“The Sustainability Edge”: Competition, Crisis, and the Rise of Green Urban Branding

Greenberg, Miriam

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139923316.008

Cited by 37 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In an effort to recruit the eco-professional class, creative and technology firms have strategically and intentionally begun appealing to their desires for 'green' urban living (Greenberg, 2015) and using this as part of the green marketing of their companies more generally. Many technology and startup firms are (re)locating from their traditional suburban campuses to urban areas that make use of low-carbon infrastructure, higher levels of density and mixed-use development and better access to diverse food, exercise and recreational options (Fisher, 2015;Slavin, 2015;.…”

Section: Creative and Technology Industries The Rise Of The Environmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice

Rice¹,

Cohen²,

Long³

et al. 2019

Int J Urban Regional Res

185

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As local governments and corporations promote ‘climate friendliness’, and a low‐carbon lifestyle becomes increasingly desirable, more middle‐ and upper‐income urban residents are choosing to live near public transit, on bike‐ and pedestrian‐friendly streets, and in higher‐density mixed‐use areas. This rejection of classical forms of suburbanization has, in part, increased property values in neighborhoods offering these amenities, displacing lower‐income, often non‐white, residents. Increased prevalence of creative and technology workers appears to accelerate this trend. We argue that a significant and understudied socio‐environmental contradiction also occurs where the actual environmental outcomes of neighborhood transformation may not be what we expect. New research on greenhouse gas emissions shows that more affluent residents have much larger carbon footprints because of their consumption, even when reductions in transportation or building energy emissions are included. We describe an area in Seattle, Washington, the location of Amazon's headquarters, experiencing this contradiction and show a distinct convergence of city investments in low‐carbon infrastructure, significant rises in housing prices and decreases in lower‐income and non‐white residents. We conclude with a discussion of a range of issues that require more attention by scholars interested in housing justice and/or urban sustainability.

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Section: Creative and Technology Industries The Rise Of The Environmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice

Rice¹,

Cohen²,

Long³

et al. 2019

Int J Urban Regional Res

185

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Rosol et al (, p. 1711) have defined contemporary green urbanism as an economic sector, global policy trend, and set of post‐political, exclusionary best practices, as cities both “monetize greenness” and compete to be “greenest.” While, Jonas, and Gibbs (, p. 551) describe a “sustainability fix” in the context of roll back neoliberalism, urban entrepreneurialism, and heightened environmental concern, which they characterize as a “selective” (and pro‐growth) “incorporation of environmental goals” in environmental governance. In addition to such transparently “market‐oriented” forms (Greenberg, ), urban greening is also usually taken to include reform‐minded public investment in open space and radical grassroots gardening and urban agriculture projects aiming to redress histories of spatial and environmental inequality in poor and minority urban neighborhoods (McClintock, ; Stehlin & Tarr, ). Most recently, climate change and extreme weather events have produced a growing focus the political economy of “resilience” planning and post‐disaster recovery (Cretney, ; Gotham & Greenberg, ; DuPuis & Greenberg, ; Goh, ; Koslov, ).…”

Section: Urban Greening As Added Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research on green marketing, green washing, green investment, and the production and financialization of “second natures” within cities has shown how green improvements—often largely symbolic, targeting both ecological and broader quality of life issues—become a source of economic value (Greenberg, ; Jonas & While, ; Prudham, ; Safransky, ; While et al, ). Knuth (, p. 627), for instance, has argued that in “producing new resource frontiers within the second nature of cities … greening initiatives go beyond simple compliance or ‘greenwashing’ to a more ambitious reappraisal of nature for accumulation.…”

Section: The Consequences Of Greening's Added Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

Added value? Denaturalizing the “good” of urban greening

Angelo

2019

Geography Compass

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In recent years, "urban greening" has become a new keyword in urban policy and practice, used to describe a proliferation of urban quality of life and environmental sustainability initiatives including street trees, public parks, greenways, farmers' markets, green roofs, and LEED certification in design. The emerging critical literature on urban greening has highlighted important ways green's social and economic added value affects the political economy of contemporary greening and produces inequalities in access to real or perceived environmental goods. However, such research has only infrequently asked why and under what conditions naturalized understandings of green as "good" make it possible for such initiatives to add value in the first place. As a result, it offers only partial explanations of why green has the effects it has-for instance, increasing property values-and only very rarely questions the fundamental "good" of nature itself. I argue that integrating insights on green's naturalized social and economic value from a growing body of social-theoretical work across geography and the social sciences can complement political economic explanations for greening and provide new vantage points for critique. K E Y W O R D S green gentrification, nature, social theory, urban agriculture, urban greening

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“…What are the effects of household dynamics in consumption and production, and how can they become sustainable (Gibson, Head, Gill, & Waitt, 2011)? Similarly, there are long-standing questions about corporate responsibility and how to make corporations truly sustainable (Kolk & Pinkse, 2007), and to ensure they do not greenwash the term at the cost of achieving actual sustainability (Greenberg, 2015).…”

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Policy Research: A Review and Synthesis

Armstrong¹,

Kamieniecki²

2019

Policy Studies Journal

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This paper reviews theoretical and empirical approaches drawn from influential journal articles and books on sustainability policy published over the last 10 years (2007 through 2017). Due to the widespread application of sustainability as a concept and space limitations, the paper more narrowly focuses on sustainability research in three critical policy areas: climate change, urban development, and agroecology and food systems. Drawing from information provided primarily by citation indexes, the study identifies and analyzes the research literature related to sustainability in these three fields. Future theoretical and empirical research approaches that can better integrate and connect the current diffuse and incongruent literature on sustainability are discussed in the paper. The findings of the literature review generate a number of possible future research directions that are discussed in the study.

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“The Sustainability Edge”: Competition, Crisis, and the Rise of Green Urban Branding

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice

Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice

Added value? Denaturalizing the “good” of urban greening

Sustainability Policy Research: A Review and Synthesis

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