In addition, public participation also empowers citizens and helps them to feel that they can have a positive effect and influence on concrete conditions in their countries. Mechanisms for public involvement in environmental decisions often require companies to engage in detailed assessments of their pollution-producing processes or activities. These comprehensive evaluations can lead companies to discover inefficiencies in production methods, raw material use, or energy consumption that can actually reduce operating costs and eliminate the need to install expensive pollution control equipment. These cost savings may be especially important when difficult economic times threaten industry's ability to attain compliance with environmental regulations. Public participation also increases industry's understanding of consumers' concerns and teaches industry how to market its products more effectively.
Citizens have direct, immediate knowledge about environmental conditions in their communities.
Encouraging them to share this knowledge with the government can create more informed government decisions and can reduce the likelihood that significant environmental impacts of proposed actions or policies will be overlooked. The sheer number of the citizenry can also supplement scarce government monitoring, inspection, and enforcement resources, thus saving money and time for the government. Giving the public an opportunity to influence government decisions from the outset also defuses opposition to particular government actions and builds broad-based consensus for environmental programs as a whole. If the public is involved in the full decisionmaking process, their concerns may be met early on in the planning process when changes may be easier to make, rather than late in the process when even small changes may cost both time and money. In addition, by being involved in the full decisionmaking process, the public is exposed to the multiple factors involved in each decision.