Encouraging a more sustainable urban system requires a reexamination of urban development goals and polices to acknowledge the role that cities play in influencing global environmental change. However, sustainability remains a broadly defined concept that has been applied to mean everything from environmental protection and social cohesion to economic growth and neighborhood design. To guide sustainability initiatives and assess progress toward more sustainable development patterns, there is a need to place this concept into a more functional decision-centric context where change in development proposals can be evaluated in a manner more consistent with future as well as present societal needs. To date, sustainability is assessed within the rubric established by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system or the Sustainable Sites Initiative. These systems, while useful, are ill-suited to the multifaceted, complex relationships that characterize sustainability. In this study, the problem of sustainability assessment was examined within an urban setting by using a method that coupled scenario analysis with spatial multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). The integration of a spatial MCDA model for sustainable development with scenario planning resulted in an interpretation of sustainability that is more appropriate for local conditions and useful when exploring sustainability's semantic uncertainties, particularly those alternate perspectives that influence future urban patterns.

Environmental Practice 15:133–146 (2013)

The Lower Menominee River area of concern (AOC) is one of 43 such areas in the Great Lakes region that have been subject to historical degradation and recent remediation activities. An evaluation of the efficacy of the remediation activities relates directly to the assessment of various beneficial use impairments (BUIs) and their associated targets. We discuss development and assessment of the “degradation of fish and wildlife populations” BUI in the Lower Menominee River AOC both in general, as well as a specific case within a section of the Lower Menominee River AOC (Lower Scott Flowage). We discuss process and outcomes related to the involvement of the general public and technical experts, the development of assessment criteria, and provisional results of the evaluation. We developed criteria for fish species of interest, as established by citizens and technical experts, with reference conditions defined as electrofishing catch per effort in similar flowages within the Menominee River drainage. The target for the BUI was exceedance of the 25th percentile for each species from a distribution of comparable data from reference locations. Preliminary results suggest that relative abundance for most species exceeds this target, although additional surveys are considered necessary by the technical and citizen advisory committees before a final determination can be made. Species targets that are not met will provide guidance for species-specific habitat improvement or other management actions that will result in the removal of the BUI designation.

Environmental Practice 15:393–400 (2013)

Biofuels are more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels but not necessarily sustainable. This article describes the legal power of the European Union (EU)—and the use of this power—to promote the sustainable use of the biofuels by formally binding criteria. The sustainability criteria laid down in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) is analyzed, and explained is how it differentiates among biofuels on the basis of their environmental sustainability related to their processes and production methods. The use of these criteria has the twofold goal of making it possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by the use of fuels and to prevent the conversion of land characterized by high-carbon stock and high biodiversity for biofuel production. The EU rules do not prohibit trade of nonsustainable biofuels. The RED and the Fuel Quality Directive prohibit member states from counting nonsustainable biofuels as part of the fulfillment of their renewable energy obligations, and the European Community guidelines on environmental support are depriving the suppliers of nonsustainable biofuels from getting economic support. These EU rules may effectively eliminate the interest of the business in placing nonsustainable biofuels on the EU market. Thus, the EU exerts exterritorial jurisdiction by the way of the sustainability criteria. Only those sustainability criteria related to agroenvironmental practices are without effect on biofuel production outside the EU. The possible incompatibility of the EU rules and sustainability criteria with the World Trade Organization rules is discussed briefly. Mentioned are other examples of extraterritorial EU environmental criteria/schemes and several indications on the acceptance of such transnational protection of the environment.

Environmental Practice 15:50–61 (2013)

Many Chinese economic actors in Africa have come under harsh criticism for the alleged environmental impact of their activities. This impact is not always documented, is uneven across the continent, and should be compared to that of business actors from other countries—in particular from the OECD. One major factor accounts for the recorded differences: the policy and regulatory framework within which these business actors operate. The African weak state is not conducive to the adoption of robust standards and their subsequent implementation. However, the shift in Chinese policy at home on environmental issues is already producing some changes for the state-owned companies, and there is a growing concern in China's leading circles about the international image of the nation and its companies turning global.

