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This book is a cornerstone resource for a wide range of organizations and individuals concerned with sustainable development at national and local levels, as well as for international organizations concerned with supporting such development. While the focus is on integrated strategies for sustainable development, the approaches and methods covered are equally relevant to poverty reduction, environmental and sectoral strategies, program development and review.

Agenda 21 called for all countries to develop sustainable development strategies. For such strategies to be effective there needs to be a real commitment. In every country, government at all levels, the private sector and civil society must work together in a true partnership, in transparent ways which enable genuine stakeholder participation. The necessary mechanisms and processes need to be coordinated to enable continuous learning and improvement.

This resource book provides flexible, non-prescriptive guidance on how to develop, assess and implement national sustainable development strategies. It sets out principles and ideas on process and methods, and suggests how these can be used. It is based on an analysis of past and current practice, drawing directly from experience in both developed and developing countries.

Following a discussion of the nature and challeges of sustainable development and the need for strategic responses to them, the heart of the book covers the main tasks in strategy processes. Individual chapters offer a rich range of guidance, ideas and case studies on:

* The nature of sustainable development strategies and current practice
* Key steps in starting, managing and improving sustainable development strategies
* Analysis of and for sustainable development
* Participation for sustainable development
* Information, education and communications
* Strategy decision-making frameworks and procedures
* The financial basis for strategies
* Monitoring and evaluation systems

Includes free CD-Rom of full text and extensive related material. ... Read more

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This volume examines the contribution of planning and integrated landscape management to the process of reversing the continuing deterioration of our natural environment. Planning for integrated buffer zones is important to conserve national parks, nature reserves, threatened habitats, other ecologically sensitive areas and heritage sites. This volume begins with an examination of the role and nature of planning. It identifies the main types of planning problems and details a "model" planning process that can be usefully applied to resolve them. Several theoretical and practical approaches to buffering environmentally sensitive areas are evaluated and a classification of existing approaches is detailed. Case studies are included to illustrate and test some of these approaches. It concludes by recommending that integrated buffer zone planning should become a standard tool in real-life environmental planning and management. To facilitate this, an innovative approach to the design and implementation of integrated buffers is offered, including a step-by-step planning guide. ... Read more

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Named one of a hundred "visionaries who could change your life" by the Utne Reader, Herman Daly has probably been the most prominent advocate of the need for a change in economic thinking in response to environmental crisis. An iconoclast economis t who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank in recent years, Daly has argued for overturning some basic economic assumptions. He has won a wide and growing reputation among a wide array of environmentalists, inside and outside the academy.

In a book that will generate controversy, Daly turns his attention to the major environmental debate surrounding "sustainable development." Daly argues that the idea of sustainable development--which has become a catchword of environmentalism and international finance--is being used in ways that are vacuous, certainly wrong, and probably dangerous. The necessary solutions turn out to be muc h more radical than people suppose.

This is a crucial updating of a major economist's work, and mandatory reading for people engaged in the debates about the environment.

"Daly is turning economics inside out by putting the earth and its diminishing natural resources at the center of the field . . . a kind of reverse Copernican revolution in economics."


--Utne Reader ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Too technical, too proselytizing
Daly presents a realistic view of sustainability and discusses economic policies that need to be adopted or abandoned in order to achieve this goal. In that regard, the book is a tour de force. However, his arguments are couched in the language of economists, and are difficult for even a well educated (non economist) reader to follow. Furthermore, in the last two chapters particularly, he finds it necessary to proselytize, and becomes insulting towards people that do not share his religious beliefs.

