Cities 131 (2022) 103999 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cities journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cities “We are the Green Capital”: Navigating the political and sustainability fix narratives of urban greening Julia Neidig a, b, *, Isabelle Anguelovski a, c, Aitor Albaina d, Unai Pascual b, e, f a Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain b Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain c Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain d Universidad del País Vasco, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Leioa, Spain e Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain f Centre for Environment and Development (CDE), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: With increasing attention on green(ing) cities, urban nature is used to increase liveability, to create new sectors Urban green branding such as tourism, and to boost international investment. What counts as desirable green intervention generally Sustainable urban development follows internationally accepted practices as cities aim for international recognition. Here, we examine the Vitoria-Gasteiz historic production of a green identity and the ways in which urban leaders have navigated local politics to enact Sustainability fix greening. We focus on the mid-sized city Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain), the 2012 European Green Mid-sized cities Policy mobilities Capital. Based on a critical discourse analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews, we explore the production of a green city-identity over a period of forty years and determine four key processes: (i) early good leadership with a social city being core objective of urban planning, (ii) the need for building shared goals in a context of a violent political conflict in the Basque Country, (iii) policy mobilities and thriving for becoming a green pioneer internationally, and (iv) de-politization of green and sustainability discourses. We argue that the initially perceived social green amenity - an outcome of early progressive urban democratic experimentation - that served as a unifying project across polarized political fractions turned into an economic cultural asset for economic growth, shifting from a political to a sustainability fix. 1. Introduction environmental policies, green infrastructure, and sustainable mobility planning. “Somos la Capital Verde”, we are the Green Capital – a huge bill­ While the cityscape of Vitoria-Gasteiz is marked by visual reminders board welcomes visitors entering the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. This slogan about its projected green identity, residents have not all positively appears on nearly every advertising sign, from bus stops to building embraced the political green discourse. Walking from the historic city walls, highlighting the city's intent to raise awareness and remind resi­ center towards the peri-urban green belt, it is easy to eavesdrop on dents of the commitment to prioritize nature in local planning. Vitoria- conversations between residents ranging from “[this is] luxury living in Gasteiz, a mid-sized 250.000-resident city and the administrative capital a green capital with nature everywhere” to “In a green capital, this of the autonomous region of the Basque Country was awarded as 2012 should not happen”. These remarks reflect that while residents seem to European Green Capital. This prize is part of a campaign created by the have internalized Vitoria-Gasteiz’ green place branding, municipal European Union to annually acknowledge and promote urban green and policy making does also encounter some pushback. That is, despite sustainability policies based on the assumption that cities, while high Vitoria-Gasteiz being a green forerunner in Europe, this identity is not contributors to environmental challenges, may also hold the potential to exempt of tensions and contradictions about the politics and practice of enact innovative and smart solutions (European Commission, 2022). green city planning. Since then, Vitoria-Gasteiz has become an international reference on Research in critical urban planning, urban political ecology, and * Corresponding author at: Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain. E-mail addresses: Julia.neidig@bc3research.org (J. Neidig), Isabelle.Anguelovski@uab.cat (I. Anguelovski), aitor.albaina@ehu.eus (A. Albaina), unai.pascual@ bc3research.org (U. Pascual). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103999 Received 8 April 2022; Received in revised form 15 September 2022; Accepted 17 September 2022 Available online 27 September 2022 0264-2751/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/). J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 urban geography has already identified how the rhetoric of “cities Mössner, 2020). Often following an eco-modernist approach (Hagbert saving the planet common sense” travels around the world (Angelo & et al., 2020), green infrastructure development has become a clear an­ Wachsmuth, 2020; Kaika, 2017; Keil, 2020a) and is associated with the chor of planning solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change while building of an urban green brand (Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2022). This also pushing for a renewed urban economic agenda (Keil, 2020a; Tza­ rhetoric is sustained by environmental technological ‘smart’ innovations ninis et al., 2020). Greening, associated with technological interventions that may foster national or global urban competition and economic and sustainability indicators, has helped create a branding strategy for growth under the tenet of counteracting diverse environmental chal­ achieving greater international visibility and investment. Yet, this lenges – a dynamic often described as a techno-fix (Connolly, 2019; dominant practice in much of the Global North may also contribute to an Martin et al., 2019; Swyngedouw & Kaika, 2014). It is also further increasingly depoliticized narrative of sustainability as it turns into an pushed through international recognition and awards beyond municipal “empty signifier” (Rosol et al., 2017). Sustainability serves as a vague borders (Affolderbach et al., 2019; McCann, 2011, 2013). Put differ­ umbrella concept for diverse or even contradictory (urban) in­ ently, debates about how to build cities with a deep sustainability terventions by private or international actors (Hodson & Marvin, 2010; development ethos risk getting replaced by shallower consensual, yet Rosol et al., 2017). reformist solutions (Grossmann et al., 2021). Cities' technocratic ap­ These tensions have been described as a “Sustainability Fix”. The proaches to solve wicked socio-ecological challenges may lead to what concept depicts the selective integration of sustainability goals into local some see as a depoliticization of the green discourse (Rosol et al., 2017; planning schemes wherein decisionmakers focus on only those envi­ Swyngedouw, 2013). ronmental goals that are compatible with entrepreneurial and economic Here, we examine a rather unexplored dynamic in the anchoring of a growth strategies (While et al., 2004). Instead of implementing green rhetoric in urban planning: The historic production of a green reformist, more radical policies favoring the early transformist claims of identity and the ways in which urban leaders have navigated local the sustainability concept, planners and elected officials present urban politics to enact and brand greening. We focus on the historic evolution sustainability-driven programs as a win-win panacea for the economy of the greening discourse for two reasons. First, we aim to understand and the environment. Policies implemented under a SF may lead to how urban “smart” sustainability and “green growth”-oriented narra­ changes both in discourses related to environmental planning as well as tives are largely determined in a path-dependent way. Second, we in the spatial and material structure of the city; yet