Environment Facts Card Deck

The Environment suit is one of four suits in the GuideBox to Healthy Places Card Deck. Its 13 cards explore how the natural environment — parks, trees, air quality, water, and ecological systems — shapes the health of communities. Each card pairs visual imagery with research-based facts about environmental health.

Environment and Community Health

The quality of the natural environment in and around communities directly affects health. Access to parks and green space supports physical activity and mental health. Urban tree canopy reduces heat stress, filters air pollutants, and provides psychological benefits through nature exposure. Clean air and water are fundamental prerequisites for healthy communities. Ecological systems provide services — flood mitigation, food production, wildlife habitat — that underpin long-term community resilience.

The Environment cards make these connections visible and discussable in community settings. By grounding conversations in concrete facts and compelling visuals, the cards help diverse audiences develop shared understanding of how environmental conditions shape health and how planning and design decisions affect those conditions.

Equity and Environmental Health

Environmental conditions are not distributed equally across communities. Research shows that lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color in American cities consistently experience less green space, more exposure to air and noise pollution, less tree canopy coverage, and greater proximity to environmental hazards such as industrial sites and contaminated land. These patterns — sometimes called "environmental injustice" — have direct, measurable health consequences.

The Environment suit, used alongside the Equity suit, helps communities and practitioners recognize these patterns and think about how design and planning decisions can either perpetuate or begin to correct them.

Other Card Deck Suits