Environmental Practice 15:220–227 (2013)

This case study considers the applicability of collaborative governance to natural resource management challenges in China, particularly when compared with its use in the United States (US). The specific case in point centers on a June 2012 workshop in Beijing co-organized by the China Environmental Law Project of the Beijing Representative Office of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Beijing Zhonglin Union Forestry Consulting Company, Ltd. The case study is based on participant observation, literature review, and policy analysis. The critical distinction between the applicability of collaborative governance in China and in the US relates to the incentives to collaborate, which differ in China and in the US. The authors suggest eight possible next steps encompassing research, practice, and education.

Environmental Practice 15:228–239 (2013)

This article discusses the room for national maneuver (flexibility) in the implementation of two important European directives aimed at the improvement of air quality: the Ambient Air Quality Directive and the National Emission Ceilings Directive. Concrete examples of flexibility are time extensions for deadlines, the possibility for lowering standards, or the freedom to decide in which manner certain objectives like those for environmental quality are set. This flexibility is an important factor for the actual impact that these legal obligations could have on air quality. Evaluated is whether these directives are, considering the flexibility, actually capable of contributing to the environmental protection they seek to provide. The overall conclusion is that both directives set an inflexible environmental target and that a European level of ambition is being established.

Environmental Practice 15:62–71 (2013)

For three decades, many environmental practitioners have used the information campaign as their tool of choice. Yet most simple information appeals remain ineffective and are rooted in an outdated understanding of human behavior. In this article, we report on policy lessons from the Rewire program, an innovative energy conservation campaign at the University of Toronto that has grown to reach over 12,000 community members in Canada's largest university. Drawing from the Rewire experience, which evaluated the program by using a mix of psychological, electricity, and qualitative metrics, we suggest cost-effective methods for delivering policy interventions in a complex institutional setting and explore effective methods to generate widespread changes in energy behaviors through a community-based social marketing approach. Campaign designers should move away from single-tool policy interventions to employ a coordinated set of tools and techniques that address a wide range of determinants of human behavior. By training community-based coordinators, campaign designers should also move away from hierarchical policy implementation and toward decentralized deployment of modular and locally adaptive campaigns. For behavioral change to make a meaningful contribution to energy policy, we emphasize the need for more regular dialogue between social science research and the community of energy conservation practitioners.

Environmental Practice 15:147–155 (2013)

Based on long-term fieldwork, we report a descriptive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis performed by a public agency that manages a protected area (PA) system in a densely populated area (Rome, central Italy) to highlight the core limits in this PA's management effectiveness. The key result of the analysis is that the limits of the management effectiveness and the obstacle in setting improvement strategies can be basically derived from the hierarchical command-and-control government approach and from the adopted management model. The main hindrance to the implementation of a multilevel collaborative management appears to be the “institutional stickiness” of the managing public agency in shifting from its hierarchical government approach to a governance one. Having observed the presence of operational gaps among the best solutions in the scholarly mainstream, the governing capability of the managing authority, and what happens in the field, we suggest that an answer to aligning these factors could be the creation of more fluid conditions for bottom–up initiatives—for instance, by monitoring the multibenefits of PAs for local communities or by making available to the public the economic evaluation of public goods.

Environmental Practice 15:401–408 (2013)

One main theme in the Rio+20 Conference was how to facilitate the growth of green industries. How can politicians more specifically promote renewable green industries such as wind turbines or solar energy? How can we get prices right in the market? Prices can be adjusted by the use of economic instruments such as taxes and subsidies. In this way, renewable energy sources and green industries become more competitive, thus enhancing the transition from brown to green economy. Not only can these economic incentives accelerate the so-called switch point in time from fossil fuel–based energy sources to those not based on fossil fuel, they also encourage innovation. An illustrative example of this logic in practice is the case of Danish wind energy production.

Environmental Practice 15:72–78 (2013)

In 2008, the US Environmental Protection Agency identified the redevelopment of the Silver Spring central business district in Montgomery County, Maryland, as successfully modeling the principles of smart growth. An important component of the project involved the use of an innovative Green Tape program that streamlined the permitting process. This article reports on a survey of stakeholders associated with this project, which was undertaken to gain insight into the challenges of smart growth. The main issues identified by stakeholders revolved around the public's role in decisions associated with the treatment of landmark structures and the creation of public space. Stakeholders also suggested that a tension existed between regional plans to increase density and the desire of some residents (such as those in areas surrounding the Silver Spring central business district) to maintain the lower-density character of their neighborhoods. In general, this a case example of the tensions that can emerge as efforts to ensure efficient and predictable decision making, which developers and planners value, clash with efforts to facilitate community participation in decision making, which is essential if projects are to be responsive to a broad range of stakeholders.

