Toward's Sustainable Communities - Making Community Policy

Policy Instruments come in four categories: Regulations, Voluntary Instruments, Expenditure and Financial Incentives. Policy Instruments are need in sustainability initiatives to provide incentives for the public to use more sustainable methods. The goal of Policy Instruments are to reduce the consumption of natural resources. However, It is very difficult to convince someone to change their way of life without any motivation that says the switch is somehow profitable. This is where the categories and Instruments come in.

Regulations are "the most pervasive policy instruments." As far as effectiveness, I don't think this is the most effective way of encouraging people to be sustainable -- It is very uncommon for people to like being told what to do from something as impersonal as the government. I do acknowledge that this may be the only way to "get the ball rolling" so to speak.

Voluntary Instrument give me a picture of a pro-active community and the sort of thing that I would expect in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) as described by Peter Calthorpe in "The Next American Metropolis." Voluntary initiatives can be increased by increasing education on environmental and sustainability topics.

Expenditure "consists of any use of public money such as contracting, monitoring, investment, procurement, enterprise, and public-private partnerships." This ties in with the earlier reading again by Peter Calthorpe and the importance of reducing Urban Sprawl to increases sustainability. Reducing Urban Sprawl seems to be a function of Expenditure. The category, Expenditure, is related to development and technologies, all which require an economic input before sustainable outcomes are generated.

The final category, Financial Incentives, include " pricing, taxes, charges, subsidies, tax incentives, grants, loans, rebates, rewards, surety bonds and vouchers. The first thing I think of is "carbon footprinting" and the development of the new term "Carbon credits." This method seems to be the way to sway the people who do not immediately by into educational incentives. In other words, even if a person doesn't believe in what they are doing, they will probably be very happy about changing if it means saving more money.

According to the reading, the trick in implementing community policy is knowing the order in which to implement these instruments. I think having some idea as to the demographics of the community would help. For example, a college campus seems to respond pretty well to the education followed by the volunteering instrument. On the other hand, the baby boomer generation, who may not be able to understand concepts such as Global Change, may respond best to the 'Financial Incentives' instrument. Either way, I think understanding who you are working with is the best place to start.