A collaborative learning model for a flourishing green roofs, walls and facades sector: Exploring two major Australian cities

Abstract

The combined challenges of climate change, urban densification, and pandemic-related isolation and stress have strengthened the case for increased greening in cities where their social and environmental benefits have captured the interest of policy-makers. Green roofs, walls, and facades (GRWF) are an established solution in many space-constrained northern hemisphere cities. This is not the case in Australia where GRWF sector growth is slower. To understand how to accelerate the uptake of GRWF, we ran appreciative inquiry summits in Sydney and Melbourne. We examined (1) actions for flourishing GRWFs and (2) collaboration for rapid innovation. Our results highlight collaborative learning and link this to phases of sector evolution through government-led research partnerships, policy, and incentives; a national body advocating, and supporting, engaging, and developing expertise; and cross-sector co‑leading for alignment and building sector capacity and knowledge. We integrate these into our model, revealing adoption, legitimation, and diffusion and sector growth phases, finding stalled progress and new initiatives signalling recent change. This work is relevant to GRWF and other forms of green infrastructure in cities where these technologies are new or not widely implemented.