they contribute to the interrogate how society-policy relations under an increasingly felt depoliticization of environmental discourses with nature being removed global environmental crisis have helped (re-)shape urban green visions. from the arena of political contestation and negotiation (Long, 2016; This focus responds to Long's (2016) and Angelo's (2019) call for Martin et al., 2019). deep analyses of the production of local narratives in green planning. Under the banner of a SF, greening as a process of integrating nature The choice of Vitoria-Gasteiz as empirical case study allows us to bring a into its antagonistic human-made city is often presented as inherently focus on small to medium-sized cities in the Global North, moving away good and apolitical, legitimizing decision-making without public from much existing scholarly attention on larger urban metropoles debate. Green may help enhance interurban competition (Walker, (Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2021). We ask: How do green and related sus­ 2016), including award-seeking best-case practices (Gulsrud et al., tainability policies become grounded in municipal efforts to create 2017; McCann, 2013), public-private partnerships (Bulkeley & Castan urban branding? What underlying processes do facilitate and condition Broto, 2012; Viitanen & Kingston, 2014;), or real-estate developments the landing of greening as an urban development strategy? (Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2022). Yet, as greening becomes integrated into We first begin with laying out the theoretical framework applied in urban neoliberal agendas underpinned by economic growth, it risks this paper. We draw on the idea of “sustainability fix” (henceforth SF) (e. undermining the social dimensions of sustainability from the point of g., Long, 2016; Temenos & McCann, 2012; While et al., 2004). This view of equity and inclusivity (Affolderbach & Schulz, 2017; Agyeman, concept is particularly useful to depict how the selective integration of 2013; Kotsila et al., 2021; Steele et al., 2020). environmental goals in urban planning tends to follow the rationale of Studies across Northern America and Europe – from the large neoliberal city-making. We then present an in-depth historic analysis of metropolis to medium-sized or even declining cities – show the many environmental policies in Vitoria-Gasteiz which has favored long-term ways in which the SF has taken ground. Vancouver, with the imple­ urban development around an early notion of sustainability since the mentation of the Greenest City Action Plan in 2011, became a pioneer in first democratic municipal elections in 1979 after the Francoist dicta­ green leadership, learning and competing with international vanguard torship. We argue that progressive and ambitious greening discourses cities, such as Copenhagen or Oslo (McCann, 2013). Based on a delib­ and interventions served first as a political fix in a polarized social erative and participatory involvement of citizens and a strong marketing context amid the Basque conflict and in a broader context of democratic campaign, Vancouver successfully branded itself into a livable and experimentation. With the international diffusion of sustainability as sustainable global place-to-be (Affolderbach & Schulz, 2017). concept and increasing interurban competition illustrated by the growth Other SF have been identified in diverse cultural, geographic, and of award schemes, local economic agendas became intertwined with economic contexts like Portland, Oregon (Mahmoudi et al., 2020), selective environmental goals, paving the way for a de-politized and Nottingham, UK (Winter & Le, 2019), Manchester and Leeds, UK (While uncontested meaning of green, environment or nature. We discuss our et al., 2004), Whistler, British Colombia (Temenos & McCann, 2012), or findings in relation to the shifting of the green discourse from a political Tampere, Finland (Jokinen et al., 2018). In these examples, in­ fix to a SF, the pressures for small and mid-sized cities to participate in terventions on the ground include the provision of urban green infra­ interurban competition and import policies from other places, the structure (Walker, 2016), long-term city development and revival complex structure of involved actors and networks that shift with strategies (Long, 2016), (peri)-urban agricultural practices (Pirro & increasing influence of the international scale, and the resulting de- Anguelovski, 2017), or carbon-neutrality strategies (Kenis & Lievens, politized local understanding of green. We further call for research on 2017). Most projects involve, next to political and technical decision- citizen participation to recentre greening as an area of political contes­ makers, experts or pioneers in their fields, entrepreneurs in form of tation and democratic participation. public-private partnerships, or the academic sector (Montgomery, 2015). 2. The sustainability fix in the urban greening narrative 2.1. The multi-scalar process of grounding the local sustainability fix With the global unfolding of the climate change crisis, there is an increasing turn to cities to look for adequate solutions and policies We identify in the literature three processes across scales which (Angelo & Wachsmuth, 2020; Anguelovski et al., 2020; Miller & condition the grounding of a SF as dominant narrative of urban 2 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 environmental discourses. First, local governments build on the trans- speculation and urban green grabbing (Anguelovski et al., 2021; Garcia- local diffusion and importation of tools already successfully imple­ Lamarca et al., 2022). mented elsewhere and seen as universal best-practices (Freytag et al., Few cities place equity at the center of green planning and are able to 2014; Temenos & McCann, 2012). With policies being scaled up and prioritize social inclusion and justice when implementing green projects transferred across places, they become de-localized from their original (Anguelovski & Connolly, 2021). Even if planners and decisionmakers context. This process, described as ´policy mobilities´, has been critically consider equity and justice in planning processes, their strategies often examined as the travelling of specific policies contains a power-loaden prove to be insufficient. Recent studies on local climate change adaption process wherein dominant ideologies determine the new “universal” have found that urban greening fails to reduce socio-ecological vulner­ framing of imported policies (Kennedy, 2016; McCann, 2011; McCann, abilities and increase resilience towards climate-induced threats (Ola­ 2013). What counts as desirable outcome of greening practices is zabal & Ruiz de Gopegui, 2021; Shokry et al., 2022). Exceptions include thereby not decided by local communities, but tends to follow criteria equity-centered municipalities such as Nantes or Vienna which have an set by high-level networks, semi-public agencies, and urban elites ambitious green and sustainability agenda underpinned by the provision (Affolderbach et al., 2019; Gulsrud et al., 2017). It is thus driven by of secure affordable housing and by strict social housing regulations international awards and rankings such as the Covenant of Mayors, the imposed to real estate developers (Anguelovski & Connolly, 2021). European Green Capital Award, or The Economist's selection of the In the following, we examine how these multi-scalar dynamics of a “Most Livable City” (Affolderbach & Schulz, 2016). SF unfold through different relationships and influences taking ground Second, a SF builds upon local alliances with support of multiple and shifting over time. In asking how green and related sustainability stakeholders, such as decisionmakers, the business sector, media, or policies became grounded in municipal efforts in Vitoria-Gasteiz, we even the broader local citizenry (Long, 2016), yet (elite) private and show that the creation of a green urban identity is not a unidirectional