Sustainability Discourses and Urban Green Areas: Green Building Certification Program

Abstract

This article presents a discursive analysis of the Sustainable Building Certification Program (2007-2012) for Mexico City. We developed a theoretical-methodological proposal with interdisciplinary, interscalar, and intertextual analyses for public policy discourse understanding in its complexity. Based on this approach, the production of urban green area policies implemented in Mexico City is analyzed, particularly those that are part of the Sustainable Building Certification Program. Among the main results, the recurrent use of the notion of “sustainability” stands out as a discursive strategy to mobilize concepts, categories, and narratives that, while legitimizing public action, emphasize the environmental, aesthetic, and economic functions of urban green areas to the detriment of their social functioning.