Urban planners that are interested in achieving sustainable development or sustainable cities use various design principles and techniques when designing cities and their infrastructure. These include Smart Growth theory, transportation-oriented development, sustainable urban infrastructure and new urbanism. Smart Growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented development, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. Transit-oriented development attempts to maximise access to public transport and thereby reduce the need for private vehicles. Public transport is considered a form of Sustainable urban infrastructure, which is a design approach which promotes protected areas, energy-efficient buildings, wildlife corridors and distributed, rather than centralised, power generation and wastewater treatment. New urbanism is more of a social and aesthetic urban design movement than a green one, but it does emphasize diversify of land use and population, as well as walkable communities which inherently reduce the need for automotive travel.

Both urban and rural planning can benefit from including sustainability as a central criterion when laying out roads, streets, buildings and other components of the built environment. Conventional planning practice often ignores or discounts the natural configuration of the land during the planning stages, potentially causing ecological damage such as the stagnation of streams, mudslides, soil erosion, flooding and pollution. Applying methods such as scientific modelling to planned building projects can draw attention to problems before construction begins, helping to minimise damage to the natural environment.

Cohousing is an approach to planning based on the idea of intentional communities. Such projects often prioritize common space over private space resulting in grouped structures that preserve more of the surrounding environment.