Community Development in Greening the Cities

Abstract

Green social work offers social workers and community development workers a new holistic perspective in greening a city to reduce its carbon footprint. Addressing the matter is urgent given that cities consume the bulk of the world’s resources, emit the highest levels of greenhouse gases, and contain the majority of the world’s population. This chapter argues that green social workers have major roles to play at the macro-level raising consciousness about climate change and the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions to people, plants, animals, and the physical environment. These include holding decision-makers including politicians and entrepreneurs accountable for the policies and actions that place lives at risk, cause biodiversity loss, and pollute skies, soil, and water, and advocating for alternative sustainable green solutions to high consumption lifestyles and the exploitation of nature for profit. Green social workers can make important contributions in creating sustainable living spaces and reduced carbon footprints at meso- and micro-levels by mobilizing communities as the two case studies indicate: one on recycling materials and one on renewable energy use. Social workers thus promote and facilitate the greening of cities in many ways.