Global competition on the sustainability front has recently taken the form of contests among nations and cities vying for the honorific of becoming the most sustainable or “greenest” city in the world. Notable examples of these rivals include Vancouver, where its mayor Gregor Robertson has pledged to establish the foundations to make his world-class city “the” premier city on the global sustainability map. Meanwhile Freiburg, Germany, has sought to lay claim to this accolade through its decades-long experimentation with “green” community living. An example of one of its latest initiatives can be seen in a section of the city named Vauban, built as a “model sustainability district” (Fitzgerald, 2010: 1–2). In the Scandinavian countries, sustainability advocates have touted Växjö, Sweden, where a single power plant provides its electricity needs and the city relies on woodchips and other biomass waste for its fuel. In addition, the gases generated by the power plant go through a process that condenses these negative externalities into liquid before purifying the liquid for household needs and heating. Through this and other technologies and programs, the city has succeeded in lowering percapita carbon emissions by 25 percent, leading to the lowest urban emissions level in Europe. These global achievements and ambitions point to the need to discover and publicize tools and best practices that other cities and towns across the world can emulate or modify to fuel their efforts to align urban development and sustainability.