Urban parks play a crucial role in air pollution mitigation by acting as natural filters. This study evaluated the air pollutant removal capacity of trees in Paseo Tollocan Linear Park. A random sampling of 50 circular plots (6 m diameter) was conducted, with 3 to 5 trees sampled per plot (n = 235), measuring key dasometric variables. Six tree species were identified, with Cupressus lusitanica being the most abundant and tallest, while Salix babylonica had the largest diameter. Both introduced species had the highest Urban Importance Value Index (106.18% and 76.96%). The park's annual pollutant removal averaged 128 kg-1 ha-1 year-1, with C. lusitanica showing the highest efficiency (1.156 kg-1 ha-1 year-1 per tree). These findings suggest that the park's tree composition, characterized by low species diversity and the presence of non-native species, suggests a limited ecological perspective in its design, rather than a targeted strategy for pollutant removal.
This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of ESG-related disclosure behavior under dynamic governance conditions and offers insights into how leadership transitions can serve as critical junctures for improving corporate transparency and accountability. The findings reveal that the ESG APG has a significant negative impact on corporate greenhushing, while CEO succession amplifies the negative impact of ESG aspiration performance gaps on greenhushing. This conclusion remains robust across a series of endogeneity checks. Mechanism analyses indicate that the inhibitory effect of CEO succession through reputation mechanism and competition mechanism. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that this effect is more pronounced among firms subject to greater media and analyst scrutiny.
While prior studies generally assume a linear, positive effect of employee shareholding plans (ESPs) on environmentally responsible behavior, their non-linear influence on environmental misconduct (EM) remains unexplored. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms that implemented ESPs from 2014 to 2024, this study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between employee shareholding and corporate EM. Mechanism analyses indicate this non-linear effect operates through two channels: managerial environmental attention and corporate green investment. Heterogeneity tests reveal that the relationship is more pronounced in regions with stringent environmental regulation and developed green finance, in industries with high pollution intensity, capital intensity, and intense market competition, and in firms with weaker internal controls. Extended analyses show a similar inverted U-shaped pattern for operational misconduct, but not for tax, information disclosure, or securities trading misconduct. Furthermore, ESPs and executive equity incentive plans (EEIPs) exhibit a complementary relationship in shaping EM. Overall, this study reveals a significant non-linear governance effect of employee ownership on corporate environmental wrongdoing.
Government environmental concern (GEC) and green innovation quality (GIQ) are the keys driving green and high-quality development. This study assesses GEC and its decoupling from the domains of words and deeds; measures GIQ based on the knowledge breadth of green patents; and examines the differences in the impact of GEC words and deeds on the GIQ of Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2007 to 2022. The findings confirm that only the GEC deeds significantly promote enterprises to improve GIQ through its signaling, compelling, and encouraging effect. However, the decoupling in GEC nullifies these effects, ultimately weakening GEC's ability to promote GIQ. External supervision from higher-level government and the public enhances GEC's positive effect on GIQ and mitigates the decoupling in GEC. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen external supervision over local governments, ensuring that they fulfill their environmental responsibilities, thereby promoting green development.
Multifunctionality is increasingly recognized as key to promoting biodiversity and delivering diverse benefits at the landscape level. However, varying interpretations in research and policy create challenges for practical implementation. This study examines how multifunctionality is understood and governed across five landscape types in Sweden: forest, agricultural, coastal and marine, urban, and mountain. By combining a review of scientific and policy literature with insights from policymakers and practitioners, we identify key challenges and opportunities for applying multifunctionality in landscape planning and management. While Swedish authorities support the concept, implementation remains limited due to weak political backing, unclear roles, and lack of coordination across sectors. Addressing conflicting interests and enhancing cross-sectoral governance are essential. The study highlights the need for clearer discourse, stronger tools, and greater attention to collaboration, values, and decision-making processes. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation presents an opportunity to integrate biodiversity and connectivity into spatial planning more effectively.
