The titanic effort of changing our energy policy, land use policy, and indeed our entire economy is overwhelming and daunting. Often though, it is the simple step that can generate significant incremental impacts. Baby steps are a lot easier for the public to grasp on to and adopt as well, thus creating behavioral change and lasting momentum. When viewed in the right lens, individual baby steps can truly be the lever to create lasting change.

The KISS principle – “keep it simple stupid” – is something I need to keep in mind professionally every day as a lawyer. I am forced to boil down legal precedent, complex facts, and apply psychology persuade on a daily basis. If I cannot translate my experience and knowledge into a format that a client can understand, the client will not be able to grasp my advice in making decisions. If I cannot translate the facts, documents and law of a case into a format that a jury understands and agrees with, I will lose my case.

Construction, land use, transportation, and energy policy certainly have their aspects of extreme technical and political complexity. The KISS principle certainly applies here as well, including introducing sustainability as a value into the decision-making processes in these fields. In the context of sustainability, there is another double meaning. The KISS principle can help keep the sustainability conversation focused, productive and manageable and help keep the uninitiated or unmotivated from being overwhelmed. In addition, keeping things simple is where we need to head on a regular, day to day basis to make lasting changes with regards to our economy, energy policy, land use policy and the environment.

I recently saw a blog post with something so simple, so obvious but also carrying such wide implications it resonated with me. The city of Portland has long been a progressive source of environmental thought and advocacy. As reported on the very interesting site GOOD, Portland now has three separate tool libraries. Having spent a lot of money on tools over the years that often sit unused in the garage, this seems like a very obvious and very useful service. While Stanley in particular may not like this concept, overall this is the type of simple step that can create huge ramifications on reducing the intensity of material extraction, energy usage, and reducing our environmental footprint dramatically.

We need to think of the big picture in terms of land use and community planning. We need to foster change in the market towards denser urban and transit oriented development and away from sprawl and McMansions. At the same time, we need to remember that cultivating simplicity and finding structures and mechanisms to encourage that simplicity can also have a tremendous impact.