Mostly superb, but Needs To Be Linked
Daly comments in his chapter on Georgescu-Roegen that the grandmaster of physics-based economics was his professor at Vanderbilt.I recall reading in one source about the importance of his time in Brazil for his developing insights.This book contains one chapter on Brazil, where Daly reflects on some aspects of population growth and the economy there.
I read this book in a grad school course, having an undergraduate degree in biology, much practical activism, and some minor graduate background in some economics.I needed to outline some chapters to really grasp his discussion and terms.As Jared Diamond mentions in his book Collapse, the removal of any tree, fish, or living thing inherently disrupts ecosystems.While I have found organic foods and green products to be fundamental to creating a sounder activist lifestyle, and perhaps there is some part of me that bridles at the role of economics in subjugating ecosystems.Of course, Daly is a valiant intellect in service of aligning nature and human economics, and I am glad to find it is essential and rewarding to grasp his terms and reasoning.
His chapter 1 on moving to a steady state economy provides two fundamental ideas, biophysical and ethicosocial limits, along with the contemporary psychosocial condition of money, indicators, and information technology.His Chapter 11 I found especially helpful in focussing on the other basic concepts of allocation, distribution, and optimal scale.
A funny characteristic of Daly's thought strikes me as strangely comparable to conventional economists, in that it is overwhelmingly philosophical in character.While he also overwhelmingly appears to be applying a very tangible awareness of the biophysical and ethicosocial limits to his thoughts about allocation, distribution, and scale and the like, he does not cite constructive and existing examples.
As he refers at the end of his biophysical topic, conventional economists are like high priests.I think he implicitly perceives another issue that I don't think he explicitly addresses, that of economic power.William Dugger and a few other hearty economists have braved the subject, although it is C.W. Mills who had forged through some wilderness with his work, The Power Elite.Therefore, Daly may want to remain in the highly theoretical realm to avoid imaginable tragedies of other sorts.
Nevertheless, he does refer to Greenpeace in the introduction in an offhand reference, which touches on this important invisible, and essential, dimension.While Daly's discussion explores brilliantly various essential conceptual realms, I think three additional ones that help me grasp and stick with his enormous accomplishment are the views of Ralph Nader, Anita Roddick, and James Warbasse.I use Ralph Nader to reflect the role of non-profit activists like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club.Anita Roddick represents social entrepreneurs like Pax World Fund, Tom's of Maine, and Patagonia's founder.James Warbasse advocated for the cooperative movement, represented in part by Welch's, Ocean Spray, and Land O'Lakes, but more strongly by Organic Valley, Equal Exchange, and Once Again Nut Butters.
With these types of dynamics in mind, an invisible wall in Daly's thought becomes clear.His focus has continued to be the established system and the fundamental dynamics underlying its tragic growth.Ultimately, however, the hope for manifesting his insights lies outside the realm of his overall focus.The wisdom economy he refers to briefly exists in many places already.Daly's discussions are a fine basis to encourage and motivate those who already participate in the alternative, green economy.
Moreover, I have found at least two points which reflect something about the limitations of Daly's ownassumptions and focus, trivial as they ultimately appear to be.His review of the situation in Northeast Brazil tragically fails to acknowledge the indigenous populations.He makes an egregiously wrong statement "there is no ethnic difference between the poor and the rich."Personally, I happen to have close family in that very area, and immediately perceived the mistake.Further research clarified the situation for me.A tragic case of cultural eradication took place there, which may have spared some lives but meant total cultural subjugation.
Secondly, he states at one point that he would let labor and capital duke it out as if on equal terms when he concludes an argument of biophysical limits.I thought that an unrealistic equation, and a moment of loss of clarity as he circled in the intellectual stratosphere. Unfortunately, for all the corporate executive and cultural prejudice against laborers, it is the anti-employee actions of cold-blooded, profit-blood thirsty executives that has overwhelmingly debased labor's conditions and underlain most of their grievances.
On a number of occasions he seems to indulge in conventional market assumptions before mostly discerning fundamental issues.The issue of labor ultimately has been given extensive treatment in literature on employee-owned firms, beginning with Jaroslav Vanek and others in journals like Journal of Economic Issues.David Ellerman has made an important argument recently, and well-described in William Greider's The Soul of Capitalism and Mark Lutz's Economics for the Common Good.Daly is also treated in both those excellent works.Greider's addresses many practical dimensions and cases and would make excellent accompaniment to Daly's work.Michael Conroy's work, Branded!, also.He treats the non-profit certification movement with some inspiring detail.
Ultimately, my research has been leading me to the conclusion that the empirical basis of modern economics is not their inexplicable powers of fantastic logic.It is the missing dimension captured in Daly's quote of high priests, Mills' work on The Power Elite, and Dugger's work on Corporate Hegemony.Predatory, profit-maximizing corporations have stacked the system, including legal decisions over the last 200 years in an anti-democratic counter-revolution even before Reagan.They created a limited liability culture that has created an advertising and consumer culture each in turn.Thom Hartmann, Joel Bakan, Charles Derber, and Marjorie Kelly are among some of the excellent researchers on those topics, along with Greider, Dugger, and Mills.Therefore, the strongest logical step for these brave ecological economists like Daly, and any of us there supporters, is to link the actions mentioned by Diamond, formerly of the WWF, about the need for citizen action and the successes of the WWF and Rainforest Action Network.Keeping Nader, Greenpeace, Roddick, Warbasse, and Conroy in mind, and the many civil society groups, Daly's work can find the empirical base it needs to help transform academia and green industrial society.

