How can compact and energy-efficient buildings reduce some effects of urban sprawl?

Compact and energy-efficient buildings serve as a key strategy in smart growth to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of urban sprawl. By prioritizing higher-density development, these structures help reduce sprawl in the following ways:

• Energy Conservation: Unlike large, detached suburban homes that lose heat and cooling through multiple exterior walls, compact buildings—such as city apartments—often share walls, ceilings, and floors. This design allows them to retain resources more effectively, requiring less energy for heating and cooling.1
• Reduced Per Capita Consumption: Exurban, low-density neighborhoods typically consume more energy per capita than high-density urban cores. By concentrating residents in compact, efficient housing, cities can lower the overall demand for fossil fuels used in climate control and daily operations.1
• Land Preservation: Compact development minimizes the need for outward expansion, helping to preserve open space, agricultural land, and critical wildlife habitats that are otherwise destroyed by sprawling infrastructure.21
• Lower Infrastructure Impact: Concentrated building patterns reduce the need for extensive road networks and impermeable surfaces, which helps decrease water pollution and the risk of local flooding associated with suburban runoff.1