Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2018

Green Building Transitions

Regional Trajectories of Innovation in Europe, Canada and Australia

  • Investigates regional drivers and variations in sustainability transitions through international case studies in four major cities and their surrounding regions
  • Emphasizes the role of sustainability policies, sustainable innovations, and the actor-network nexus in the urban context
  • Useful for researchers and students in the fields of urban sustainability, climate change mitigation, and green building

Part of the book series: The Urban Book Series (UBS)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
  2. Framing Urban Green Building

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Green Building as Urban Climate Change Strategy

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz, Boris Braun
      Pages 3-14
    3. Green Building as Urban Sustainability Transitions

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz
      Pages 15-27Open Access
    4. Urban Sustainability and the Governance of Greening

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz
      Pages 29-46Open Access
    5. Methodology

      • Boris Braun, Bérénice Preller, Christian Schulz, Julia Affolderbach
      Pages 47-65
  3. Practices and Contexts

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67
    2. Freiburg: The Emblematic Green City

      • Sebastian Fastenrath, Bérénice Preller
      Pages 69-98
    3. Vancouver: Leading Green Building Transitions?

      • Kirstie O’Neill , Julia Affolderbach
      Pages 99-132
    4. Brisbane: A Disrupted Green Building Trajectory

      • Sebastian Fastenrath
      Pages 133-157
  4. Trajectories of Greening

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 189-189
    2. Cities as Seedbeds for Sustainability Innovations

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz
      Pages 191-202
    3. Leading the Green Transition?

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz
      Pages 203-221Open Access
    4. Conclusion

      • Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz
      Pages 223-228
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 229-236

About this book

This volume analyzes sustainability-related innovations in the building sector and discusses how regional contexts articulate transition trajectories toward green building. It presents ‘biographies’ of drivers and processes of green building innovation in four case studies: Brisbane (AUS), Freiburg (GER), Luxembourg (LU), and Vancouver (CA). Two of them are relatively well known for their initiatives to mitigate climate change – particularly in the building sector, whereas the other two have only recently become more active in promoting green building. The volume places emphasis on development paths, learning processes, and innovations. The focus of the case studies is not restricted to purely technological aspects but also integrates regulatory, procedural, institutional, and other processes and routines and their influence on the variations of the building sector. 

The diversity of the selected case studies offers the reader the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of how sustainability developments have unfolded in different city regions. Case study-specific catalogues of transition paths provide insights to inform policy debates and planning processes. The catalogues identify crucial innovations (technological, regulatory, etc.) and explain the factors and circumstances that have led to their success and broader acceptance in Freiburg, Vancouver, Luxembourg, and Brisbane. With the help of a number of micro case studies within each of the four city regions, the case studies also offer ground for comparison and identification of differences. 

The book represents the outcome of the GreenRegio project, which stands for ‘Green building in regional strategies for sustainability: multi-actor governance and innovative building technologies in Europe, Australia, and Canada.’ GreenRegio was a 3-year CORE-INTER research project funded by the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).


Chapters 2, 3,10 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Julia Affolderbach

  • Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Christian Schulz

About the authors

Dr. Julia Affolderbach is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Hull's Department of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences.

Dr. Boris Braun is University professor for Human and Economic Geography at the University of Cologne. 


Dr. Christian Schulz holds a professorship in European Sustainable Spatial Development and Analysis at the University of Luxembourg.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Green Building Transitions

  • Book Subtitle: Regional Trajectories of Innovation in Europe, Canada and Australia

  • Authors: Julia Affolderbach, Christian Schulz

  • Series Title: The Urban Book Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77709-2

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-77708-5Published: 26 September 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08518-6Published: 22 December 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-77709-2Published: 15 May 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2365-757X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2365-7588

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 236

  • Number of Illustrations: 12 b/w illustrations, 23 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning, Sustainable Development

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access