Transitions in environmental policy discourse, from ecologically and socially guided to profit-driven: what is the effect of the institutional policy-making process?

ABSTRACT

This study is based on the analysis of discourse relevant to an environmental policy, named the Toronto Green Standard (TGS). The study found that while the TGS is dominated by economic-focused environmental discourse, the earliest stages of TGS creation were dominated by ‘transformative’ discourses that problematized development and sought ecological protections and social equity. And while the incompatibility of policy making with transformative discourse has been noted by environmental discourse scholars, along with the compatibility of economic-focused discourse, this study highlights precise mechanisms in the institutional policy making process, which have the effect of excluding transformative discourse and prioritizing economic-focused discourse. The process whereby this discursive exclusion and prioritization takes place is referred to in this study as ‘transformative exclusion’. Despite policy maker interests in transformation, transformative exclusion has the effect of reproducing economic-focused discourse, current power relations and inequalities through environmental policy. This study introduces a new thread of importance for discourse analysis of policy, in identifying precise mechanisms of transformative exclusion within institutional policy making processes. By first identifying them, ideally these mechanisms of discursive force will be challenged, so that institutional policy may one day be welcoming to discourses of transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental policy
• institutional policy
• environmental discourse
• discourse analysis
• policy making
• ecological modernization
• Foucault
• Toronto Green Standard

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 With the exception of small residential developments that are under five dwelling units and under four storeys.

2 For instance, David Miller is the director of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and former president and CEO of the Canadia’s World Wildlife Fund.

3 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) ‘is the most widely used green building rating system in the world’ (U.S. Green Building Council, 2021, para. 1), and is very popular in Toronto and North America.

4 A forthcoming manuscript by Tessaro is centered on this method and describes it in full.

5 All interviewee names are pseudonyms with the exception of Ted.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Danielle Tessaro

Danielle Tessaro is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto Scarborough, in the Department of Human Geography, as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria, in the Department of Indigenous Education.