institutional actors are often dominating the chosen green strategy process, and that understandings and forms of urban green shift as socio- (Wijaya, 2021). With the implementation of policies framed around the environmental and economic challenges expand over time. SF, alternative and more transformative proposals of local, yet less powerful actors become undermined by an entrepreneurial business- 3. Methods oriented strategy (Nciri & Levenda, 2020). Here, decision-making be­ comes detached from processes of political contestation and struggle 3.1. Data collection and analysis hindering the overcoming of structural injustices resulting from growth- oriented perspectives. Instead, it tends to be driven by eco-technological We selected Vitoria-Gasteiz (henceforth VG) as a critical single case and managerial approaches with weak democratic legitimization (Rosol study of a city with a long-term recognized trajectory of sustainability et al., 2017). policies in Europe. Given its early commitment to greening in the mid- Third, narratives and storylines – locally created and accepted by 1980s and the later broad international recognition for its environ­ seemingly diverse actors – allow the SF to be anchored in local ideolo­ mental policymaking, VG allows us to understand how and why the gies surrounding sustainability and greening (Temenos & McCann, narrative of urban greening evolved and further became a core 2012). Those narratives may change over time as interventions under component of urban identity making over nearly four decades. To the SF get implemented and the material fabric of the city changes. As analyse the greening trajectory of VG, we initially conducted a review of greening gains acceptance from diverse political fractions, it reaches a archival data published since 1980, i.e., planning documents, media status of becoming “common sense” (Angelo & Wachsmuth, 2020) and articles and city hall publications (Table 1), following an analytical “naturalized” for its positive contribution to the local economy (e.g., grounded theory approach using the software Nvivo. This initial analysis jobs and investments) and the broader range of social benefits associated allowed us to disentangle changes and meanings of the discourses sur­ with it. Thus, greening develops into a planning paradigm applied in rounding greening and sustainability in the context of VG. distinct social, geographic, and cultural contexts (Scanu et al., 2021). Following this first stage, we created an interview guide to further The “naturalizing” of environmental planning has allowed for two explore ideas around framings of green and sustainability, the role of understandings of the urban environment to become dominant globally: Green and gray urban nature (Wachsmuth & Angelo, 2018). The former Table 1 describes the representation of nature in the form of trees, plants, gar­ Key planning documents. dens; the latter refers to urban space as technological and social that Year Archival data ultimately and inherently is part of urban sustainability. Two contra­ dictory ideologies thus become two strings of contemporary green 1990 General Urban Development Plan (revision 1990) 1996/97 Strategies and Actions towards Sustainability planning. First, green and gray urban natures lead to the belief that the 1998–2020 Agenda 21 (annual report on Sustainability indicators) greener a city (i.e., the more trees, plants, birds, and gardens), the better; 2000 General Urban Development Plan (revision 2000) Second, urban greening requires technological interventions and tech­ 2002 First Environmental Action Plan 2002–07 nocratic processes (Wachsmuth & Angelo, 2018). 2006 GEO Vitoria-Gasteiz: Diagnostic report on the state of sustainability and the environment in the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz 2007 Sustainable Mobility and Public Space Plan 2.2. The sustainability fix and shifting socio-environmental burdens 2008 Citizen participation master plan 2008–11 2009 GEO Vitoria-Gasteiz: Environmental and sustainability diagnosis This critique of a de-politized and universalized notion of urban report nature does not mean that greening and urban re-renaturing programs 2010 Second Local Action Plan of Agenda 21 (2010–14) 2010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Urban Sustainability Indicator Plan 2010 are undesirable, as multiple studies across the globe demonstrate the 2010 Plan against Climate Change 2010–2020 many environmental and health merits, including improved air and 2010 Vitoria-Gasteiz: Carbon neutral city Scenario 2020–50 water quality (Baró et al., 2014; Lovell & Taylor, 2013), recreational 2011 Vitoria-Gasteiz 2012 European Green Capital Final Report use, and social cohesion (Gilmore, 2017; Peters, 2010), or higher 2014 The urban green infrastructure of Vitoria-Gasteiz. A proposal document physical and mental well-being (Ribeiro et al., 2021; Triguero-Mas et al., 2018 VITORIA-GASTEIZ + GREEN City-nature living network 2018–2030 2015). But, if not carefully designed and implemented, urban greening Plan projects in the context of SF may exacerbate inequalities and socio- 2019 Revision of the Sustainable Mobility and Public Space Plan environmental injustices (Connolly & Anguelovski, 2021), through 2020 Vitoria-Gasteiz Green Capital: A human-scale city (green) gentrification and green privilege (Anguelovski et al., 2022; 2021 Action Plan: PATEI 2030: Integrated Energy Transition of Vitoria- Gasteiz Dooling, 2009; Immergluck & Balan, 2018;) and through real estate 3 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 city branding, social and power dynamics in the planning process, and administration to push an industrial transition forward. By the 1960s changes of the political context during the construction of the city's this transition became completed as many factories, especially from the green identity. We conducted 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews in automotive sector, had moved their production from other parts of the Spanish with city planners, decision-makers, and local experts of a Basque Country to VG (González de Langarica Mendizábal, 2007). The duration of about 1,5 h, between March and June 2021. Respondents new economic sector encouraged labor immigration from rural Spain, were identified though snowball sampling technique, starting with key with primarily rural farmers moving North looking for better living planners and political figures mentioned in the archival documents. This conditions. In only two decades, the city's population nearly quadrupled, interview data was analysed through iterative coding that helped and by 1960 almost 60 % of workers were employed in the industries, identify emerging patterns regarding the evolution of greening and compared to only a third a decade earlier (Pérez-Álvarez, 2020). sustainability narratives in VG. The main codes that emerged and on This rapid industrialization demanded a quick top-down planning which we built the following analysis were Green as consensus-making, response to meet new demands for housing, mobility, and social life of as rent-seeking, as a technocratic process, as a multi-scalar process and the working class. While the wealthy districts in VG’ south remained to gain international reputation. untouched, new districts were rapidly created in the 1960–1970s that connected the city center with industrial polygons in the North. These new residential areas were characterized by high density and relatively 3.2. Context: Vitoria-Gasteiz: from a rural agricultural identity to an affordable but low-quality housing close to the new factories (and industrialized urban center polluted areas). This rapid urban and industrial growth favored the encroachment of vacant land, triggered extensive land pollution in pe­ During the latter part of Francisco Franco's dictatorial regime, VG’ ripheral areas, and shifted the focus from an agricultural and nature- urban development can be described as a centralized, planned growth connected society