Green city branding or achieving sustainable urban development? Reflections of two winning cities of the European Green Capital Award: Stockholm and Hamburg
Christophe Demazière
Abstract
This paper uses the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) as a focus point to analyse green city marketing. It first argues that green place branding is a process steeped in historicial and political features that are specific to a place. Second, it explores the relationship between local environmental policy making and green place branding through a critical analysis of two European cities – Stockholm and Hamburg – which were European Green Capital (EGC) in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The paper concludes that with the EGCA, local governments were able to generate public attention, mobilise firms and develop new public–private partnerships to get the economic benefits that accompany enhanced green technology exports and greater ecotourism. The experience of the two cities considered here therefore suggests that an ambitious environmental agenda and ‘green’ city branding can be compatible.