A review of Toyota City’s eco-policy: changes in citizens’ awareness between 2012 and 2015

Abstract

Raising public awareness of environmental policies is widely considered an important aspect of their successful implementation. This article contributes to our understanding of awareness-raising campaigns by focusing the case of Toyota City. It examines how awareness of eco-policy changed between 2012 and 2015. Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed by year and residency, focusing on (1) how Toyota citizens’ and non-citizens’ awareness of eco-policy changed during the research period and (2) how awareness differed between Toyota citizens and those from elsewhere. Findings suggest some evidence that the city’s activities may have been effective in increasing awareness of its eco-policy among its citizens. Awareness of the city’s eco-policy was significantly higher among Toyota citizens in 2015 than in 2012 and among those from elsewhere in either period. This study draws some practical recommendations for raising awareness of similar initiatives elsewhere. Moreover, it reflects on how further research may more fully explore the relationship between the effectiveness and the awareness of urban environmental policy initiatives.

Keywords:

• eco-policy
• urban planning
• sustainable development
• environmental assessment
• public marketing

Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. Misaki Kaneko, Mr. Tomoya Shimizu, and Mr. Akinori Nakagaki from Toyota City Hall for their support of this study. We also thank anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.