Leading the Green Transition

Urban green building transitions are driven by experiments and innovations raising questions of drivers and barriers behind these processes. This chapter discusses spatial and temporal perspectives on green building innovations drawing on research on policy mobilities and innovation. It discusses green building in Freiburg, Vancouver, Brisbane and Luxembourg as places of transition where innovations and change are shaped by internal (local) and external (extra-local) factors. Further, it highlights how the nature and objectives of green building have changed over time based on experiments with green neighbourhoods and flagship buildings and describes how green building is increasingly used for competitive positioning, green marketing and city branding. Finally, the chapter discusses the mobility of green building innovations for the four case study regions differentiating between Freiburg and Vancouver that are predominantly characterised by local policies, models and knowledge and Brisbane and Luxembourg that largely draw on external green building innovations. Together, the chapter highlights the value of spatially sensitive analysis of green building transitions.