Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

Environmental Governance Scholars Network

I had a chance in May to attend the Wesley Conference of Environmental Politics and Governance on Bainbridge Island near Seattle.  This conference was organized by Peter May and Aseem Prakash of the University of Washington, and was held at Islandwood Resort and environmental education center, a truly gorgeous location.  In any event, there were about 40 or so outstanding scholars from around the world who presented their research on some aspect of environmental governance. Jeff Berry and I wrote, and I presented, a paper called "Fifty Shades of Green," based on analysis of data from 50 of the largest cities in the U.S.  Ok, the title is a little over the top, but it accurately captures the essence of the paper. Check out the conference web site.

There is a second environmental politics and governance conference planned for Gerzensee, Switzerland, June 16-19, 2016.  I am posting the "call for papers" here.  Download EPG_Call_2016_Conference

Sustainability book due out soon

I have a new book called Sustainability coming out with MIT Press, due to appear in print in early October 2015.  This book is going to be one of the "Essential Knowledge" series, and provides an overview of the concepts of sustainability, and a summary of different studies that examine factors that affect sustainability.  You can read a full synopsis of this book at the MIT Press web site.