towards one driven by its industrial labor force trajectory marked by a shift in the 1950s from a small 40.000 resident (Ruiz Urrestarazu and Areitio, 2004). By the end of the Francoist town driven by the agricultural sector towards an industrialized city dictatorship in the mid-1970s, the city had grown to 190.000 residents. (Fig. 1). Its geostrategic position as transport node connecting Madrid It is in this broader development context that VG undertook its green (the centralized political and economic engine of Spain) with France, its transformation. geographically easily accessible and flat terrain, and – in contrast to its Basque urban counter-parts Bilbao and San Sebastián – a rather sup­ portive economic and religious elite towards the Franco regime helped the city receive subsidies and tax incentives from the Franco Fig. 1. Spatial growth of Vitoria-Gasteiz from 1927 to 2020, source: CEA. 4 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 4. Analysis “[T]he CEA (…) is a luxury that our Mayor Cuerda chose to afford for this city, because we cities have very tight budgets. (…) He had the vision We present our analysis of the greening and sustainability trajectory to say: ‘I want to have a team of people to only think how to incorporate and related shifting narratives in VG. We start by laying out the early nature in the city’ and so it clearly turned into something that is intrinsic beginnings of the greening project in the 1980s – an innovative response to all his policies (…). He decided to put resources for something that from technical and political leaders to local environmental problems. could not be profitable the next day, but instead had to be thought as a We then examine the first successful greening interventions, which, long-term commitment.” (Interview 8, 2021, Member of the city council) while providing residents multiple social, ecological, and economic The mayoral vision for bringing nature back into the city involved benefits, had a reconciliating effect on a polarized and fragmented the regeneration of fragile, yet previously industrialized or contami­ municipal political structure. Next, we analyse the role of the interna­ nated land. The urban and industrial expansions from the 1950s on­ tional sustainability discourse and the pressures arising from interurban wards were built upon a natural aquifer system which caused several competition and broader neoliberal urbanization processes. We show flooding episodes. In the 1980s, the government of the province of Araba how a deep reformist green thinking has slowly been replaced by shal­ proposed a hard infrastructural solution to end flooding through the lower meanings of nature, pushed by increasing political fluctuations in canalization of the river Zadorra. With the support of Cuerda, the CEA the city council and the implementation of contradictory (counter-) and its director Luis Andres Orive proposed instead a soft solution, sustainable initiatives. Finally, we analyse how the international including the restoration of the Salburua park, a previously drained recognition of the city's sustainability efforts through the European wetland in the city's eastern periphery (Orive & Dios Lema, 2012). Green Capital Award reinforced the rhetoric of compatible economic These land parcels became part of many debates around the city's and environmental goals in the city's green identity, and thus the SF urban development, where ideas of urban growth through hard infra­ (Fig. 2). structural interventions clashed with the goals of nature conservation and restoration. Opposing several development proposals, including the construction of a highway, a golf course, and a theme park, in 1992 the 4.1. Anchoring environment and sustainability in urban planning: the CEA received the city council permission to carry out the restoration of political fix (1979–1999) the Salburua wetlands. 4.1.1. Green as a symbol of good leadership: from a material to a discursive “This project could not have happened without Cuerda. He was a change visionary at the state level, for both environmental and social challenges. The city's long-term commitment to greening policies began with its In this city, a series of social policies that were very progressive for that in 1979 first democratically elected mayor José Ángel Cuerda, then a time, allowed us to do the things we did. (…) [W]e realized soon that in member of the conservative Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). His pro­ addition to recovering the ecological processes and natural landscapes, we gressive urban proposal was based on two pillars: first, civic centers have a fantastic space for leisure, for recreation.” (Interview 1, 2021, were constructed in many neighborhoods in the mid-1980s, offering CEA) cultural, educational, sports and other services to citizens and further facilitating cross-neighbourhood democratic participation (Sampedro & By the mid-1990s, the recovery of the Salburua wetlands turned into Altuna, 1999; Verdaguer Viana-Cárdenas, 2006). Second, Cuerda un­ a success: first, the newly recovered land helped reduce the flooding and derstood the integration of nature into the urban network as a vital part therefore guaranteed the political support from the city council towards of the city, both for its environmental and social value. This prioritiza­ future soft environmental interventions. Second, given its high ecolog­ tion of nature led to the creation of the Centre of Environmental Studies ical value, the wetlands became home to a high diversity of flora and (CEA, Spanish acronym) in 1986, at first a training center for unem­ fauna, later recognized as Ramsar and Natura 2000 site. Third, what had ployed youth that soon turned into an influential municipality-led previously been used as an illegal landfill with a rather uninviting environmental think tank. As one interviewee states, landscape soon turned into a peri-urban park for social and recreational Fig. 2. From the political fix to the sustainability fix (own elaboration). 5 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 use enjoyed by citizens (Aguado et al., 2013). Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns. A year later, it CEA's ecological restoration of different land stretches at the urban drafted a proposal to define sustainability strategies, and in 1998, the fringes soon became a connected network of green spaces and corridors CEA started publishing a yearly report around the city's environmental around the city. Over two decades, this project developed into the nearly indicators in accordance with the European Agenda 21. This work was completed landmark green infrastructure project, a 35 km Green Belt further accompanied by broader campaigns to educate the citizens on around the city (Fig. 3). The Green Belt further counted as a spatial limit these new ideas (Ayuntamiento de Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2002). to proposed industrial and urban expansion projects during the Spanish Cuerda, after being reelected five consecutive times, left office in real estate boom in the 1990s and early 2000s that were posing threats 1999. As a charismatic leader, he had laid the ground for VG's greening to the surrounding agricultural land and the natural mountain system trajectory by embedding this consolidating social and environmental that together make up around 80 % of the municipality's land (Orive & infrastructure in different departments of the city council. In many Dios Lema, 2012). conversations about expectations towards decision-makers in VG, we These important changes coincided with the establishment of an came across the term “el padre ayuntamiento” (in English: “the father city environmental discourse around sustainability that gained momentum council”), which shows a paternalistic, but still trustworthy relationship on a global scale after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and that also between citizens and their formal governance structure. This can be permeated local