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Copyright of Review of Policy Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Strategic plans are widely used by municipalities as a means of directing their own activities, but relatively few studies have examined factors associated with cities' decisions to embed sustainability principles within them. Drawing from literature on planning processes and organizational capacity, this paper tests whether perceived staff support for sustainability initiatives influences the integration of sustainability into strategic plans, and whether administrative capacity has a moderating effect on this relationship. This study presents new findings about how cities are advancing sustainability objectives and about the role that designated sustainability offices can play in the strategic planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many U.S. municipalities have adopted climate protection and sustainability as explicit objectives, they are not among their traditional responsibilities. As a result, compared to policies focused around core functions, those related to sustainability may be at greater risk of retrenchment or change in times of crisis. This research examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted local governments' sustainability efforts. Using data from a nation-wide survey, we examine the degree to which the pandemic has affected programmatic priorities, resources, and operations related to sustainability. Findings indicate that the pandemic hurt the implementation of sustainability initiatives in almost half of U.S. cities. At the same time, many cities increased the priority of economic and social sustainability initiatives in response to the pandemic. Cities which have formally included sustainability principles into a city plan appear more sensitive to COVID-induced challenges to their program operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When confronting complex challenges, governments use basic bureaucratic design heuristics -- centralization and specialization. The complexity of environmental and climate issues has drawn recent attention to the ways in which fragmented authority influences, and often challenges, the policy choices and institutional effectiveness of local governments. Sustainability planning and improved performance are potential benefits stemming from the integration of responsibilities across silos. Our central proposition is that institutionalized collective-action mechanisms, which break down siloed decision-making, foster more successful implementation of sustainability policies. We empirically examine this using two surveys of U.S. cities and find evidence that formal collective-action mechanisms positively mediate the relationship between broader agency involvement and more comprehensive performance information collection and use. However, we identify limits to the role of planning in fostering a performance culture. Specifically, cities that have engaged in broader planning conduct less-comprehensive performance management, likely due to measurement difficulty and goal ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address complex and cross-cutting policy problems, multiple independent administrative units within an organization often work together to accomplish a larger objective. Within local governments, doing this requires administrative mechanisms able to facilitate interdepartmental collaboration, through which the efforts of individual units contribute to city-wide policy goals. Research increasingly finds that informal elements of collaboration, such as casual communications, ad hoc meetings, and voluntary working groups, are important for building strong and trusting collaborative ties. Conversely, a nontrivial number of studies also suggest that formal mechanisms, such as mandates, rules, and authority, are necessary for ensuring and sustaining credible commitment over time. This research empirically examines the types of coordination mechanisms employed by US local governments to promote intragovernmental efforts to collaborate around the issue of sustainability—a complex and broad objective that transcends city departments' traditional boundaries. It particularly focuses on assessing the relative contributions of formal and informal mechanisms toward achieving that end. Results from structural equation modeling analyses of 506 city governments indicate that informal mechanisms are positively and significantly associated with promoting cross-departmental collaboration. Interestingly, the results further show that formal mechanisms, while lacking a direct association with collaboration, have important implications for facilitating collaborative processes indirectly through their influence on informal mechanisms. Overall, our findings suggest a critical need for balancing the two approaches when forging interdepartmental collaboration. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surveys contain several identical questions, allowing us to examine trends in resources and collaboration related to sustainability between 2010 and 2015.[1] Trends in Local Governments' Sustainability-Related Investment and Capacity Local government capacity, as it relates to sustainability initiatives, has two primary dimensions - administrative and financial. The policies and implementation tools that emerge from sustainability planning efforts are often technical in nature and require dedicated staff resources to manage (Brody et al., [4], [5]). Although this question continues to be debated (Fuhr et al., [10]; van der Heijden et al., [27]), city governments have none-the-less assumed positions as key actors in the global climate and sustainability policy landscape (Acuto, [1]; Rosenzweig et al., [21]). [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista de Gestão Ambiental e Sustentabilidade (GeAS) is the property of Revista de Gestao Ambiental e Sustentabilidade / UNINOVE and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Studies of governments and local organizations using survey data have played a critical role in the development of urban studies and related disciplines. However, missing data pose a daunting challenge for this research. This article seeks to raise awareness about the treatment of missing data in urban studies research by comparing and evaluating three commonly used approaches to deal with missing data-listwise deletion, single imputation, and multiple imputation. Comparative analyses illustrate the relative performance of these approaches using the second-generation Integrated City Sustainability Database (ICSD). The results demonstrate the benefit of using an approach to missing data based on multiple imputation, using a theoretically informed and statistically supported set of predictor variables to develop a more complete sample that is free of issues raised by nonresponse in survey data. The results confirm the usefulness of the ICSD in the study of environmental and sustainability and other policy in U.S. cities. We conclude with a discussion of results and provide a set of recommendations for urban researcher scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local climate and energy issues provide fertile ground for collaboration in pursuit of shared goals, yet coordination problems can stymie their achievement. Collaborative networks enable integration of local sustainability initiatives across regions and are one mechanism available to mitigate coordination problems and expand the access of resources to local governments. Building on the Institutional Collective Action framework, we examine the scope of the collaborative networks formed by US cities around issues of climate and energy sustainability. Drawing data from the integrated city sustainability database, our analysis finds that the number of partners a city collaborates with on climate and energy issues is influenced by city administrative capacity and community stakeholder support; on average, cities with greater capacity and more interest group support engage a larger number of partners. