Cities in Action: Organizations, Institutions, and Urban Climate Strategies

• Title: Cities in Action: Organizations, Institutions, and Urban Climate Strategies
• Author: Christof Brandtner, Associate Professor of Social Innovation, emlyon business school
• Published by: Columbia University Press, 2026
• Where to find it: Columbia University Press (CUP20 for 20% off), Amazon and independent bookstores

In 2026 the Earth reached a grim milestone; its February was recorded as the warmest on record. Scientists noted that global temperatures climbed to 1.49°c above pre-industrial levels, and warned that we were in danger of breaching the 1.5°c threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. We have never been closer to the point of no return, nor have we been in more need of guidance for how we can all act to better protect and preserve the world we live in.

Despite such a bleak forecast, there are encouraging signs of change. As national governments and global institutions fail to adequately address climate change, with targets routinely missed and deadlines for greener practices extended, an increasing number of cities have taken matters into their own hands, designing and committing to major sustainability and climate strategies.

Their individual actions are making an impact. But what motivates some cities take bold action while others stick to business as usual? And, how can others follow suit?

This is the question tackled by Christof Brandtner, Associate Professor of Social Innovation at emlyon business schools, in his latest book; Cities in Action: Organizations, Institutions, and Urban Climate Strategies.

Christof is an Associate Professor of Social Innovation at emlyon business school and a Fellow of the CIFAR program on Innovation, Equity, and the Future of Prosperity. Trained as an organisational sociologist at Stanford University, his research examines how social innovations emerge, diffuse, and are implemented in cities. He is also a co-founder of the Civic Life of Cities Lab.

City climate action, he shares, is not simply a matter of political will: It is an organisational problem. Cities are embedded within both a broad institutional superstructure of professional networks and peer cities as well as a deep organisational infrastructure of civil society organisations, public agencies, and socially responsible firms. These all shape cities’ capacity to plan, learn, lead, and scale sustainability solutions.

Drawing on comparative research spanning fifteen years and thousands of cities around the world, Christof traces how environmental strategies, sustainability practices, and green building initiatives emerge, diffuse, and take hold. Crucially, these investigations allow him to uncover the structural conditions that enable and inhibit meaningful climate action, revealing why it varies so widely across cities, and how we can all act to do better.

How can we make a greater, swifter collective effort to reverse climate change where global targets has fallen short? We speak with Christof to find out…

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your new business book? What motivated you to write it?

The data collection for this book started in 2017, two weeks after the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement for the first time. I met a sustainability planner in a major East Coast city, with a pencil behind his ear. Although sustainability was his life’s work, he didn’t seem too concerned about the future of climate action in the US and instead rattled off everything his city was already doing and that wasn’t really going to change: green roofs, electric vehicles, energy-efficient buildings. The real climate action was not happening on the national stage. It was inside city halls, driven by professionals whose names never make the news.

Unfortunately, the book has become more timely than I wanted it to be-the US withdrew again in January 2025, and multilateral commitments are fraying.

My motivation to write the book was twofold. I wanted to shine a light on the professionals doing this work, often in isolation. And I wanted to show that the concepts we develop as organisation scholars are not just good for talking to each other-they can help us understand the most pressing challenges of our time.

I am hoping to bring cities and professionals responsible for the places where we live-cities, neighbourhoods, homes, parks-into the fold of what researchers can study at business schools, since their work has an outsized impact on our everyday lives.

What are the key takeaways or main ideas that readers can expect to find in your book?

The central argument is that city climate action depends on two social structures working together.

• An institutional superstructure-the global network of intercity associations through which cities learn from and compete with each other-carries practices from one city to the next.

• An organisational infrastructure-the local ecosystem of non-profits, civic organisations, and public agencies-gives cities the capacity to act on what they learn.

Neither alone is sufficient. Cities need both the global connections and the local organisational depth.