politics and planning priorities in VG. The CEA, which traced back to Cuerda, his policies and commitments to residents, sup­ by then had informally taken over of the responsibilities of a municipal ported by citizens across different ideologies. Department of Environment, including the green infrastructure plan­ ning, identified sustainability as a priority of urban politics: 4.1.2. Green as consensus-making for wellbeing and social cohesion in conflict times “What happened is that in Spain in the 1990s almost no municipality paid The material and discursive changes described above were only attention to all of this. Well, in Vitoria-Gasteiz they did pay attention. (…) possible because of the broader local and regional socio-political VG was one of the very few cities that in those years took seriously what context. First, the early beginnings of these policies happened during had been done and put it on the table and said, well, we are going to do the restructuring of the Spanish political system after Franco's death in something.” (Interview 9, 2021, technical adviser city council) 1975, which opened a long transition phase from dictatorship to formal democracy. On the one hand, this transition encouraged democratic In 1995, VG became the first Spanish city signing on to the Aarlborg participation and urban experimentation on the local scale (Martí-Costa Fig. 3. Green infrastructure network by 2021, Source: CEA. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) 6 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 & Tomàs, 2017). On the other hand, many remaining open wounds from across representative political parties, as well as the public at large. By the dictatorship in the Basque Country were left unresolved and the late 1990s, green infrastructure planning and the discourse of sus­ permeated regional and municipal politics. The political and civil con­ tainability turned into an integral part of the narrative of future urban frontations related to the Basque political movement reached their most development. The idea of a deeply green and sustainable city had been violent peak between 1977 and 1981 (Mees, 2001). Identity politics of grounded in the local urban identity as it both helped to lower extremely the so-called “Basque question” determined discourses in every area of high political tensions of the “Basque Question” and thus promised the political, cultural, and social life, making it impossible to debate increased livability for the citizens through new social, economic, and (urban) politics without polarizing the public opinion along a Basque environmental benefits. After having been divided across different versus Spanish identity controversy (Bollens, 2007; Molina, 2010). Yet, municipal entities with no clearly marked responsibilities, environ­ an exception was the municipal environmental domain: mental planning became legally embedded into the institutional struc­ ture with the creation of an official municipal Department of “Instead of a debate about what you really want to do, a polarized debate Environment in 1999. Parts of the CEA staff were relocated to the new is generated, like if you support this, you are one of those. And if you department which led to a seamless continuation of projects previously support that, you are one of the others, right? And then there is a initiated. tremendous polarization. Which is not good, and in the 1990s with the environment there wasn't any [polarization]. There was not. I think that, 4.2. From a social-environmental good to a green asset. Creating a because it was seen as a soft policy, as more neutral. Everybody agreed on sustainability fix (1999–2007) it, everybody was on board.” (Interview 8, 2021, Member of the city council) 4.2.1. The counter-sustainable turn In 1999, the city council experienced a political shift with Alfonso Embedded in this conflictual context, urban environmental concerns Alonso, member of the Spanish conservative People´s Party (PP), taking became one of the centerpieces of urban reconfiguration in VG. Here, we over as mayor of VG. With this political change, VG's urban project argue that the early progressive urban green interventions served as a experienced a turn from social and small-scale interventions to visions of political fix as a form of the lowest common denominator and consensus a large metropolis, common with many other Spanish cities during the building outcome across the political spectrum of all local parties. Due to real estate boom of the early 2000s. Municipal land was offered at very its easy implementation with relatively few costs compared to other cheap prices to the real estate and construction sector for quick devel­ urban flagship projects, such as Bilbao´s post-industrial transformation opment in line with many of the PP’s priorities across Spain (De las Rivas and its conflicted Guggenheim Museum (Franklin, 2016; Plaza & Sanz & Fernández-Maroto, 2019; Esteban & Altuzarra, 2016). As a Haarich, 2015), urban greening allowed parties and politicians of all result, the approval of the new general urban development plan in 2000 spectrums to gain broad support, visibility, investment, and network, allowed for land re-urbanization benefiting real estate development for and it allowed residents to experience “easy” liveability benefits. Our nearly 100.000 new inhabitants. interviewee further continues, Contrary to the city's commitments to a local sustainability agenda, the proposed pace and scale of urban development went far beyond the “We were put in the same room with representatives of political parties actual demand. VG, with its 215.000 residents at the time, had a pre­ that defended violence and were debating, reaching consensus with those dicted population growth of only 0.5–1 % annually (Verdaguer Viana- who were protected by security guards against the friends of the others in Cárdenas, 2006). This newly approved plan conditioned the construc­ the room. (…) In the end, we managed to reach consensus. It was like a tion of two large new neighborhoods (Salburua and Zabalgana in the place where, well, in the environmental policies, the tension was lowered; Eastern and Western outskirts, respectively) (Photo 1). Breaking with the weapons were put down. We talked a little bit in terms of improving Cuerda's long-term vision of a city of proximity with strong neigh­ spaces, improving the city, improving citizen life and that came very bourhood cohesion and accessible public services, the new de­ naturally, and we could achieve consensus. But I tell you, everything was velopments had very low density and poor transport connection (Alcala approved unanimously, everything.” (Interview 8, 2021, Member of the Juarez and Vicente, 2016). Blind to previous urbanistic “errors”, the new city council) constructions followed the same design as that of the 1980s new Second, contrary to many Basque municipalities and the Basque neighbourhood Lakua that proved to be both socially and ecologically Autonomous Community with the PNV being in power for decades unsustainable (Fernández de Betoño, 2011; Marañón, 2020). Despite (Barbera & Barrio, 2017), VG's political structure has generally been many critics from the environmental movement, and especially the CEA, very fragmented. Since the first elections in 1979 during the transition the city went along with the new development plans. period to democracy, nearly all political coalitions had the chance to put a mayor into a minority government. This led to a culture or rather a 4.2.2. Keeping up with selective Green(ing): how the sustainability fix came need of compromise and consensus-finding in urban politics. In the alive realm of environmental policies, this process was led by the perceived At the same time as counter-sustainable developments emerged, se­ politically impartial and charismatic director of the CEA, Dr. Orive. lective environmental goals were incorporated into urban planning. At first, Alonso continued his predecessor’s Green Belt project through the “[Orive] has