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CLF's Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice Program advocates work to ensure New England's communities are vibrant, healthy places for all people and to establish green transportation choice and sustainable land use throughout New England for communities and climate protection.

Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice Program goals:

1. Reduce or eliminate the disproportionate number of environmental hazards in New England's low income communities and communities of color ("environmental justice communities") through collaborative efforts.
2. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution from transportation sector in New England using strategies that reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by passenger and freight vehicles.
3. Promote livable communities, revitalize urban infrastructure, and reduce rates of land consumption.
4. Illustrate the relationship between environmental advocacy and issues of equality, justice, health and quality of life through CLF’s public messaging and communications.

CLF's current Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice initiatives and cases include:

• Mystic River Watershed: Building an innovative network with seven other social justice and environmental organizations to work collaboratively to reduce pollution in the Mystic River watershed.
• New England Rail Coalition: Organizing and leading the New England Regional Rail Coalition to work with the New England states, facilitating development of a world-class regional rail system that will strengthen New England's economy, increase transportation choice, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and better integrate our region with the rest of the country.
• Interstate 93: Calling upon NHDOT to develop a balanced, long-term transportation solution that limit impacts to air and water quality, and that promotes more sustainable, less sprawling development in southern NH. Learn more...
• Boston Public Transit Commitments: Ensuring that the Boston Public Transit commitments, including extending the Green Line from Lechmere Station to Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford, are funded and built, and that this process happens with meaningful community input. Learn more...
• MBTA Funding & Affordability: Working to secure sustainable, long term funding for the MBTA while keeping MBTA fares affordable.
• Fairmount Line: Transforming the Fairmount Line into the "Indigo Line," creating a clean, affordable, and practical rapid-transit style line on the existing train tracks to serve the communities of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. Learn more...
• National Transportation Policy: Partnering with the national Transportation For America coalition to advocate for a sensible national transportation policy in the next federal transportation legislation reauthorization that promotes transit and high speed rail, prioritizes highway repair and maintenance over capacity expansion, and provides incentives for transit oriented development.
• Expand RI Public Transportation: Collaborating with other organizations to advocate for and implement recommendations of a study to improve and expand Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority service.
• Climate-Friendly Transportation Project Criteria: Injecting smarter, climate-friendly project selection criteria into state transportation planning processes. 
• Massachuetts Smart Growth Alliance: Bringing together seven nonprofit organizations to promote smart growth and to reduce the negative impacts of urban sprawl in MA though the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (MSGA). Learn more...
• The Circ: Advocating for practical, low-cost, and modern transportation solutions instead of continued spending on the sprwal-inducing Chittenden County Circumferential Highway. Learn more...
• BU BioLab: Urging BU to examine alternative locations for it's bio-defense laboratory, currently under construction in the Roxbury/South End section of Boston. Learn more...
• Transportation Investment Coalition: Working with the Transportation Investment Coalition to ensure that Massachusetts both maintains our existing transportation system and invests in strategic expansion that will meet environmental and economic development goals. Learn more...

Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice key accomplishments and victories:

• Launched a campaign in collaboration with Clean Water Action (CWA) and Lead Action Collaborative (LAC) to promote environmental justice by eliminating lead poisoning in Boston and throughout Massachusetts.
• Supported the Massachusetts Food and Farmland Protection Act, a bill aimed at preserving local farming in MA.
• Developed and supported policies that would make it easier for Vermonters to make a living in agriculture. Many of these policies have been implemented, including a permanent farm viability enhancement program, a better coordinated "buy local" initiative, more sustained and targeted farmland protection, and the creation of a program to better utilize federal funds that are available to assist beginning farmers.
• Reached a settlement with New Hampshire's Department of Transportation that resulted in significantly reduced impacts to wetlands while allowing DOT to proceed with improvements to relieve traffic concerns in the Keene area.
• Encouraged sustainable downtown development as an alternative to sprawl by spearheading the creation of the New Hampshire Downtown Revitalization Coalition, with a mission to identify and advocate strategies aimed at strengthening and enhancing city and town centers.
• Advocated for smart growth in VT by joining the Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative (VSGC), a coalition that fosters decisions and a culture that support compact settlements, separated by rural countryside, with access for all Vermonters.
• Ensured that Vermont's "Act 250 reform" retained strong environmental protections and allowed for continued citizen involvement in the land use decisions that affect their communities.
• Won an important victory for smart growth in Maine by contending that the town of Scarborough violated Maine's Growth Management Act by failing to adopt zoning laws that are consistent with its own comprehensive plan.
• Led efforts with the Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative and local citizens to highlight the sprawl problems of a proposed middle-of-nowhere school. Vermont voters in the towns of Wilmington & Whitingham defeated the proposal, securing an important victory for the communities.
• Advanced a program called Pay-As-You-Drive, which offers a variable, rather than fixed, autombile insurance pricing schedule under which the less you drive the less you pay - thereby, fighting air pollution and promote accessiblity.