings Ponds
Report: Application Incomplete
Protecting and Restoring the Ecological Health of Our Waters
Canada’s Methane Gas Problem
Building an Ontario Green Jobs Strategy
The Climate Test: ALIGNING ENERGY PROJECT ASSESSMENT WITH CLIMATE POLICY
Ontario’s Electricity System
Full disclosure: The case for stronger product labelling
Expectations for Domestic Action Plans under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
The Elephant in the Room: Canada’s Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Mid Term Report Card – Proposed amendments to Ontario’s Greenbelt and Growth Plans
Action Checklist – Recommendations to fix Ontario’s Greenbelt and Growth Plans
Getting FIT
The Problem With Bottled Water
Turning the Plastic Tide
The BPA Pocket Guide
Buyers Beware
Energy East – A Threat to Our Drinking Water
Toxic Ten: Chemicals in the Home
The $2 Billion Question
The Environmental Defence Guide to Non-Toxic Dry Cleaning
The Dirty Truth
Removing the Stain
Report: CLEAN, NOT GREEN: Tackling Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes
Report: Canada’s Role at COP21
Report: What to Look for in the Canadian Energy Strategy
The Environmental Defence Guide to Cleaning & Indoor Air
Report: From Dumb Growth to Smart Growth
Report: Digging a Big Hole: How tar sands expansion undermines a Canadian energy strategy that shows climate leadership
Report: Ontario’s Climate Challenge: Getting Back On Track
Report: FAR FROM INEVITABLE: The Risks of and Barriers to Tar Sands Expansion
Report: Powering up efficiency to get the conservation framework right
Ontario’s Greenbelt Under Threat
Report: TransCanada vastly exaggerating Energy East’s ability to reduce overseas oil imports
Report: Media Backgrounder – Regulatory Cooperation Council
Report: Media Backgrounder: Information on Rouge Park
The Environmental Defence Guide to Insect Repellent
Report: Your Home Electricity Bill
Report: Canadians dramatically overestimate the contribution of tar sands to Canadian economy
The Environmental Defence Guide to Sunscreen
Report: Alternative Fuel Use in Cement Manufacturing
Report: Reality Check: Climate Change and the Tar Sands
Report: Transcanada’s Energy East: An Export Pipeline, Not For Domestic Gain
Report: Power Advisory Report: Components of an Ontario Residential Electricity Bill
Report: Taking Stock
Report: Reality Check: Air Pollution and the Tar Sands
Report: Reality Check: Water and the Tar Sands
Workplace Safety Guide for Salons
Report: More Jobs, Less Pollution
Report: Barriers to mitigating the climate impacts of the tar sands
Report: The High Costs of Sprawl
Report: Tipping the Scales: A report about how Canada and Ontario can prevent an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes
Report: Pre-Polluted: A report on toxic substances in the umbilical cord blood of Canadian newborns
Report: Good Things Are Growing in Ontario
Report: Canada’s Climate Credibility Gap
Report: More Bang For Our Buck
Report: The Manscape
Report: Kalamazoo Pipeline Spill: A Primer
Report: Enbridge’s Tar Sands Pipeline Plan: All Pain and No Gain for Ontario
Report: The Trouble with Triclosan
Guide: Environmental Defence Guide to Triclosan
Report: Building Ontario’s Green Economy: A Road Map
Report: Going in Reverse
Report: Our Nation Their Interest
Report: The Impact of Canada’s Petrodollar
Report: Media Backgrounder: New Environmental Review for Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Report: The Global Clean Energy Jobs Race: Ontario’s Opportunity
Report: Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan
Report: Shale Gas Fracking and In Situ Oil Sands Chemicals and the National Pollutant Release Inventory: Public Disclosure Needed
Report: Blowing Smoke: Correcting Anti-Wind Myths in Ontario
Report: Refillable Wine Bottles In Ontario: Cases For Reuse
Report: The Just Beautiful Heavy Metals in Cosmetics Factsheet
Report: Heavy Metal Hazard: The Health Risks of Hidden Heavy Metals in Face Makeup
Report: King Carbon: How Enbridge Damages Our Climate as the World’s Largest Tar Sands Shipper
Guide: Young Reporters for the Environment Videographers Handbook
Report: Faces of Transformation: Jobs, economic renewal and cleaner air from Year One of Ontario’s Green Energy Act
Report: Environmental Defence Submission to Environment Canada on Naphthenic Acids in the Tar Sands
Under the Influence
Report: Annual Report 2009-2010
Report: Not so Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance, Canadian Edition
Report: No Silver Lining: An Investigation Into BPA Canned Foods
Report: Tar Sands: Submission to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Money and Politics in Simcoe County
Guide: Young Reporters for the Environment Writers Handbook
Guide: Young Reporters for the Environment Photographers Handbook
Guide: Toxic Nation Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies
Report: 11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands’ Leaking Legacy
Guide: Toxic Nation Guide to Plastics
Report: Canada’s Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth
Report: Toxic Baby Bottles in Canada
Report: Pollution in People: Toxic Chemical Profiles of 11 Adults and 5 Families Across Canada
Guide: Make Your Home a Healthy Home
Guide: Toxic Nation Healthy Artist Guide to a Less Toxic Studio
Guide: The Toxic Nation Guide To Spring Cleaning
Report: Toxic Nation: A Report on Pollution in Canadians
Report: Polluted Children, Toxic Nation: A Report on Pollution in Canadian Families
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