been able to generate agreements, to look for common creation of the Botanical Garden. This project was pushed by a citizenry points, to turn sustainable development into a non-conflict issue. (…) So, increasingly aware of the ample benefits of the newly created recrea­ this was accepted by all the groups and (…) the environment was not tional green spaces. In addition, the technical team started reaching out discussed in VG. It was a common point that they had among all of them. to other cities and interurban networks which built greater legitimacy It is also true (…) that there was a lot of political fragmentation. If you and broader (inter)national awareness for VG's greening work. want to work, if you want to get things done, if you want to move things forward, you have no choice but to reach agreements with the other party. “What we did try to do was to get visibility outside of our own city. (…) I think that this culture of political agreement has been very good for us.” We made it known and from time to time you got a prize. Since you (Interview 10, 2021, technical staff) received awards, since the citizens were delighted, and since this did not generate great conflicts (…) and the first mayor lasted a lot of years, all The capacity of the democratically elected leader Cuerda and the this was consolidated. And then the second mayor arrived, Alfonso technical CEA director Dr. Orive to successfully reach consensus around Alonso, who was from the PP (…). So, he said, let's see, I am not going to soft environmental solutions generated trust from decision-makers, touch what works well. Not only did he continue, but he promoted even 7 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 Photo 1. Salbura park and neighbourhood. The wetlands of Salburua with a high biodiversity contrasting the cityscape of the Salburua neighbourhood marked by low density and high-rise buildings (Photos by the authors, 2021). more things. (…) The botanical garden, all this is thanks to the PP. He projects. Those who have the time and dedication to present a partici­ expropriated all this land to make the park work. It is an intervention that patory project are from middle class.” (Interview 9, 2021, technical one would expect to be more of a left-wing party. Well, it belonged to the adviser city council) PP.” (Interview 10, 2021, technical staff) The continuation of Cuerda´s pro-social green vision became an easy 4.3. The green capital: creating, furthering, and renewing a green brand win-win situation for the new municipal government. This meant that (2007–2015) supporting green interventions turned into tangible revenues and became a form of local asset, either through votes in future elections or In 2007, Alonso was followed by mayor Patxi Lazcoz, member of the through awards and international funding to carry out further in­ Basque Country center-left party (PSE-EE, Spanish acronym). Contrary terventions. In addition, the annually released local Agenda 21 reports to his predecessors and despite being from a more self-defined envi­ proved that the city was stagnating in many sustainability indicators ronmentally sensitive party, Lazcoz slowed down the initiatives sur­ except green infrastructure planning (Etxebarria Miguel & Aguado rounding the newly approved Sustainable Mobility and Public Space Moralejo, 2002). In response, the CEA started to work on a sustainable Plan and instead supported further development and growth strategies mobility strategy, later becoming one of the city's landmark sustain­ of the new neighborhoods of Zabalgana and Salburua. This discontinu­ ability policies, through importing “successful” practices in form of ation of environmental policies triggered local governance conflicts and policy mobilities from other urban forerunners, such as the city of Bar­ led to the resignation of the CEA and Department of Environment celona. Policies implemented elsewhere where thereby promoted and technical directors, who so far had been the driving force behind several marketed by local experts and planners (McCann, 2011). key environmental initiatives, including the application for the Euro­ Inspired by Barcelona's superblock model, VG in collaboration with pean Green Capital Award. Yet, this new international attention (and Salvador Rueda, the intellectual thinker behind Barcelona's success prize) meant that Lazcoz had no choice but to consolidate VG green story, developed a Sustainable Mobility and Public Space Plan (Rueda, work: 2019). This plan proposed a holistic city-wide framework of restruc­ turing public space, including a shift from individual automotive use “The fact is that with Lazcoz the trajectory could have cracked a little. But towards the prioritization of bike, pedestrian, and public transport, and what happened? In 2011, Vitoria-Gasteiz was declared European Green recreational space (Rueda Palenzuela, 2021). The plan was approved by Capital 2012. Since Lazcoz was in power, he had the ceremony to receive the city council in 2006 following a rather comprehensive participatory the award. Then, of course, he had no choice but to keep on supporting citizen consultation (Muñoz López & Rondinella, 2017). these things. In the end he received the prize for what all the previous ones This plan was also the beginning of integrating deliberative and had done, as it happens many times in politics, life. But it was useful, the participatory forums into the city's policymaking. The different partic­ award helped him to focus on these [environmental] issues. (…) And well, ipatory committees, open to the public but organized by the technical he did not come up with anything special, nor did he destroy what has personnel of the respective department, are either related to specific been created before. (Interview 10, 2021, technical staff) neighborhoods or are structured across topics, such as culture, envi­ ronment, equality, or sustainable development. These sessions initially VG was the third city to win the European Green Capital Award in faced public enthusiasm, yet more recently were criticized, especially by 2012, following Stockholm (2010) and Hamburg (2011). According to pro-environmental citizen groups, for their lack of impact and trans­ the award’s selection criteria, the winner must show consistency in parency and their top-down and technocratic character. Contrary to achieving past high environmental standards and strong future com­ their initial idea to increase broad citizen participation, they are mostly mitments to sustainable development. The city should further demon­ attended by the same residents, who either have time and resources to strate a potential for being a role model for other cities and offering get involved or are representative of specific interests. If not explicitly support in implementing best-practices (European Commission, 2022). challenging the underlying power dynamics, these sessions risk repli­ The award does not involve any direct monetary bonus, but benefits are cating often invisible power structures and fail to consider and economically rewarding, as stated by the European Commission and acknowledge the needs of more vulnerable and marginalized groups. previous winners: These shortcomings have also been confirmed in several of our in­ “Increase in tourism; Positive international media coverage worth mil­ terviews with the municipal personnel: lions of euros; Increase in international profile, networking, and new alli­ ances; New jobs – a Green Capital is more attractive to foreign investors; “The tools [for participation] are on the table. (…) But those proposed More emphasis on environmental projects through sponsorship and grants; projects will pass through a very strong technical filter. There is a big Pride among citizens; Momentum to continue improving environmental sus­ barrier at the technical level. Then, there is also an important barrier for tainability.” (European Commission, 2022). those who present these projects. (…)[I]migrated people, for example, of In VG, the