Lifted from My GoodReads review

David Owen is part of what I have come to think of us critical environmentalists. These types are thoughtful, trained, and involved thinkers and activists--as well as whatever profession that might actually pay them--who generally share the tenants of environmentalism at large, have some pretty weighty critiques of their own. In one way, Green Metropolis is for an earlier generation of environmentalists than myself. It may just be me, but his thesis that urban style population density is good--in that it makes so many other, more obvious environmental issues easier or redundant--is not earth-shattering. Rather, what Owen manages is an insightful, well-researched argument to convert the anti-urban back-to-the-landers of his and later eras, which does include some among me, too.

Take, for example, the absolutely keen criticism of LEED certification and "green architecture": On one side you might find a corporate campus with wide, lush lawns, rain barrels, green roofs, CFL bulbs, thorough insulation, and bike racks; on the other you have a tall, decades old skyscraper, knee-to-knee with similar buildings, without a patch of green on any side in an asphalt metropolis such as Manhattan. Well, the former could pick up some level of LEED certification and the other, well, it probably won't, not because it is less green but because "green architecture" doesn't account for some of the easiest stuff a building or city might support or accomplish. How do employees get to work at either locale? How far do the employees have to commute to work? How effective is heating and cooling? And, for that matter, how effective are the bells and whistles like solar paneling or employee showers for bikers?

Owen manages to cut through what is essentially the recently born technological prowess and sets it aside, pointing out the many successes already around us. In addition, he deals heavily with the conflicts of driving less (fewer cars, less exhaust, less asphalt, etc.) and greater gas mileage (driving more cheaply, going farther, more traffic, greater commutes, etc.) and similar, counterintuitive environmental issues. Owen successfully and concisely challenges our expectations for greenness and environmental sustainability. He also, potentially, intertwines a larger argument about how we want our lives to look and what not only sustainable but satisfied communities ought to look like.