Environmental Practice 15:156–168 (2013)

Over the last 30 years China has enjoyed economic growth averaging about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) per year. But this economic growth has come at a high environmental cost. In China approximately 750,000 premature deaths a year are attributed to high levels of environmental pollution. With the recent 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) China's leadership announced the launching of a green revolution that would balance the need for robust economic growth with concern for the environment and combating climate change. This paper utilizes a rent-seeking framework to explore some of the obstacles inhibiting more environmentally sustainable policies in China. We describe the situation as a struggle over the proper aligning of the individual actor's behavior within an opportunistic governance structure, and we argue that rent seeking and corruption creates substantial hurdles to promoting green environmental practices and programs.

Environmental Practice 15:240–252 (2013)

There is increasing demand for the implementation of effects-based monitoring and surveillance (EBMS) approaches in the Great Lakes Basin to complement traditional chemical monitoring. Herein, we describe an ongoing multiagency effort to develop and implement EBMS tools, particularly with regard to monitoring potentially toxic chemicals and assessing Areas of Concern (AOCs), as envisioned by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Our strategy includes use of both targeted and open-ended/discovery techniques, as appropriate to the amount of information available, to guide a priori end point and/or assay selection. Specifically, a combination of in vivo and in vitro tools is employed by using both wild and caged fish (in vivo), and a variety of receptor- and cell-based assays (in vitro). We employ a work flow that progressively emphasizes in vitro tools for long-term or high-intensity monitoring because of their greater practicality (e.g., lower cost, labor) and relying on in vivo assays for initial surveillance and verification. Our strategy takes advantage of the strengths of a diversity of tools, balancing the depth, breadth, and specificity of information they provide against their costs, transferability, and practicality. Finally, a series of illustrative scenarios is examined that align EBMS options with management goals to illustrate the adaptability and scaling of EBMS approaches and how they can be used in management decisions.

Environmental Practice 15:409–426 (2013)

The language barrier between science and policy is as large and often underestimated as that between British and American English. Although most of the words are the same, they often carry different meaning. One good example of this is the term theory, which has caused much trouble for policy makers in relation to school curricula on evolution. However, there are many other words that have one specific meaning when used by scientists and another more common meaning in everyday use. Translation difficulties may also arise from the particular phraseology and writing conventions used by scientists. These are often more subtle but can create just as much, if not more, trouble in the sound-bite world of mass media, especially in high-profile subject areas such as the effects of noise on marine mammals. Using an excerpt from a report in this subject area by the US National Research Council as a case study, the authors will provide some examples of where scientific language use can be misunderstood (and potentially even intentionally misused) by policy makers and stakeholders and offer some possible solutions to these issues. The intent is to facilitate communication between scientists and policy makers to order to improve management efforts.

Environmental Practice 15:79–83 (2013)

China has consistently striven toward economic growth at the expense of civil and political rights; however, China faces an impasse as its severe restrictions on civil and political rights threaten to damage its economic growth, a tension that is best illustrated by the environmental movement. With the advent of new technologies, the lack of transparency and public awareness that has allowed corruption to thrive is decreasing. As a result, China is beginning to accept that economic rights may be inextricably linked to environmental rights, and that it must sometimes yield to the latter in order to preserve the former. Specialized environmental courts, created by local courts to manage environmental unrest, are the perfect target for concrete reforms that, if successful, would improve the rule of law in China. Moreover, the centralization of local environmental courts may create the backdoor opportunity that the Central Communist Party needs to pierce local protectionism and advance its sincere interests in both protecting the environment and quelling visible unrest.

Environmental Practice 15:427–440 (2013)

The conservation footprint is the collection of acreage in national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, national forests or other lands managed by the federal government. Their purpose is to maintain biological integrity and diversity (Monaghan, 2009). However, the United States (US) has failed to develop an effective policy for the conservation footprint. This policy failure is the result of many factors (Biber, 2009), three of which are land tenure, self-constitution, and orchestrated regionalism. As a result, the very substance of US conservation is eroding.

