(05 December 2013) – In The Guide to Greening Cities, recently published, seasoned green city leaders Sadhu Johnston, Steven Nicholas, and Julia Parzen use success stories from across North America to show how to turn a green city agenda into reality.
As cities continue to face climate change impacts while growing in population, they find themselves at the center of resilience and green city solutions, yet political and budgetary obstacles threaten even the best-planned initiatives.
In North America, the list of cities claiming to have the highest aspirations for greenness is growing and now includes, for example, Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City, San Antonio and Washington DC.
The Urban Sustainability Directors Network, an informal organization of local government leaders engaging in collaboration, peer-to-peer support and information-sharing, now has 120 members working in cities across the U.S. The Network also houses eight regional sub-networks and disburses a pool of philanthropic funds to support particularly significant or innovative practices.
Some of these practices are now detailed in a new book, The Guide to Greening Cities, authored by three leaders of the Sustainability Directors Network including Julia Parzen, the group’s founding executive director. There is also a companion website.
The Guide to Greening Cities is the first book written primarily from the perspective of municipal sustainability officials, sharing their on-the-ground experience working to advance green city goals. As such, it explains the story of government leadership from the inside and, importantly for readers, at the level of practitioners rather than politicians. (With The Atlantic Cities)