New policy agendas face challenges in institutions. Understanding these barriers informs strategies to overcome or work with them as outlined in integrated positioning, innovative financing and strategic management. 

Conventional institutional barriers include:

• Inadequate money: Upfront investments in green buildings, sustainable infrastructure and renewables are often higher than status quo investments. The annual budget process further compromises larger upfront investments regardless of whether they significantly reduce long term operating costs and GHGs.

• Short-term orientation: The annual budget squeeze is compounded by regular and rapid electoral cycles to further compress the financial horizon of programs that require long-term attention and have large long-term pay offs.

• Traditional organizational design: Local governments are organized around line departments. Although conventions are changing, sustainability programs can require very high inter-departmental collaboration, and considerable community interaction.

A new community energy system, for example, can involve significant coordination between planning, engineering and finance, as well as collaboration with community partners including real estate development, utilities and energy companies, the financial services sector and neighborhood citizens.

• Organizational inertia: Municipalities, like any institution in the private or public sector, possess tremendous inertia. Staff perform their daily duties according to well-developed patterns.

Intricate systems – from training to job descriptions, and social expectations to fiscal incentives – reinforce this behavior. If a significant policy change does not address these more systemic challenges, change is often minimized or thwarted.

• Insufficient local consideration:  Abstract sustainability objectives like reducing GHGs, and boilerplate best practice programs that focus exclusively on technologies lack vitality, meaning and practicality at the local level. The unique social, economic and cultural context of the local government and community are critical for successful program implementation.