profitandentropy.com
I cannot learn from the book what are Professor Daly's scientific or economic "creds", but he seems quite assured and at ease in this material.The current financial crisis makes this book very relevant, since it discusses how an economy resembles a thermodynamic system, presently run wild.It does not however address our thesis thatprofit in an economic system is analogous to increasing entropy in a thermodynamic system.Profitandentropy.com offers a paper that teaches enough thermodynamics to argue that this is the case - and explains that increasing entropy is more like waste than like fuel.
Economists are not scientifically educated enough even to the level of a "physics for poets" course to realize that what they study is subject to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, just as is the rest of reality.The equilibrium of supply and demand in economics mimics the Newtonian balance of action-and-reaction, which we show is an inadequate model to explain economics.The expanding economy that was driven by value-less, derivative profits sent the system into thermo-economic equilibrium.
Please visit profitandentropy.com

2009 - Still up to date
I read this book in 2009! This book is very useful even if it was written 10 years ago.

This is not always easy to grasp and understand all info, but it gives pertinent point of views especially during the current financial crisis. Mr. Daly is a pioneer and a genius!

I highly recommend this book if you would like to understand the current financial and economic crisis or if you want to discover a different path than the Economical growth.

Outstanding work, Daly's predictions have come to pass 10 years later
I've read a *lot* of economics books in recent years, some good, some not.But Daly's is really in a class by itself for seeing the big picture and explaining it clearly: traditional economics is broken.Neoclassical economics today is like high energy physics: all the trusty laws that held so true in normal energy physics, or 19th and 20th century economies, mysteriously start to fail us.I love the simple, yet compelling logic of Daly's insight:take the existing neoclassical model of economics--the circular flow of income between households and firms--and then draw a box around it, to acknowledge that the world is of finite size.Once you do that, analyze however you wish...the recognition of a finite world leads inexorably to the notion of an optimum size for the national and global economy.I like how Daly uses tools from mainstream economics to make the point: we all remember from Microeconomics that every firm has an optimal size, based on the size of the overall economy.Economics has the notion of limits to growth embedded already, we just need collectively to apply that logic without flinching.

Something that impressed me was how Daly in 1997 used his intellectual model to forecast the concentration of asset ownership in the U.S., with the consequence of increasing class disparity and declining real wages for the middle class.That would have seemed like outlandish poppycock in the mid-90s, but now in 2007, lo and behold, it's coming to pass (per the CIA and the Economic Policy Institute, and BLS.gov statistics) for all the reasons Daly outlined 10 years ago.The man is onto something, and policymakers would do well to listen to him.

Even better, I think, is that reading between the lines of Daly's book there is a real and believable message of hope.The world of the future that acknowledges limits, and embraces development over growth (think "quality" not "quantity" of the economy as the goal) is a better place than the world we live in today.Instead of the world becoming a planetary Los Angeles or Hong Kong, where life is crowded, expensive, polluted and mean, what I took away from Daly's book was a clear intellectual architecture for a world that is beautiful, full of possibilities for interesting life work, and full of hope and things to look forward to. I sincerely hope that Daly's vision helps shape the world my daughter grows up in. ... Read more

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* Major new textbook on the geography of sustainable development
* Collaborative effort from one of the UK's leading geography departments
* Ideal for undergraduates in geography, environmental science and social science

Sustainable development is the new mantra, but what does it mean on the ground in how people relate to the physical environment and across landscapes? This book offers fresh insights into sustainable development by looking at it from a range of geographical perspectives. Building on existing theory, it demonstrates geography's unique contribution to the study of human-environment relationships, and examines sustainability at the full range of spatial scales from the global to the local. Both theory and practice are discussed as the book explores sustainable development in urban and rural areas, in both developing and developed countries. The contributors suggest that the future path of sustainability is ours to forge if we make the choice and take action. ... Read more

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The authors present a method for systemically comparing alternative institutional arrangements for the development of rural infrastructure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Alternative views on infrastructure development
Interdisciplinary analysis that highlights the role of incentives in sustainable rural infrastructure.Survey of ideas and many project examples. ... Read more

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The internationalization of economies and other changes that accompany globalization have brought about a paradoxical reemergence of the local. A significant but largely unstudied aspect of new local-global relationships is the growth of "localist movements"--efforts to reclaim economic and political sovereignty for metropolitan and other subnational regions. In Localist Movements in a Global Economy, David Hess offers an overview of localism in the United States and assesses its potential to address pressing global problems of social justice and environmental sustainability.

