In the United States of America, citizens communicate to congress (our law making body) by petition. Why are petitions important? Because any individual elected officials office receives at minimum 7000 emails, texts, etc a week. Can you imagine? So one of the ways to help Congresspersons do their job effectively, and also give you an indicator as to the importance of your concern is to do petitions. Petitions help give elected officials an understanding of how big the public concern is over an issue and prioritize them. Now public petitions are not always the best indicators of what is good for reaching sustainability, but that's what planning organizations, universities, and congressional aids are for in order to manage the issues, either through legislation creation or/and public administration engagement/education.