Growing environmental pressures have made firm-level green transformation a central issue in sustainable development, yet limited evidence exists on how leading firms influence the green transformation of follower firms. This study develops an analytical Bayesian learning framework with constant relative risk aversion and combines it with panel data on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023 to examine the leader-follower dynamics in corporate green transformation. The theoretical framework identifies three channels through which leading firms' green transformation affects follower firms: a demonstration effect operating through consumers' belief updating, an information spillover effect that reduces uncertainty surrounding green transformation costs, and a competition effect that may weaken followers' incentives. Empirical results show that the green transformation of leading firms exerts a significantly positive average effect on the green transformation of follower firms. Overall, the positive demonstration and information spillover effects dominate the negative competition effect, yielding a net positive leader-follower influence. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive leader-follower effect is more pronounced in low-concentration industries and considerably weaker in high-concentration industries.
The environmental policies which govern renewable energy development often have limited opportunities for required consultation with environmental regulators, especially as it relates to potential impacts to species and habitats. In the region of interest for this research, the Great Plains, there are limited state-level environmental regulations which require consultation, and given that much of renewable energy development happens on private land, consultation relies on voluntary behavior by renewable energy developers. Through interviews with 18 professionals who work for state or federal wildlife agencies, this research examined how state and federal regulators implement current environmental regulations and build relationships with renewable energy developers. Overall, while this research focused on the renewable energy sector, the lessons learned can provide general insight into how regulators navigate unique regulatory environments and how big policies and frameworks translate into individual regulatory relationships and actions.
Social valuation research identifies ecosystem service preferences effectively, but is less well equipped to explain why those preferences form and vary across people and groups. Explanatory efforts have typically relied on socio-demographic and place-based variables despite inconsistent predictive power. Drawing on Schwartz's Theory of Basic Human Values, we test whether higher-order value orientations help to explain ecosystem service preferences. Using a US survey sample of adults (N = 790), we combined a social assessment of preferences for 17 ecosystem services with the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Results show that value orientations, particularly self-transcendence and openness to change, explain meaningful variation in ecosystem service preferences and show greater explanatory power than socio-demographic and broad landscape variables. Self-transcendence was the strongest and most consistent predictor across service categories, while openness to change was positively associated with provisioning and cultural services. These findings highlight human values as a useful framework for interpreting ecosystem service preferences.
Carbon pricing can be an effective instrument for mitigating climate change. Yet, despite some growth over the past decade, public attitudes remain a major barrier to a broader adoption of these policies. Drawing on a large-scale survey experiment in Belgium, we provide novel evidence that framing carbon pricing from the beginning of the policy process within a broader policy package can significantly enhance acceptability. We also contribute to the literature by investigating both the drivers for pure carbon pricing and carbon pricing packages in a single study. While climate concern, perceived effectiveness, and especially perceived fairness, are identified among the main factors explaining acceptability of carbon pricing policies, the expected financial impact on people's own household is only a key factor for standalone carbon pricing. This suggests that revenue use can mitigate concerns about the financial impact, and more broadly that policy packaging can positively affect public acceptability of carbon pricing policies.
This article examines the challenges of green infrastructure (GI) mainstreaming within market-led planning and development systems, where the incorporation of GI depends on how developers, professional consultancies and public planning authorities interpret regulatory expectations, financial risk and development value within project decision-making. Drawing on elite interviews, the study explores how these market-facing actors negotiate the delivery of GI within development processes. The findings show that GI mainstreaming is shaped not simply by the presence of structural barriers but by relational dynamics between actors with different mandates, risk exposures and forms of authority. Developers, consultancies and public planning authorities interpret GI requirements in different ways, leading to negotiation, alignment and sometimes displacement of responsibility within development decision-making. By foregrounding actor interdependencies, the paper advances understanding of GI governance within market-led development systems and highlights the importance of analysing sustainability transitions through the institutional dynamics of development regimes.
Environmental data has become central to environmental planning and management, yet its availability does not guarantee transparency, accountability, or responsiveness. This study investigates how different configurations of environmental data governance shape actor relationships and governance outcomes. Using qualitative analysis of three Israeli cases, it compares state-led air pollution monitoring in Haifa, proponent-led Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), and citizen-triggered urban noise monitoring. These cases represent centralized, privatized, and fragmented data configurations that differently influence trust, coordination, and authority among regulators, developers, municipalities, and civil society. The findings show that environmental data is not a neutral technical input but a governance artifact embedded in institutional design. The comparative analysis highlights how distinct data configurations affect planning and regulatory processes, with varying consequences for legitimacy and effectiveness. The study contributes to debates on environmental planning and management by underscoring the importance of institutional mechanisms that promote transparent, accountable, and inclusive data practices.