Since the 1990s, more than 100 local business organizations have formed in the United States, and there are growing efforts to build local ownership in the retail, food, energy, transportation, and media industries. In this first social science study of localism, Hess adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical reflection, empirical research, and policy analysis. His perspective is not that of an uncritical localist advocate; he draws on his new empirical research to assess the extent to which localist policies can address sustainability and justice issues.

After a theoretical discussion of sustainability, the global corporate economy, and economic development, Hess looks at four specific forms of localism: "buy local" campaigns; urban agriculture; local ownership of electricity and transportation; and alternative and community media. He then examines "global localism"—transnational local-to-local supply chains—and other economic policies and financial instruments that would create an alternative economic structure. Localism is not a panacea for globalization, he concludes, but a crucial ingredient in projects to build more democratic, just, and sustainable politics.

Urban and Industrial Environments series ... Read more

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This multidisciplinary volume discusses the impact of tourism on sustainable development in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean. Bringing together scholars, development practitioners, international experts, and professionals, the contributors discuss the issues from a holistic and transnational perspective. This work provides a much-needed, thorough understanding of the interplay among economic, cultural, environmental, and public health parameters. ... Read more

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The 1990s have been marked by a wide-spread awareness of the convergence of environmental, economic and social problems and issues. Many local workers have begun to recognize that severe setbacks or even collapse of their local economy is strongly related to environmental problems: either to the depletion of local resources (such as timber, fish, or minerals) or to severe pollution and degradation of the local ecosystem.This in-depth collection of case studies of urban and rural communities committedto a process of sustainable development provides a more detailed description of this dynamic process than was previously available. This provocative book demonstrates the commonalities in approach across a wide variety of environmental and cultural settings, examining an emerging consciousness from cultural, economic, social and environmental viewpoints. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Toward Sustainble Communities (LocalPlan Perspective)
Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments is an excellent resource for those looking to help guide the creation of sustainably oriented policies in their communities.When I look at issues that revolve around planning our built environment, I like to look for ways that we as individual citizens can get involved in stimulating conversations and generating ideas for bettering our communities.As citizens we have a remarkable opportunity to use our collective intelligence to research ideas, explore implementation strategies, and aid in producing the policies that support the goals that we are trying to move toward.I've focused on a number of publications that promote citizen involvement in the past and I've yet to find a comprehensive manual brimming with sustainability ideas. Toward Sustainable Communities is just that.

At 239 pages Toward Sustainable Communities isn't an in-depth look into specific sustainability initiatives, instead it touches on the spectrum of possible policies that communities can enact to decrease their impact on the environment.For each topic of discussion the author (Mark Roseland) proposes tools and initiatives with examples of techniques employed in other localities. Topics are also vividly illustrated with appropriate diagrams and photos in order to provide a clear understanding.The topics covered range from the subjects of everyday conversations on sustainability (like urban sprawl) to the less glamorous aspects of human settlement (such as sewage treatment).

Personally, I found the title of the book alone to provide an extremely refreshing perspective outlook on sustainability (and community involvement).As the title, Toward Sustainable Communities:Resources for Citizens and their Governments, implies Roseland has geared the information both for citizens interested in promoting changes and for governments willing to embrace the changes.Roseland presents the information into three sections:Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Planet (this section sets the stage for the remainder of the book through placing the necessity of sustainable development into context and explaining the mechanisms through which sustainability can be achieved),Sustainable Community Building Blocks (this section explains the different areas through which improvements in sustainability can be gained), Mobilizing Citizens and Their Governments (this section explains the role of citizens, the need for public involvement, and the actions necessary by local government). From start to finish Toward Sustainable Communities provides information in a format that reaches the widest audience possible.

Toward Sustainable Communities is most useful as a sort of community organizer's guide to sustainability concepts or to individuals working in local government (whether it be staff, elected officials, or a board appointee) looking to bring sustainability into focus.There are certainly books available that are hyper-focused on a single sustainability issue, but Roseland provides a resource that allows the reader to evaluate what their community's "low-hanging fruit" are and to lay out over-arching goals to move "toward sustainable communities".

Good Reference
When I scanned the first 5 pages when I bought it I was expecting a little more. The book is an excellent reference for sustainability intiatives on the community and citizen level. However, it is not great at providing a real argument for sustainability (although, nobody really needs to convince me). Each chapter basically begins with the area (e.g. transportation, waste mgmt., etc.) and gives real-world examples of them. It's unknown how Roseland decides which communities to review. Additionally, these summaries are simply a long list. They don't provide any underlying principles or ideas. So, my poor review is based on my expectation of this book to be more explanatory and interesting. But, as a reference guide for sustainability it is good. I do not quite understand what the purpose of a book like this is. A reference is meaningless when the topic is citizen action because it does not offer anything practical or useful for an individual citizen. For more of an argument and practical ideology I would look at Natural Capital by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins.

