Greening Suburbia

Patricia Ballamingie & Sherrill Johnson

The greening of suburbia has garnered significant interest over the last decade from municipal planners, scholars, and lay practitioners, mostly in direct response to a set of socioeconomic, political, and ecological critiques around suburban form. This article provides a brief historical overview of suburbia (including its characteristic features and diffusion across North America) and summarizes the charges made by its most ardent critics. It then examines efforts to green suburbia, including the greening of new suburban developments, as well as the transformation of existing suburbs toward greater sustainability. Suburbs—politically independent jurisdictions—lie within commuting distance of an inner urban area and have come to describe a variety of different residential communities and landscapes that, together with the city core, make up the larger metropolitan area. The suburbs first developed in the early 19th century as people fled densely populated, industrialized city centers to seek a less-congested and cleaner environment, sense of ...

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