The just-released survey of citizen attitudes toward sustainability and the future of Hawai'i is generating a buzz in the political community.

The survey, conducted by SMS Inc., was commissioned by the Hawai'i 2050 Project. It is an initiative created and funded by the Democratic majority in the Hawai'i Legislature.

In simple terms, the 2050 project is the latest in a series of what might be called "anticipatory democracy." What kind of future do we want and what can we do now to prepare for that future?

Such efforts have had limited success in the past. Each has contributed in some way to the body of knowledge about what we want as a community and how we would prefer to get there. So there is a broad baseline policymakers can look at.

But the gap between aspiration and actual achievement has been large. Good thoughts founder on the rocks of political reality and the changing face of politics.

The hope of those involved in the sustainability project is that ideas generated through community meetings, surveys, studies will translate into specific and direct legislative proposals.

One key element is a massive public opinion survey designed to determine what kind of future Hawai'i residents really want. The results, at one level, are not surprising. The "great middle" tends to take a balanced view, wanting economic development, jobs and housing, but not at the cost of environmental degradation. The majority within the middle tend to be balanced with a tilt toward environmental protection as a higher value than being pro-business.

Outside the great middle there is a substantial minority who are strong environmentalists, while only a tiny minority described themselves as extremely pro-business.

If you drill into the questions and answers, you find a dramatic streak of "green" or pro-environmentalist thinking. This is what might give courage to policymakers who are tempted to make strong, even direction-changing suggestions.

Just one example: Fully 80 percent of those responding either strongly or somewhat agree with the thought that Hawai'i should have a mandatory recycling program. If that is so, what are we waiting for?

Majorities or pluralities also agreed that they would pay more in taxes, or accept other sacrifices, for environmental protection, energy independence, the protection of agricultural land and so forth.

Now, such surveys must be taken with a grain of salt. They are, in effect, aspirational measurements, in which folks describe an ideal world and what they would give to achieve it. The task for those in the policy trenches is to take those aspirations and convert them into reality in a way the majority of people would accept.

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.