Excellent community resource
This book offers an overview of many areas that community members should consider and plan for when working toward sustainability.The guidelines that Roseland provides are applicable for citizens, leaders, governing authorities, and anyone interested in brining communities closer together.

A compendium of practical sustainability know-how
Mark really knows his stuff - so if you have been wondering how to turn your community, city or region into a more liveable, sustainable community, this is a great place to start. Pedestrian traffic calming ? Cycling routes? Recycling facilities ? Greenways ? Local creek restoration ? Thrivingneighbourhood centers ? This book would make a great gift for any newcouncillor, or any would-be community activist. ... Read more

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Capitalize on a Comprehensive New Process for Planning and Designing Sustainable Green Communities

Written by internationally renowned architect Avi Friedman, Sustainable Residential Development equips you with a much-needed process and examples for planning and designing green communities. This landmark resource explains the principles of green building and how to apply them to residential development, presenting guidelines for creating communities that balance social, economic, and environmental needs.

Filled with plans, elevations, and vignettes, the book shows how to incorporate wind direction, sun exposure, tree preservation, topography, and public spaces into site plan.It also shows how to design high-density neighborhoods…apply green design and construction principles by using local materials and techniques, solar power, waste management, and water efficiency…as well as rehabilitate neighborhoods while respecting their heritage. Sustainable Residential Development features:

• Expert guidelines for planning and designing communities that balance social, economic, and environmental needs
• A wealth of international and U.S. case studies and examples that illustrate the principles of sustainable community design
• Over 100 downloadable plans and elevations that offer a head start for planning and designing sustainable communities

Product Description

The tourism industry has increasingly recognized and responded to growing environmental concerns. In recent years, there has been an emergence of a variety of categories of tourism considered more environmentally friendly: green, eco-tourism, and sustainable tourism. Much of the literature that has addressed these developments has been orientated to the destination locale or specific to a development. These texts have not sought to investigate and examine the response of government/national tourist organizations to the international sustainability agenda and the responses/actions of tourism enterprises to this "greening" agenda. This text aims to address this remarkable gap. This indispensable contribution to the field provides a comprehensive, state of the art perspective on progress towards the objectives of sustainable development within the tourism sector across the globe by focusing on the environmental performance and adoption of environmental management systems by tourism enterprises.

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This work contains a collection of selected, peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the First Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 2002. This conference was focussed on the following objectives: to discuss sustainability concepts of energy, water and environment and their relation to global development; to analyse potential scientific and technological processes reflecting energy, water and environment exchange; to present energy, water and environment system models and their evaluation; to consider multi-criteria assessment of energy, water and environment systems by taking account of economic, social, environmental and resource use aspects. This book is interesting for (post)graduate students, scientists and professionals from mechanical, chemical and environmental disciplines who are working on sustainable development. ... Read more

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This CIMA research project provides insights into the interrelationship between existing management accounting practices and accounting tools which seek to guide organisations towards sustainable development and create information about accounting techniques which addresses the issue of sustainable development.

Few studies have sought management accountants views on accounting techniques. This research project builds on the existing literature by paying attention to interactions between sustainable development performance data, management accountants, management accounting processes and management accounting generated data.

The research also draws from FCA (full accounting technique)which is an accounting technique gaining currency within policy and business circles.The project points out that the SAM (Sustainability Assessment Model) is a form of full cost accounting and the research furthers our knowledge of FCA and its usefulness as an accounting tool.

The project also examines how sustainable development data is used within a case study organisation (BP) and how such data can be used within other organisations.


* Shows how Sustainability Assessment Model (SAM) performance data is perceived by project management teams.
* Provides a broad perception of the SAM from the oil and gas industry.
* Evaluates the usefulness of the SAM in the electricity and building industry ... Read more

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The material of this book will derive its scientific under-pinning from basics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, engineering, soil science, and related disciplines and will provide sufficient breadth and depth of understanding in each sub-section of hydrology.   It will start with basic concepts:

• Water, its properties, its movement, modelling and quality
• The distribution of water in space and time
• Water resource sustainability

Chapters on ‘global change’ and ‘water and ethics’ aim respectively to emphasize the central role of hydrological cycle and its quantitative understanding and monitoring for human well being and to familiarize the readers with complex issues of equity and justice in large scale water resource development process.

