Performing leadership: municipal green building policies and the city as role model

Abstract

The recent rise in the use of third-party standards and rating systems to evaluate the sustainability or greenness of urban programs and policies includes their explicit incorporation into municipal policy in the case of certified green buildings. In this paper the theoretical framework of performativity is used to explain how multiple forms of city activity interlock through policy to name, repeat, and recount the city as a leader—which, in this particular discursive formation, means being green. By performing greenness to their peers, city staff and elected officials work on the city's identity as an innovator and leader. Furthermore, the internal performance of greenness to residents and businesspeople indicates the appropriate role of local government in relation to private sector activity and protecting citizens, including taking on the risks of new technologies and practices to ease the way for private capital.