The nature of environmental governance within Europe is increasingly considered to be multilevel – involving actors and institutions at local, national and international levels, and from public, private and civil society spheres. One interesting feature of the development of multilevel governance is the emergence of transnational municipal networks (TMNs). This article examines why and how TMNs have emerged in the arena of European environmental governance, and the ways in which they can be conceptualised. Some specific examples of TMNs concerned with urban sustainable development are examined in order to explore the structure and capacity of networks, the development of new forms of governance within such networks, and the nature of co-operation and competition between governments and networks. From these preliminary analyses, three key themes relating to the role of such networks in environmental governance emerge: the impact of networks on policy making; their influence in multilevel governance; and issues of representation and legitimacy. In the final section, issues for future research are considered.

Current international economic and environmental conditions have led to increasing calls for alternative pathways of development. Globally, the language of a green economy is being promoted as a means to develop a ‘win-win’ for the economy and the environment. There are concerns, however, that the emerging frameworks for sustainable economic renewal marginalize social dimensions of sustainability and the already existing practices of sustainability innovation within the social economy. Using empirical evidence from Ireland, this article examines the dimensions of this marginalisation by interrogating the dynamic landscape of environmentally focused social economy enterprises as additional spaces of sustainability innovation for a greener economy. It is found that while these enterprises can be cast as spaces of actually existing sustainable development tensions persist which together raise general questions about measuring and communicating sustainability as well as more foundational issues relating to permissible forms of sustainable economic renewal.