Modern Hydrology for Sustainable Development is intended not only as a textbook for students in earth and environmental science and civil engineering degree courses, but also as a reference for professionals in fields as diverse as environmental planning, civil engineering, municipal and industrial water supply, irrigation and catchment management. ... Read more

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Many of the world's islands are dependent on tourism as their main source of income. It is therefore imperative that these destinations are managed for long-term viability. The natural appeal of a destination is typically one of its main tourism related assets, yet the natural environment is also the feature most directly threatened by potential overexploitation.

Sustainable Tourism in Island Destinations addresses these issues, providing an innovative discussion regarding issues of sustainability of island tourism destinations. It builds on and consolidates the existing literature and seeks to add to this by providing innovative discussions and practical management structures through the use of the authors' various island project work. The book examines sustainability issues in an island context and, through an illustrated case study approach, it focuses on the successes and challenges islands face in achieving sustainable tourism. Innovative mechanisms such as multi-stakeholder partnerships and incentive-driven non-regulatory approaches are put forward as ways that the sustainability agenda can move forward in destinations that face specific challenges due to their geography and historic development. These case studies provide the foundation which suggests that alternative approaches to tourism development are possible if they retain sustainability as a priority. ... Read more

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Over the past few decades, there has been a growing concern about the social and environmental risks which have come along with the progress achieved through a variety of mutually intertwined modernization processes. In recent years these concerns are transformed into a widely-shared sense of urgency, partly due to events such as the various pandemics threatening livestock, and increasing awareness of the risks and realities of climate change, and the energy and food crises. This sense of urgency includes an awareness that our entire social system is in need of fundamental transformation. But like the earlier transition between the 1750's and 1890's from a pre-modern to a modern industrial society, this second transition is also a contested one. Sustainable development is only one of many options. This book addresses the issue on how to understand the dynamics and governance of the second transition dynamics in order to ensure sustainable development. It will be necessary reading for students and scholars with an interest in sustainable development and long-term transformative change.

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Here is a refreshing look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, and more sustainable forms of economic development.

In Emerald Cities, Joan Fitzgerald shows how in the absence of a comprehensive national policy, cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle have taken the lead in addressing the interrelated environmental problems of global warming, pollution, energy dependence, and social justice. Cities are major sources of pollution but because of their population density, reliance on public transportation, and other factors, Fitzgerald argues that they are uniquely suited to promote and benefit from green economic development. For cities facing worsening budget constraints, investing in high-paying green jobs in renewable energy technology, construction, manufacturing, recycling, and other fields will solve two problems at once, sparking economic growth while at the same time dramatically improving quality of life. Fitzgerald also examines how investing in green research and technology may help to revitalize older industrial cities and offers examples of cities that don't make the top-ten green lists such as Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio and Syracuse, New York. And for cities wishing to emulate those already engaged in developing greener economic practices, Fitzgerald shows which strategies will be most effective according to each city's size, economic history, geography, and other unique circumstances. But cities cannot act alone, and Fitzgerald analyzes the role of state and national government policy in helping cities create the next wave of clean technology growth.

Lucid, forward-looking, and guided by a level-headed optimism that clearly distinguishes between genuine progress and exaggerated claims, Emerald Cities points the way toward a sustainable future for the American city. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Emerald Cities. A possible Dream.


This book is an overall review of the state of the American cities regarding the implementation of urban sustainability and its relation with economic development. Starting with the premise that sustainable economic development cannot be achieved without the implementation of appropriate policies the author analyzes in this book how cities in America are implementing this policies using different examples of cities and a bundle of actual data to support its statements.

The creation of a low carbon industry will create millions of jobs in the United States as stated by the author. These industries will benefit most of all our cities which are our most densely populated areas and also our most polluted environments.


Also the author studies and compares the policies followed in other parts of the world to achieve the sustainable economic development goal and explains how they have succeed in different parts of the world. What it's interesting in this book is the amount of research and investigation leading to facts and the realization of how America is not a leader in the creation of sustainable sources of energies who otherwise would benefit our cities and our environment.

In the American landscape the local governments have being the ones playing a more important role in creating sustainable forms of green technologies able to support economic development in our cities. In the last years the federal government has lacked a comprehensive and organic policy towards achieving real results that would bring the United States to the level of becoming a leader in the investigative field as well as a leader in the use of green technologies.

