Cities that are able to provide for thriving lives within the planet’s resource budget will be successful and resilient.
The benefits of Footprinting at the local and regional levels include:
In many countries, one or two major urban centers are major contributors to the national Ecological Footprint© and also run significantly higher per capita Footprints than the average for their nations. Comparing city and national Footprints and biocapacity can thus shed more light on potential leverage points for improving sustainability. Our Mediterranean Report, for instance, found that the resource demands of citizens in Athens exceeds the biocapacity of all of Greece.
Net Present Value Plus, or NPV+, is a new approach to benefit-cost analysis for capital projects. Virtually any entity making a capital investment—cities, states, universities—can use NPV+ to better plan for a more realistic future.