Carrots vs. Sticks
Love Your City Initiative Embraces Positive Motivation
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents the largest federal investment into combating climate change in the history of the United States. The legislation isn’t perfect; much has been said about the inclusion of fossil fuels and the limited focus on environmental justice. From a pure carbon emissions standpoint, however, experts agree the bill will have a major impact on US emissions over the next decade.
The bill also represents a more subtle but important shift – a change in the underlying logic of climate policy. In contrast to “stick” style climate policy, in which regulations and penalties are applied to carbon emissions, pollution, and other environmental harms, the IRA represents the US government’s “largest-ever embrace of carrots to tackle climate change.” The IRA uses a series of subsidies and tax incentives to motivate consumers and businesses to reduce emissions and invest in renewable technologies. It’s a shift in motivational style from negative to positive – rewarding companies and consumers for doing the right thing, rather than punishing them for doing the wrong thing. The efficacy of this approach is supported by research arguing that rewards significantly outweigh punishments in “building public cooperation and benefiting the common good.”
The Love Your City Initiative – New Orleans’ local impact hub – operates using similar logic. Love Your City offers businesses the opportunity to track, report, and publicize the positive impact they are having on the New Orleans community, and ultimately reap the benefits of a market that is increasingly focused on patronizing impactful businesses. As more businesses engage with the platform consistently, Love Your City will form a community-wide web of impactful businesses working to benefit the public good of New Orleans. And as more individuals join the platform, businesses acting as local impact leaders will see rewards both in their business interests and community impact.
The Love Your City Initiative believes that public will toward community impact is significant and ready to be channeled through businesses and individuals in our city. Similar to the way the IRA motivates businesses to reduce their emissions, Love Your City motivates businesses to operate sustainably and with intent toward impact by creating incentives that allow impactful businesses to be rewarded in the marketplace. LifeCity is proud to offer the Love Your City Initiative as a tool for companies that want to build an economy that works for the positive - for the Good.