The author analyzes in the book examples of local governments or cities that are leading in America these efforts. Such are the cases of cities as Austin in Texas, Boston in Massachusetts, Chicago in Illinois, Los Angeles and San Francisco in California, Portland in Oregon and Seattle in Washington. All of these cities have implemented different policies adapted to their particular circumstances that have been producing results. The point is that by doing so the cities have also benefitted economically as well as environmentally and in general all American cities should follow this path adjusting their steps to follow to their own problems, possibilities and conditions in general.

One of the most admirable aspects of the book is the abundance of data supporting the statements. This makes the book an excellent point of reference for those interested in accurate data regarding the use of low carbon emission technologies.

On chapter 4th the author also analyzes and offers possible solutions or steps to follow to build the energy efficient city. On this chapter the author makes emphasis on the application of green technology or LEED certification of new buildings. Cities are made of buildings after all or at least buildings are necessary elements in the fabric cities. The author also in this chapter shows an insight of how many of the cities have applying these policies and programs with success and how other cities which, despite of the efforts applying initiatives have not have had the expected success. These success and failures analysis make this chapter one of the most valuables in the book.

On chapter 5 the author gets into the analysis of the recycling industry. It is important to understand how we can re-use in different ways our trash and how cities can work towards the creation of a functional recycling industry. We need also to reduce the amount of waste we produce since it is this waste one of the main sources of pollution in our cities. Also, the author sheds light on how cities and its government can contribute to this. One of these examples in our city of Washington DC is the recently imposed charge on the use of plastic bags by supermarkets and other retail users.

On chapter six the author exposes how transportation impacts the level of pollution in cities and how creating a green transportation economy is a fundamental step in order to free our cities from excess pollution and also create sustainability within its economy. On this chapter we can read about many initiatives followed in the nation to achieve this goal. Transportation systems or how people and business communicate in a city is a key issue in the process of city planning. Thus creating a transportation system that fulfills the needs of the city and also address the issue of using renewable energy sources or/and non pollutants sources is crucial for cities to stay on track regarding their abilities of sustainable grow.

The last chapter of the book is geared towards the role that the planning industry and professionals play in creating a sustainable viable and possible economic grow in our cities based in the implementations of green technologies and renewable energy sources.

In general I can say this is an excellent book for anyone interested in having factual data regarding the implementation of green and sustainable policies in American cities towards sustainable economic grow. It is also a book that offers an international perspective, with many examples in places like the UK, Germany, etc, on where American Cities should look and where American cities stand regarding the implementation of policies and the use of renewable energy resources compared with its counterparts in other areas of the world.

A Sustainability Book for Reasoned Hope in a Dangerous Century
Although the Seattles and Portlands and Austins do figure in urban policy scholar Joan Fitzgerald's examination of tactics and strategies to join urban sustainability and economic development, she reminds us in her splendid new book, Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, that cities like Toledo and Syracuse, Cleveland and Oakland may provide the more transferable tactics and exemplars for cities like Lexington and Louisville, Cincinnati and Columbus, Indianapolis and Bloomington to emulate.
What fascinates her is how, in the face of eight years of Republican presidential indifference, these Emerald Cities have cobbled together homegrown policies and financial techniques that offer opportunities for addressing at the local level problems of climate change, energy profligacy, and natural resource waste.In case study after case study, she carefully highlights promising programs devoted to renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management, and transportation, and shows how sometimes city leadership, sometimes public-private partnerships, and at other times nonprofit or business coalitions have adopted one or another of three economic-development strategies she calls "linking" (connecting populations to new employment opportunities); "transformational" (redirecting declining manufacturing industries into new markets); and "leapfrogging" (pursuing entirely technology clusters).
Community activists and frustrated public officials will recognize that Fitzgerald does not look for eco-development panaceas like Richard Florida's creative cities formula.Nor does she promote her own as "sure bets" that will allow the mid-sized cities of the nation to magically join the Club of World-class Cities.What her abundant examples of progress and failure do exhibit is thatleadership from far-seeing public officials, non-profits, business alliances, and grassroots citizens organizations can provide many of the community resources for generating forward economic development strategies allied with energy conservation and other sustainability-oriented practices that really engage the looming regional-global economic and environmental threats beginning to impinge upon the household and city budgets as we slouch into the second decade of the twenty-first century.
Her opening and closing chapters, which focus in part on Freiburg and Stockholm respectively, show just how and why European cities are so much further ahead of U.S. cities. Both cities are located in nations where planning is not anathema and where the idea and substance of green development builds on linkages and synergies that most American towns and cities can only dream of as they look beyond the horizon of local, state, national politics.
By the time one has studied and pondered her dozen or so cases of looming successes, unrewarded failures, and incomplete initiatives for which the jury is still out, the reader recognizes what a nuanced and fair-minded study of urban sustainability and economic development is this book.One also comes to realize how fragile are these urban initiatives and how subject they are to the good (or bad) timing, Machiavelli's Fortuna, and the existence (or lack thereof) of visionary executive leadership and/or legislative inventiveness in the state or nation's capitol.
The political task of this century is not to build idealist utopias toward which one cannot get from here to there, but to seek after practical ones for which women and men of stout hearts, enduring patience, and reasoned hope can build future sustainable city-regions in the here and now through a possible politics.Cynicism is easy; hope is what we need.This book instills this vital resource.Buy and read it.

