The accelerated urbanization occurred in Brazil in recent decades has caused an accumulation of environmental problems in urban areas. Local initiatives taken by the municipalities are indispensable, in order to reverse the dramatic environmental situation of Brazilian cities, being fundamental to improve the technical capacity of said municipalities towards their self-administration. Associations of municipalities and environment must be strengthened, being at the same time promoted the interchange of their experiences and the diffusion of positive results deriving from their activities. It is also necessary to refine the applicable juridical instruments, with modernization of urbanistic and environmental legislation. Which should form a composite with other codes encompassing sanitation, urban cleaning services, municipal orders and the like, thus guaranteeing an articulate environmental control to be exercised at local level. Public policies ecologically inspired at local level presupposes attuned objectives, values and principles, characterizing an ecological culture organized and active at all sectors of the local administration. It also presupposes a change in the way the administration establishes its relationships with the citizenship, with mass media, the business world and organized movements, availing all these sectors of an opportunity for full expression of their conscience and will to improve their environment and quality of life.Urbanização acelerada no Brasil nas últimas décadas. Iniciativas locais das administrações municipais imprescindíveis para se inverter dramático quadro ambiental das cidades. Aprimoramento dos instrumentos jurídicos. Ecologização das políticas públicas no nível local pressupõe: cultura organizacional ecológica; relacionamento com a sociedade civil, os meios de comunicação de massa, os empresários e movimentos organizados.