ABSTRACT
The use of sustainability criteria offers very little practical guidance and therefore poses potential serious difficulties for the real world of policy formulation and political decision making. In particular, this includes practical economic development, transportation planning, and land-use planning activities at regional, state, and local levels. This chapter attempts to close this policy gap by defining some key terms and addressing some important questions in the context of real examples. Conceptual sustainability as a guiding principle is easiest to comprehend as a global concept. Despite some initial public reluctance to accept the notion, the Spaceship Earth concept of Buckminster Fuller makes increasing sense to many people as they contemplate world supplies of food, fossil fuels, limits on population, global environmental problems, etc. An absolutely necessary element of any set of practical policy guidelines for sustainability must effectively address management of the economic status quo.
