In the last decade, an increasing number of U.S. botanical gardens have adopted the concept of “sustainability” as an explicit element of their missions and practices. By reducing water, energy, and pesticide usage, these gardens seek to model environmental behavior that mitigates the destructive impact of human activities. However, botanical gardens are also complex organizations whose members have varying understandings of their organization’s identity. Through 52 interviews conducted at 10 botanical gardens, I examined the cognitive-cultural resources used by members as they explained new sustainability initiatives. I found that a key cognitive-cultural resource for respondents, overlooked in past studies of identity work, was an organization’s local setting, in both its “social” and “natural” aspects. I discuss the implications of this finding for organizational identity theory. I conclude by considering how this local setting can be mobilized in botanical gardens and other kinds of organizations trying to gain support for sustainability initiatives. I argue that the higher the salience of local natural settings for members, the more easily they can integrate environmental sustainability into their understanding of their organization’s identity.
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