Standardising green city performance: multiple framings and overflows

Purpose This study aims to address the roles and consequences of multiple framings shaping the process of green city standardisation, specifically by focusing on national and local efforts to define and operationalise green city performance within Turkish municipalities. Design/methodology/approach This interventionist study is based on in-depth interviews, focus group workshops, participant observations, document analysis and case studies. Data were collected between June 2020 and March 2023 during three focus group interviews, over 12 hours of observations and 28 interviews with managers and professionals involved in green city projects across 6 municipalities and ministries in Turkey, as well as European municipalities involved as dialogue partners for developing the green city framework in Turkish municipalities. Findings Illustrated by a case study in Turkish municipalities, we found that green city standardisation entails at least three framings: (1) social and environmental framings, (2) economic framings and (3) governance framings. The interplay between these framings produces overflows that do not merely disrupt but also redirect and reinforce standardisation, demonstrating how coherence is continuously negotiated rather than given. These overflows reshape how sustainability is enacted across environmental, social and economic dimensions. Originality/value This study advances sustainability accounting research by showing how overflows function as constitutive mechanisms through which green city standardisation efforts are sustained and reshaped in practice, highlighting the dynamic and contested nature of sustainability governance and metrics.