promotion of the award followed the rationale of a SF low income and so on, no, no, they do not actively participate in these narrative, as the incorporation of specific environmental goals became presented as an economic motor for local development. After winning 8 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 the award, VG's newly elected mayor Javier Maroto (PP), turned sus­ increase local food production, which risks putting increasing pressure tainability policies into a green branding campaign seeking short-term on proximate rural hinterlands. Last, new smart-technological projects, economic returns. This in turn contributed to a commodification of such as the controversial and cost-intensive smart electric bus system, green where nature became an inherent element of the local economic are being pushed forward. Those involve the use of material resources growth strategy. Green interventions evolved into a “common-sense” and high production-driven emissions often shifted to other places. In planning priority across the whole political spectrum. As their deploy­ short, future visions for the green city follow the narrative of the in­ ment translated into technocratic design and implementation, greening clusive, smart, and competitive city: practices became associated with increasingly depoliticized rationales. “An innovative city (…) has to propose transforming projects, we “Of course, when Europe puts the stamp on you like that, you already cannot remain stagnant and paralyzed in what we are now. For this have your brand. (…) [W]ith the PP, when Maroto came in, all the po­ we must promote projects such as the electric bus. (…) Moreover, tential that we could have had as Green Capital, was channeled into climate neutrality is going to be a competitive factor; the more propaganda, advertising, and marketing. It was a missed opportunity in neutral you are in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the less you the sense that all that attention that we had put especially in the envi­ will have to pay and the more competitive you will be.” (Print ronmental community hasn't been used. Lay people who are not involved interview with Gorka Urtaran, 19.09.21, Noticias de Alava)1 in green movements didn't even know that the award existed.” (Interview This new planning trajectory is supported by interurban networks, 9, 2021, technical adviser city council) such as the Covenant of Mayors and the European mission of 100 The post 2012 award period was rather unambitious in terms of new climate-neutral cities by 2030, and by public-private partnerships with green projects: besides some tactical and small-scale green interventions the technological sector to further the pioneering role in smart sus­ and the re-designation of Dr. Orive as the CEA's director, strategic green tainable local innovations. The importance of being acknowledged thinking stagnated. Maroto's main greening contribution consisted in through international networks and policymakers was mentioned in the remodeling of the Gasteiz Avenue, one of the city's main transport nearly every interview and is common narrative in the city council nodes, through re-naturalization and other nature-based solutions, and publications. This extrospective orientation strengthened the creation the re-structuring of mobility space prioritizing sustainable modes of and definition of a local place-based identity, centered around a loose transport (CEA, 2012a). However, the mayor saw potential in building idea of urban green and where the own understanding of a rural- up the brand around the Green Capital using the slogan of “Somos la oriented character is proudly perceived as an international urban best- Capital Verde” as a visual reminder across the cityscape (Photo 2). case example: Further, the city increased public marketing to boost the presence of tourists attracted by VG's green and sustainability commitment and by “In 2010, Vitoria-Gasteiz joined the Covenant of Mayors, promoted by other awards such as the 2014 Spanish gastronomic Capital award. the European Commission. This initiative seeks to bring together cities that are committed to achieving emission reductions that are more ambitious than those established by the European Commission itself. (…) It is true 4.4. After the Green Capital: and now what? (2015–2021) that many of these initiatives you are even more forced to join if you are already a Green Capital. Why else would you put yourself to the challenge After the 2015 municipal elections, several local parties formed a to show evidence every year in front of the citizens that we are fulfilling – minority coalition led by Gorka Urtaran (PNV) to prevent the winner, or not – the ambitious objectives? Well, participating in this type of net­ Maroto, from re-entering office as he faced a lawsuit for racist com­ works and being a Green Capital, it does help to strengthen those levels of ments. Since the green infrastructure strategy, including the Green Belt, commitment. It did help us to achieve greater visibility in the international is nearly completed, the city is now defining new areas of work to further context, to work in a network with many other cities of the Green Capital its green trajectory. The city is, inter alia, elaborating a Sustainable family, like Copenhagen, Stockholm, Hamburg, or Lisbon.” (Interview 2, Energy and Climate Action Plan and a Green Deal with a specific focus 2021, CEA) on energy transition. Both plans are elaborated in collaboration with the broader citizenry. Priority is given to carbon neutrality projects, with As environmental indicators designed and decided on the interna­ planning decisions needing to avoid off-stage-burdens that re-locate tional level dictate increasingly local action, greening and its local urban emissions elsewhere. As of early 2022, the city is planning to contestation has been prone to a process of de-politization, leaning now towards a shallow green discourse. Green and gray urban nature, as described by Wachsmuth and Angelo (2018), have become the leading understanding of local sustainability. Campaigns such as the “Roots of tomorrow” initiative in 2012 (CEA, 2012b), involving the participatory planting of 250.000 trees (as many trees as residents), emphasize the role of greening through visible and tangible nature into the urban fabric. With the creation of a (smart) mobility planning, this notion is being accompanied by smart sustainability priorities and technological solutions to environmental challenges, so-called gray urban nature. “As long as the trees flourish, we are ticking all the green boxes, we are fulfilling all the green indicators. But we are way behind, e.g., in energy planning. We have made almost no progress in the last 10 years. The people in the street do not perceive and know this, because in the end they will always associate green with trees, parks, ducks. (…) But I think we have entered a new phase in which we are not only talking about the tree, 1 Photo 2. The European Green Capital. The symbol of the European Green https://www.noticiasdealava.eus/araba/2021/09/19/ciudad-innovadora-i Capital in the city centre (Photo by the authors, 2021). mpulsa-proyectos/1127008.html (last accessed: 10/02/22). 