Three findings tend to surprise people. First, cities led by appointed professional managers are more proactive on sustainability than cities led by elected mayors-the behind-the-scenes professionals matter more than a heroic political leader. Second, the density of non-profit organisations in a city is a stronger predictor of sustainability practices than the presence of corporations. And third, in the case of green buildings, policy followed practice rather than the other way around: local organisations built green first, and cities formalised what was already working.

Who is the target audience for your book, and how do you believe it will benefit them?

It is a university press book, so it is written for people who care about research-whether they do it, teach it, or use it.

I had a few different audiences in mind. Early-career researchers who want to see how you get good answers to difficult questions, like what it means for a city to act. Practitioners in sustainability consulting and urban planning, whose work can be lonely and who deserve to have their voice heard-the sustainability officers I interviewed are remarkable people doing consequential work with limited resources. For them, this is a conversation starter. And anyone who thinks about how organisations shape the places we live.

This is not a self-help book for managers. It is an attempt to take seriously the idea that organisational knowledge matters for some of the biggest problems we face.

What do you think makes this topic particularly relevant or timely in today’s business world, or for the years ahead?

Climate change is not getting the most attention right now, given geopolitical tensions, but the problem has not gone away. According to Berkeley Earth, the last eleven years include all eleven of the warmest years ever recorded. Cities produce more than 70% of global carbon emissions. Whether and how they act is one of the central organisational challenges of the coming decades. And because inequality concentrates in cities, the gap between those with the organisational capacity to respond and those without is itself a growing source of injustice.

Can you discuss any specific case studies or real-world examples from your book that illustrate its principles in action?

When President Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017 with his famous line about allegiance to Pittsburgh, not Paris, mayors, business leaders, and university presidents organised a collective response within days. The We’re Still In campaign came to represent half the US population. A chief resilience officer in New York told me they were on the phone for weeks coordinating. The book traces the organisational infrastructure that made such rapid collective action possible.

My favourite example of the book’s argument comes from a public library. At the San Mateo Public Library in California, a rolling blackout hit during a community meeting in a hot, stuffy room. A teacher raised her hand and asked: why can’t we build a sustainable building? The library became one of the state’s first LEED Gold buildings and “set the tone” for the city. San Mateo got one of the nation’s first green building policies.

A civic organisation demonstrated what was possible, and policy followed. That reversed sequence-practice driving policy-is one of the book’s most distinctive findings.

How does your book add to/expand existing discussions on this topic?

Most discussions about city climate action focus on technology or politics. My book adds a third lens: organisations. Being able to respond to sustainability challenges is not just a matter of political will-it requires the organisational processes necessary to engage in urban innovation.

The book shows the power of value-driven organisations, particularly non-profits and mission-driven businesses, as catalysts of change. These organisations experimented with solutions before any policy required it, demonstrated what was possible, and gave city governments the proof of concept they needed to act. That reversed causality-practice driving policy rather than the other way around-is a new finding.

Can you provide some practical tips or strategies from your book that readers can immediately apply to improve their business or career?

The support network for cities has become critical for distinguishing between those that can do a lot and those that are left behind. To connect to this network, you need two things. First, the capacity to listen: city managers and sustainability officers can serve as bridges between local administrations and global conversations. Second, a set of local catalysts who pay attention and experiment with new solutions. In the case of urban sustainability, these are often non-profits and civic organisations.

This is not only relevant for cities. Any organisation that wants to respond effectively to complex challenges needs the bandwidth to learn from others and the willingness to listen to the people inside the organisation who can catalyse solutions as internal change agents. Being deaf to ideas from below because you think you already know the answers is a big problem-whether you run a city or a company.

Finally, what book written by another author would you consider essential reading for your audience and why?

I really liked two books in the same Columbia University Press series in which my book appeared.

Wesley Longhofer’s Super Polluters examines how to regulate the energy producers responsible for a disproportionate share of emissions.

Rebecca Elliott’s Underwater looks at the politics of flood insurance and who bears the costs of climate risk.

Both are excellent examples of taking a structural angle to environmental problems-asking how institutions and organisations shape outcomes rather than placing the burden entirely on individual choices.

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