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for understanding the use of collaborative networks to resolve coordination and cooperation problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has quickly become an important theme in local governments facing environmental challenges. Energy efficiency can be part of local efforts to sustain economic development while protecting the environment and natural resources. Based on a national database, this study examines U.S. city governments’ strategies to finance energy efficiency. The result suggests that energy efficiency financing (EEF) has become part of local sustainability strategies. In the study, we offer an explanation for energy efficiency funding that emphasizes political behaviors of institutional players in budgetary decision making. We examine factors influencing adoption and progression of EEF. The results highlight the importance of explaining results of EEF to citizens. Technical expertise from professional organizations helps start EEF programs. A Democrat-leaning consistency is important to adopt EEF, but only in cities without substantial strategies promoting EEF. Cities with revenue declines are less likely to implement EEF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to explain why U.S. local governments utilize environmental sustainability to promote economic development. Economic development and environmental protection need not be competing objectives, but rather, environmental protection can enhance local economic competitiveness. Using data from the ICMA Economic Development Survey, this study tests an empirical model that includes state sustainability initiatives, participation in climate protection networks, and political attitudes toward economic development as predictors of local policy decisions. The findings reinforce a multi-level governance perspective on explaining the balance cities seek to achieve between environmental protection and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative structure can shape bureaucratic process, performance, and responsiveness and is a particularly important consideration when new bureaucratic functions and programs are being established. However, the factors that influence the assignment of these functions to specific government agencies or departments are understudied, particularly at the local level. The absence of empirical evidence regarding bureaucratic assignment in local government limits understanding of institutional design and the organizational choices available, particularly as they relate to specific policy areas. As an initial step in developing a theory of agency assignment at the local level, we examine the placement of sustainability programs in 401 US cities and assess explanations for assignment based on policy scope, interest group support, governmental capacity, policy characteristics, and institutional structures that shape the incentives of local decision makers. Although it is not a traditional function of local government, sustainability is becoming an increasingly common objective. Because of its newness and cross-cutting nature, local policy makers have an array of institutional units to which they can assign the primary responsibility for sustainability. We focus on two dimensions of assignment of bureaucratic responsibility: whether the locus of responsibility lies within the executive or a line department and whether there is a specialized unit within the city government that is explicitly responsible for sustainability. The scope and maturity of cities' sustainability policies and the structure of local representation (i.e., whether council representatives are elected by district, at-large, or via a mixed system) have the greatest influence on shaping administrative placement. The latter suggests potential distributive outcomes from local sustainability efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the construction of the Integrated City Sustainability Database (ICSD) that is the first truly comprehensive data set of U.S. municipal government sustainability programs and policies. Taking advantage of a unique opportunity to combine seven independent data collection efforts, it will provide a valuable resource for scholars in multiple disciplines investigating local environmental and energy sustainability. It also adds missing elements to the research infrastructure for the study of local government and urban policy. This nationwide database will provide a comprehensive assessment of municipal sustainability programs that can contribute to a more rigorous and theoretically informed understanding of city government and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is critical to assess how the needs and vulnerabilities in rural communities impact the creation of resilience, especially in states that have a large expanse of rural regions. Rural areas present different opportunities and challenges from their urban counterparts for disaster managers. The position rural communities find themselves in after a disaster is different than that of urban communities. Using the Central Florida region as an example, this study examines the characteristics of disaster management in rural communities and ways to strengthen emergency management systems to develop and improve disaster resilience in these communities. Surveys and focus groups were conducted to examine the common traits and problems in existing emergency management systems across the rural regions. Results suggest that collaboration is needed in tackling evolving social, economic, and technological environments, which tend to create new vulnerabilities in rural communities. The adaptive capacity of rural communities is expected to sustain recovery at the individual, organizational, and the community levels. Sustainability is an important element for emergency management in rural communities because the policies and programs that influence the location and character of development can ultimately reduce losses and create resilience to future disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some governments implement more sustainability practices than others? Based on a national survey of U.S. cities, this article finds moderate levels of sustainability efforts and capacity in U.S. cities; about one-third of the sustainability practices identified in this article have been implemented. The authors conclude that, first, capacity building is a useful conceptual focus for understanding sustainability implementation in U.S. cities. Capacity building involves developing technical and financial support and increasing managerial execution. Second, sustainability is strongly associated with managerial capacity, which includes establishing sustainability goals, incorporating goals in operations, and developing a supportive infrastructure. Third, getting stakeholders involved furthers the capacity for sustaining sustainability efforts. Citizen involvement is strongly associated with securing financial support for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are touted as leaders and innovators in sustainability policy, but face significant challenges with its implementation. Because sustainability objectives are multifaceted they often do not align with local governments' typical organizational structures, which compartmentalize expertise around core service functions. This mismatch lies at the heart of many cities' implementation struggles; broad sustainability initiatives require active contribution from multiple departments, but externalities and fuzzy boundaries of responsibility stymie collaboration. Sustainability science recognizes the need to think across disciplinary boundaries and we argue that sustainability implementation requires managing across organizational ones. Drawing from mixed-methods research on US cities' sustainability efforts, we present a functional collective action framework that identifies four internal administrative arrangements that city governments use to facilitate functionally transboundary sustainability implementation. We assess their relative effectiveness and make the case for an influential sustainability lead. • Cities are often touted innovators of sustainability and climate policy, but are ill-equipped to take on these broad issues. • The mismatch between the complex nature of these issues and the traditional structure of governments inhibits implementation. • We identify four administrative arrangements that offer means to enable functional collective action around sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]