9 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 the park, the duck. We are talking about climate change, energy, air booster (McCann, 2013; Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2021). Nature turned pollution. (Interview 9, 2021, technical adviser city council). into an urban flagship project and core component of city branding and identity making with the potential to deliver significant economic The shift to a shallower understanding of sustainability is underlined returns. This branding approach helped aligning a neoliberal agenda of by an increasing institutionalization of environmental planning through green profiteering with selective reformist environmental goals while the creation of new departments in the city council. Through decen­ grounding the narrative of the sustainability fix in Vitoria-Gasteiz. tralization of responsibilities across municipal departments, environ­ Last, the case of Vitoria-Gasteiz highlights how a sustainability fix is mental planning became prone to institutional inertias and increasing underpinned by a widely accepted understanding of greening, whereby bureaucratic processes. As a result, the CEA as the intellectual force has specific narratives become common-sense across diverse social, cultural, lost some influence as regards planning for green infrastructure, and political urban contexts (Angelo & Wachsmuth, 2020). As it reaches mobility, (green) public space and energy. However, as the long-term this status of unquestioned urban development strategy, contestation of green commitment and transitions initiated in the 1980s prove to be or around greening becomes increasingly challenging, and even economically profitable, the city's changing governments cannot but perceived as illegitimate. This process may consolidate already existing support these greening initiatives in their own legislatives' periods. With asymmetric power relations in the governance of urban greening and the diffusion of an international green orthodoxy (Connolly, 2019) and further comfort the dominant institutional structures surrounding the its recent 2019 UNESCO Global Green City award, VG is likely to bring depoliticized governance of urban nature (Grossmann et al., 2021; Rosol new embodiments and (globalizing) dimensions to its green planning et al., 2017). In Vitoria-Gasteiz, environmental policies in form of a agenda. political fix helped anchor an urban green identity shaped by ideologi­ cally diverse local politicians and planners who appropriated place- 5. Discussion: the evolution from the political to the specific dynamics of greening. With the production of the “We are the sustainability fix Green Capital” narrative, the local definition of green underwent a process of de-politization that may endanger democratic participation in As global discourses shifted the green city imaginary from a local decision-making. In consequence, the city's green ambition blunted from project in the 1980s to an international mainstream orthodoxy pushed an initially deep green rationale into a shallower sustainability discourse by a sustainable or smart growth narrative, they also contributed to the which saw greening as an asset. de-politization and post-political practice of urban environmental The most recent local green narrative tends to adopt an eco- planning (Béal, 2012; Connolly, 2019; Rosol et al., 2017). Our analysis modernist discourse. This new narrative does encounter local contesta­ of the historic production of an urban green identity in the European tion by residents who question the necessity and legitimacy of new mid-sized city of Vitoria-Gasteiz shows how greening at first became techno-fixes, including expensive projects such as the smart-electric materialized through an early good leadership with a social city being transport system. This indicates a need to re-center green(ing) as a core objective of urban planning. Over time, environmental goals planning strategy in the public debate wherein a specific focus should be became increasingly aligned with a consensus-focused political agenda put on avoiding the re-location of off-stage environmental burdens and in conflict times and later mediated by an increasingly neoliberal urban the increasingly growing gap in the global distribution of environmental development agenda pushed by the vision to become a green pioneer pollution (Pascual et al., 2017). The transitioning of cities towards a internationally. The evolution of the urban green identity was based on a post-industrial urban society may increase pressure on both peri-urban changing rationale for greening where progressive environmental fringes and rural hinterlands, e.g., through local energy and agricul­ innovation became embedded in a shift from a political fix to a sus­ tural production projects (Bartels et al., 2020; Jonas et al., 2011), and on tainability fix. We uniquely identify three multiscalar processes that more distant places as cities need extract valuable resources for smart- enabled this shift. technological developments while moving heavily polluting industrial First, our findings highlight the role of technical and political actors activity outside their own spatial boundaries (Kenis & Lievens, 2017). replicating universal “best solutions” on the local ground and facilitating Sustainability narratives further these spatially shifting environmental technocratic and expert-driven processes. In Vitoria-Gasteiz, the early burdens as they help complete a SF by achieving higher scores on locally greening discourse in the 1980s–90s was initiated by local politicians, measurable indicators focused on inner-urban boundaries, such as car­ planners, and environmental groups as a response to local and regional bon emissions, or air and water quality, yet externalize environmental challenges. Municipal environmental planning at that time turned into pollution (Rice, 2014). an uncontested area of urban politics, detached from the political left Although greening in Vitoria-Gasteiz has been practiced from the versus right and Basque versus Spanish ideologies and identities. Later, very beginning as a top-down, rather technocratic process, the city the increasingly global and local interwovenness of environmental created a comprehensive framework for citizen participation that in­ policymaking, pushed through events such as the Earth Summit 1992, cludes deliberative and participatory processes led by technical experts. the real estate bubble in the early 2000s, and the 2012 European Green Today, however, participatory processes often miss the capacity to Capital Award, brought global discourses, networks, and financial propel transformative change as they tend to overlook social dynamics pressures at the center of greening practice in Vitoria-Gasteiz. This also and power imbalances among relevant local actors. Previous studies shifted power in decision-making, as high-level networks, semi-public or identified shortcomings in those processes, such as a lack of trans­ private agencies, and urban elites became increasingly influential parency, a bias towards supportive opinions of the urban elite, a (Grossmann et al., 2021; Gulsrud et al., 2017). blindness to the needs of the more vulnerable and marginalized groups Second, we saw that mid-sized cities such as Vitoria-Gasteiz may be (Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2022; Anguelovski et al., 2021; Kehler & particularly pushed to respond to international pressures as they seek a Birchall, 2021), and poorly deliberative and participatory processes niche amidst increasing interurban competition. Both the importing of (Béal, 2012; Kenis et al., 2016; Montgomery, 2015). policies and the striving for international recognition may serve as a leverage for increased international visibility and hence attract further 6. Concluding remarks investments. While this urban extrospective across the multiple scales of policymaking may bear the potential to put pressure on local politicians In this paper, we examine the multi-scalar and entwined nature of to commit to higher environmental standards, it also risks reinforcing the sustainability fix. With a shifting green narrative in Vitoria-Gasteiz, shallow framings around sustainability and “urban green”. In the case of environmental planning evolved from a social-environmental good into Vitoria-Gasteiz, the European Green Capital award helped create the a commodified green asset resulting from increasing dependencies and “greenest city” brand (Rosol et al., 2017) which has been used as a policy pressures from the international arena that challenge and commodify 10 J. Neidig et al. Cities 131 (2022) 103999 localized meanings of green. Through our analysis, we contribute to the en la planificación Urbana. 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