The tiny town of Edmonston is punching above its weight when it comes to helping the environment.

Located just across the railroad tracks from Hyattsville, the town of some 1,500 residents has pioneered creative ways to fight runoffs into the Anacostia River, reduce its carbon footprint and encourage recycling, reusing and composting.

Despite having a staff of just three people, the town has its own electric vehicles, solar panels and a charging station at the town hall and collects residents’ leaves, which are then composted by ECO City Farms.

But the centerpiece of its environmental efforts is a so-called “green street” — Decatur Street, which runs through the center of town.

As the Maryland Reporter notes, the half-mile street has been slowly transformed in recent years, with dozens of trees and small rain gardens, energy-efficient streetlights, a wider sidewalk and traffic-calming street design for pedestrians and bike lanes made with permeable materials. During a typical storm, the street can filter up to 1.33 inches of rainfall — about 90 percent of all stormwater in a given year.

That makes a big difference, since stormwater runoff is one of the major pollutants in rivers like the Anacostia.

The tiny town also has a community garden and a program to plant native fruit trees around town, and it is home to both ECO City and Community Forklift, which was again named “best green business” in the D.C. metro area by the Washington City Paper.

The town is also currently working on turning Crittenden into a green street as well.