A Typology of Tools for Building Sustainability Strategies

Abstract

This chapter introduces and describes a typology of policy instruments that has a dual purpose. It serves (1) as a conceptual tool for integrating the findings of the different studies that were part of our inter- and transdisciplinary research and (2) as a useful frame of reference for political actors when choosing appropriate sets of instruments for policy strategies. The instruments we have included in the typology focus on the ecological dimension of sustainability; they are applied primarily to promote environmentally responsible action. However, we belive that the five basic types of instruments - command and control instruments, economic instruments, service and infrastructure instruments, collaborative agreements, and communication and diffusion instruments - are of a general character that would allow for the inclusion of specific groups of instruments for promoting economic and social sustainability. Future work will tackle the issue of complementing the typology so that it covers the full range of instruments available for promoting all three dimensions of sustainable development. The chapter consists of five sections. After a brief introduction, we present an overview of the typology be characterising the five types of instruments and relating them to each other (section 2, including the trilingual survey Tables 1A-C on pages 40-45). In section 3, we describes the specific instruments of each type in detail and give illustrative examples. A preliminary comparison and evaluation of the different instrument types is given in section 4, while section 5 relates the typology to other classifications and typologies developed in several disciplines.