4 / 3P's

Land use reform advocates often talk about the "3E's" of land use policy: environment, economy, and equity. The point is that our land use policy and project decisions affect all three of these areas, and a "good" land use policy or project decision is one that advances our objectives in each one of them. We are usually told we need to make "trade offs," but the reformers among us say trade offs are not necessary, nor desirable. We need to "do it right" where land use decisions are involved, since they so profoundly affect our future, and that means making decisions that are good for the environment, good for the economy, and that help us to achieve our social equity goals.

I think there is a "3P's" checklist, too. It seems to me that we need to think of what we do as having effects at the personal, political, and planetary level. And we need to make sure that our actions advance the good in each of those areas, simultaneously.