In China, water shortage and water pollution are pronounced challenges. The limited water resources are poorly managed. Despite a lack of water, China is committed to being food self-sufficient, which requires extensive irrigation. The paradoxical ambitions of reducing water shortage and promoting food self-sufficiency are supported by technological innovation and costly engineering projects. Yet, these attempts will ultimately fail to bridge the gap between water demand and supply. China's continued economic growth presents difficult problems and new prospects in the context of water and food security. On one hand, a growing number of wealthier, urban Chinese consumers are demanding water-intensive food products, which cannot be sustainably produced in China in light of heavy irrigation requirements and continued population growth. On the other hand, the economic growth opens a window of opportunity for China to include virtual water trade as a component of its water policies. China is reluctant to embrace this trade because it perceives it to have a negative effect on its national security. It appears that China's security axis must shift. It cannot maintain its growing population and economy while preserving current levels of water, food, and national security simultaneously. A policy change is needed. It is argued, therefore, that the policy relevance of virtual water trade must be addressed, and the water shortage–induced imperative of food imports must be given appropriate attention.

Environmental Practice 15:253–261 (2013)

Despite the growing number empirical studies (and scientific consensus) pointing to the devastating impacts of global warming (Peterson, Stott, and Herring, 2012), the evolution of leading atmospheric scientists and scientific organizations (e.g., American Meteorological Society) into advocates for programs and policies that mitigate carbon-based emissions, the climate-related concerns of some business leaders, and the prominence given climate change in President Barack Obama's second inaugural address, we must recognize that fundamental climate policy change will not occur in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, intransigence, disinterest, imaginary thinking, and inaction characterize both national and international political decision making when it comes to passing policies to reduce carbon emissions significantly.

Forty-one years ago, in 1969, the air in St. Louis was fouled by emissions from a variety of smokestacks. Meatpacking plants, power plants, chemical plants, and other manufacturers discharged without restriction. Sanitary sewer plants pumped sewage treated to basic levels directly into the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, as well as local feeder streams, where it mixed with liquid discharges from manufacturing interests. Landfills accepted whatever people no longer wanted, and people who didn't want to wait for trash pickup just tossed garbage and waste out the window of their car.

This article examines the impact of environmental courts on environmental enforcement in China. Situating the environmental courts within the long arcs of environmental lawmaking and environmental enforcement in China, where a fractured bureaucratic state increasingly drives patterns of experimentation, this article argues that Chinese environmental courts are best understood as “Environmental Protection Bureaus 2.0.” That is, rather than courts in the traditional legal understanding of the term, it is more productive to think of China's environmental courts as another bureaucratic actor. The courts' entrance into an increasingly crowded environmental enforcement hierarchy increases competition and collaboration with traditional and newly created enforcement institutions. This in turn results in institutional feedback that could heighten environmental protection outcomes. The article concludes by briefly examining what these dynamics mean for environmental federalism in China.

Environmental Practice 15:441–461 (2013)

China's practice of gifting and loaning giant pandas has been given new impetus as a result of damage to panda-conservation facilities caused by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and China's rise as an economic power. We suggest that a new, third phase of panda diplomacy is under way that is distinct from the previous two. Phase 1 during the Mao era (in the 1960s and 1970s) took the form of China gifting pandas to build strategic friendships. Phase 2 followed Deng Xiaoping's rise to power in 1978 when gifts became gift loans involving a capitalist lease model based on financial transactions. In the emerging phase 3, panda loans are associated with nations supplying China with valuable resources and technology and symbolize China's willingness to build guanxi—namely, deep trade relationships characterized by trust, reciprocity, loyalty, and longevity. Notable is the correlation of guanxi loan deals with nations supplying resources and technologies to China in the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake in panda habitat. As captive breeding resumes with the completion of repairs to the earthquake-damaged Wolong Breeding center, we predict that panda diplomacy will increase and that panda conservation, more than ever, will be the outcome of a complex, dynamic interplay among politics, markets, and conservation science.

Environmental Practice 15:262–270 (2013)