Abstract Body

Eco-city development requires alignment on a range of intersecting issues and concerns. The current global discussion on local sustainability solutions, as well as the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 on human settlements, demonstrates the significance of eco-city development at the local level. Recognition of the effectiveness of community-level sustainability in localizing the SDGs has now brought this to the foreground.

A sole focus on economic metrics distorts resource allocation decisions, leading to underinvestment in public goods that are framed as costs rather than long-term well-being investments. Economic metrics also overlook social justice measures, such as gender pay equity, diversity in political representation, and racial equity.

To remedy these blind spots, it is essential to use a metrics framework that includes multiple forms of capital. A multiple capitals approach offers a locally attuned solution that balances private and public values and goals, such as affordable housing, energy efficiency, health, education, economic prosperity, and reduced inequality. Regardless of scale, fundamental challenges of community well-being metrics include: 1) avoiding false trade-offs, and 2) finding “sweet spots” where single interventions can have multiple co-benefits.

While several such multiple-capital frameworks and standards are in development, including the International Ecocity Framework and Standards, for the most part they have not kept up with recent changes in big data visualization now commonly available through platforms such as ESRI’s StoryMaps.

This presentation focuses on our attempts over several years to create such a tool for performance assessment and decision-support. The Community Capital Tool (CCT) is conceptually rooted in a community capital framework that considers the effects of community strategies, policies, projects and investments on six mutually-reinforcing forms of capital (human, natural, physical, economic, cultural, and social). The CCT allows communities to a) leverage community assets to promote change, b) holistically assess progress toward sustainability goals, c) align plans, policies, and projects reflecting multiple priorities, and d) increase access and transparency through a common platform. We will illustrate these concepts with examples from using the tool in Canadian and US cities.