Lots of HIgh Cost, Government Run, Politically Correct Solutions
I recently read this book. It was an interesting exploration of how big cities can be green.As a disclaimer let me point out that I had lived in a big city metro area (Los Angeles, CA. region) for over a decade.Let me tell you I personally am NOT impressed, in fact my personal theory is the bigger the NOT better, when it comes to cities.How people crammed in together can be considered a positive thing is beyond me, but to each their own.This book is full of high cost, government mandated programs that look to reward certain groups based on social justice and progressive/liberal politics.It was way too political for my taste.Of course the one thing the environmental and green movement generally treads too lightly on, in my opinion, is the damage caused to the environment by just too many people on the planet. As for paving large areas and cramming people in to be green and sustainable, I say less people, more trees, more animals, more natural and rural areas.
Rich Ward - [...]

A breakthrough book
In this breakthrough book, Joan Fitzgerald lays out a visionary yet pragmatic agenda that melds three concerns that are too often approached in isolation:economic development, urban sustainability and social justice. As she notes at the start, what makes the achievement of this agenda so urgent is the ongoing prospect of devastating climate change coinciding with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Written in lucid, jargon-free prose, Emerald Cities charts the way forward.

Fitzgerald examines five areas--renewable energy, energy efficiency, green building, waste management and transportation--and identifies three kinds of strategies cities can pursue within those areas:linking strategies that connect sustainability or climate change initiatives to economic development goals, such as Los Angeles' tying efficiency retrofitting to work-needy residents and Chicago's Waste to Profit Network; transformational strategies that enable existing businesses to expand into green markets or services, such as Portland's local street car industry and Toledo's move from glass to solar panel production; and--boldest of all--leapfrogging strategies that attempt to create an entirely new sector in a green technology, such as Cleveland's offshore wind production initiative.

Focusing on the United States, Fitzgerald bookends her inquiry with encouraging examples from Germany and Sweden. Her aim, however, is not to cheerlead but to find out what works. One of her study's distinctive strengths is its sobriety: she marks failures and frustrations as well as successes. Not all green jobs are good jobs. Not every city will be able to develop a renewable energy sector. Many of the efforts now underway are necessarily experimental. Cities and regions are trying to remake themselves and their economies along fundamentally new lines. Even if we applaud their intentions, we need to rigorously evaluate the outcomes.

But one of the key lessons of Emerald Cities is that good intentions are crucial. Our current predicament was not our foreordained destiny; it's the result of myopia and inattentiveness--much of it willful. That's actually good news, because it means we can do something about it. And as Fitzgerald repeatedly observes, "we" must include the federal government. No matter how well cities design and execute pathbreaking visions of green and equitable economic development, it's going to take national leadership and investment guided by a broad and coherent industrial policy to achieve a prosperous and just green economy. For all who seek that goal, Emerald Cities is a must-read.

Zelda Bronstein, Former Chair, Berkeley Planning Commission

Shines a light on green jobs
The possibility that green jobs may be the key to economic recovery and environmental sustainability is all the rage in media coverage these days.The New York Times has run several features on their prospects, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently published a 50-page, four-section feature entitled, "Going for the Green: Finding Growth through the Green Movement."

The more zealous advocates for the "movement" assert its potential for creating millions of jobs and transforming the United States to a clean energy economy.Skeptics argue that the growth figures for green jobs are wildly overstated. But the projections of scholars and theassertions of advocates have seldom been buttressed with hands-on evidence of what's presently at work in the U.S. economy.

Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development goes a long way toward filling this factual vacuum on clean energy development, including some laudable candor about the prospect of green job growth, given the shortcomings of current policies. Fitzgerald combines the academic discipline of an urban planner with the rigors of shoe-leather journalism in crafting a book that documents where real progress is being made and why the best of intentions among policy makers often go begging for want of a federal strategy to advance clean energy development ... Read more