Voters, Neighbors, and City Performance in Environmental Sustainability Transitions

Abstract

While most city governments in the United States acknowledge the importance of clean and healthy natural environment, their commitment to environmental sustainability varies widely. Scholarship on why some cities pursue the environmental agenda more than others is still evolving. This research adds to the model of municipal sustainability adoption by showing negative effects of residents’ political conservatism and positive effects of environmentally conscious neighboring cities on local sustainability action. The analysis of data for government finances and employment over the Great Recession also shows that commitment to sustainability was not associated with any distinct patterns in spending, debt or employment. Taken together, these findings point at a non-neutral role of social factors in sustainability transitions and suggest that cities pursuing the environmental mission can withstand tough economic times without substantial performance tradeoffs.