Sea level rise (SLR) poses an immense challenge to coastal communities worldwide. In Hawai'i, retreat from the shoreline is necessary to preserve beach ecosystems. Transfer of development rights (TDR) is one potential market-based tool to relocate development away from at-risk coastal areas. This study explores the applicability of TDR programs for SLR adaptation through a hypothetical market illustration for O'ahu. Our findings suggest that TDR will be difficult to implement at a large, community-wide scale due to the high number and value of coastal properties coupled with existing ease of obtaining building density. However, we find that the market for TDR on O'ahu becomes potentially viable under the narrow circumstances of greenfield development. We caution that such a program should only move forward with transparent land use tradeoffs and as part of a more comprehensive SLR retreat strategy. Our findings are applicable to areas with high value coastal real estate.
Cruising - intimate encounters in public places undertaken by gay men - is a longstanding activity including in green areas. Yet cruising exists in an ambiguous relationship to public green area management norms, which gives rise to environmental justice concerns. We examine distributive and procedural justice aspects at the cruising/green area management nexus in Denmark, a country known for sexual liberalism. Yet cruising-related conflicts nonetheless persist. We shed light on both public manager perspectives and practices that impact cruising around the capital city, Copenhagen, and cruisers' experiences with, and needs and desires, in relation to green area management. A justice lens reveals distributive injustices, although the desirability of typical forms of procedural justice is less straightforward. A queer ecology perspective also illuminates unexpected commonalities amongst cruisers and managers. Our results clarify ongoing problems and suggest alternatives, not least through recognition of those who challenge norms of where and how intimacy may occur.
Both policy-makers and agricultural economists place hope in result-based payment schemes for farmers, also in the realm of nitrate leaching to drinking water reserves. It is first shown that it is useful to refine this view, distinguishing between driver-, pressure- and state-related approaches. We then present four mitigation projects with different angles for financial transfers to farmers. Through interviews with project managers and additional document analysis it is determined that the trustworthiness of land managers, correct assumptions on causalities and hydrogeological areas of contribution, good group dynamics, fast hydrogeological responses and transaction costs are the factors determining which of the approaches, if any, is most effective. This should enable informed policy choices for projects where nitrate concentrations have to be reduced.
This study investigates how private housebuilders navigate the provision of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) within new housing developments, focusing on the often-overlooked land acquisition and valuation processes that shape environmental decision-making. It situates SuDS provision at the intersection of three calculative domains in housebuilding-land valuation, construction costs, and maintenance liabilities. Drawing on elite interviews with volume and super housebuilders operating in Yorkshire, UK, the study shows how these domains influence the uptake of multi-benefit, nature-based drainage solutions compared to minimal "compliant" systems. The paper concludes that without mandatory, consistent regulation and clearer institutional arrangements for SuDS adoption and maintenance, developers will continue to favour minimalist, hydrologically compliant designs over multi-benefit systems. By reconceiving SuDS as market-embedded infrastructure, this study highlights the need for governance reforms that align environmental resilience goals with the economic logics of housebuilding.
Coastal outdoor recreation is expanding across the urban-coastal interface in Scandinavia, driven by the growth of coastal cities, strong friluftsliv traditions, and investments in blue-green infrastructure that make shorelines more accessible for everyday nature-based activities. Rising interest in health, well-being, and environmental connection further positions coastal trails as key spaces for recreation and outdoor learning. This study examines the governance of three trails - the North Coast of Zealand (Denmark), Moutmarka (Norway), and Kulla (Sweden) - through qualitative case studies combining policy reviews, field observations, and stakeholder interviews. Framed by the outdoor recreation paradox and analyzed through mosaic governance, the findings reveal shared tensions but divergent responses. Denmark faces erosion and contested access; Norway grapples with privatization and fragmented authority; Sweden uses trust-based coordination and certified trails to manage visitation. Across cases, access equity, multi-level coordination, and civil society engagement are pivotal, underscoring the need for flexible, scalable governance.
