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Critical Connections: The Role of the Built Environment Sector in Delivering Green Cities and a Green Economy

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Listed:
  • Peter Newton

    (Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne 3122, Australia)

  • Peter Newman

    (The CUSP Institute, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

Abstract

The green agenda for cities and the economy in general is a major focus of global institutions and is increasingly a major national and urban priority. Core issues and best practice for built environment businesses were collated from published studies and used in a survey of Australian firms to see how committed they were to the green economy. The results show high awareness of the challenges and opportunities with 85% of firms having sustainability as an established agenda with senior management and over 20% of built environment firms deriving more than 50% of their sales from green products and services. This is much higher in design firms and is globally high. Whilst recognizing the scope for more engagement by industry in transitioning to a low carbon green economy, there is doubt within the built environment sector about how to create a business case for innovative green ventures and a lack of certainty or encouragement from government about how to proceed.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Newton & Peter Newman, 2015. "Critical Connections: The Role of the Built Environment Sector in Delivering Green Cities and a Green Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-27, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:7:p:9417-9443:d:52739
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Smith, Adrian & Kern, Florian & Raven, Rob & Verhees, Bram, 2014. "Spaces for sustainable innovation: Solar photovoltaic electricity in the UK," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 115-130.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dorji Yangka & Peter Newman & Vanessa Rauland & Peter Devereux, 2018. "Sustainability in an Emerging Nation: The Bhutan Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Min Wang & Xianli Zhao & Qunxi Gong & Zhigeng Ji, 2019. "Measurement of Regional Green Economy Sustainable Development Ability Based on Entropy Weight-Topsis-Coupling Coordination Degree—A Case Study in Shandong Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, January.
    3. Peter Newton & Denny Meyer & Stephen Glackin, 2017. "Becoming Urban: Exploring the Transformative Capacity for a Suburban-to-Urban Transition in Australia’s Low-Density Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, September.
    4. Peter W. Newton & Briony C. Rogers, 2020. "Transforming Built Environments: Towards Carbon Neutral and Blue-Green Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Baofeng Shi & Hufeng Yang & Jing Wang & Jingxu Zhao, 2016. "City Green Economy Evaluation: Empirical Evidence from 15 Sub-Provincial Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-39, June.

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