ABSTRACT
This chapter draws lessons from two US government programmes, each implemented as public–private, technology-oriented partnerships. It discusses challenges that emerge, particularly for public managers, in setting, communicating and tracking sustainable technology goals and progress in voluntary partnerships. To stimulate institutional transformation toward sustainable mobility and housing, over the past decade state governments in the US, as well as in other industrial countries, have experimented with voluntary technology partnership as an alternative style of policy implementation. Voluntary technology partnerships have two characteristics that distinguish them, in theory, from other types of state programming or public–private initiatives. The Clean Cities programme refers to a large, voluntary public–private partnership that Department of Energy launched in 1993 after years of upswing in legislation and R&D funding on alternative fuel vehicles. Clean Cites' tracking of technology progress has been based on voluntary participant reporting, an approach that has demonstrated limitations.
