Sustainability in Austerity

Reviews / Votes

This is a well-written and well-structured book, and one that uses a simple language and other visual resources (tables, charts) to reach a non-scientific audience. The book collects and succinctly presents an important set of experiences on cities across the world to achieve sustainability (over 100 case studies). These ideas could easily navigate across local politicians and policy-makers worldwide willing (or needing) to act to improve the local (and global) environment under major budgetary constraints. Other potential readers, as the author suggests, might be community organisation leaders, civil servants and public managers working at scales other than the local one (e.g. central government), management consultants or even academics. In that sense the book, despite not being primarily oriented to academia, could be interesting for environmental researchers looking for down-to-earth ideas to achieve sustainability from the local scale in times of economic crisis. ... Sustainability in Austerity. How Local Government Can Deliver During Times of Crisis reviews an enormous assortment of local experiences across the world. This turns the book into a rich and variegated compilation of actions to achieve sustainability at the local level, leaving to the reader to decide whether these measures could suit a given context other than the case study. At any rate, and despite being primarily oriented to policy makers, I strongly recommend the reading of the book to those scholars and readers of the journal working on sustainability at the local scale and in close contact with the public administration. Even if punctual measures are hardly consonant with degrowth principles most of them could interest scholars dealing with such paradigm. - Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) - Hug March, Geosciences Environnement Toulouse GET, Universite de Toulouse || Aware that we face the enormous austerity arising from a horrific global recession, Philip Monaghan sees an opportunity to achieve sustainability by taking the interests and needs of lower levels of government. ... Monaghan's book gives numerous examples of successful sustainability that arise from knowledge of successful methods within other countries and the application of a large range of different methods ... Monaghan's book covers over a hundred specific examples of such success. Full review - Alan F. Kay, PhD, author, 'Locating Consensus for Democracy'; Treasurer and Secretary, Ethical Markets || Phillip Monaghan must be a busy chap. Not only has he produced this timely guide for councils, he's also Head of Sustainability at Knowsley Met Borough Council in Liverpool and in his spare time reading a Master of Science in climate change and sustainable development. This book is packed with resources, ideas and case studies for local government, not only from the UK but also across the globe. Critically Monaghan has tried to focus on "cost-neutral" responses and actions but always with an eye for long term impact and sustainability. He reminds us of the strong business case for sustainability, not only in terms of cost savings and compliance with regulations, but also in terms of better risk management, better service delivery and a focus for innovation and joint working. ... Monaghan's book is refreshingly practical, realistic and positive. Unlike many post-downturn reviews it gets straight on with the job of sharing what local authorities can and need to do in increasingly resource-limited times. - Rosalie Callway, International Policy Officer at the Local Government International Bureau, UK || The 15 systematic chapters presented, within four parts of the book, feature the required rules of leadership and relevant case studies, anecdotes and management tips derived from lessons learned by local government leaders - such as mayors and councillors - across the world, all of whom have experienced and coped with serious sustainability issues. However, readers from other backgrounds such as academic and business practitioners will find this book enriching as well, as Monaghan offers a "route mapping" which guides readers into practical specifics. Sustainability in Austerity provides hands-on tips for readers on improving sustainability performance with limited resources such as ideas for habit-forming behavioural change, connecting council staff and members with the electorate through engagement exercises, reducing energy running costs and organising special economic zoning. An important ingredient in this book consists of the inspiring insights from interviews with local government leaders in Caracas (Venezuela), Ekurhuleni (South Africa), Fort Chipewyan (Canada), Krakow (Poland), Merseyside (UK), Montgomery (USA), Nillumbik (Australia) and Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), as well as many others. ... the book deserves a hearty round of applause for its emphasis on the fact that sustainability is not merely the responsibility of a certa