What kind of City/Region are you today and where do you want to be tomorrow?
The roles and the goals of the city/region are the two axis of the “contribution” heading. The role, how the city/region acts in relation to climate/sustainability and innovation, is divided into three main categories. The goals, what the city/region has set as the target and vision for its work, is also divided in three main categories.
Many cities/regions belong to multiple categories depending on what part of the city/region that is assessed. In addition, many cities/regions are changing fast. This is why the assessment tool allows for multiple sources for the benchmarking.
Expanding from only how to also what
The roles the city/region have are at the core of this assessment. Regardless of goals, the key is the actual roles the city/region have in society. This is important to understand as too many cities/regions focus on how they can communicate different goals, rather than focus on what roles they actually have. The current focus on scope 1-3 reduction for example, that is important, has also contributed to a situation where many cities/regions only look inwards to HOW they produce things and how they can report reduced emissions from their territorial area, instead of asking WHAT human needs the deliver on, what they export/contribute to the world, and what their actual impact in society is.
A fact that is not discussed enough is that many cities/regions are already significant solution providers, but due to the static problem focus they only see measures to reduce scope 1-3 emission reduction as relevant.
The three main expansions moving forward
- Approach: From a static problem approach to a dynamic solution approach
- Agenda: From a sector driven innovation agenda to a human need driven climate and innovation agenda
- Focus: From a single stakeholder/area focus to a clusters for solutions focus
Five different categories
The categories for innovation are based on the level of change the service provision of the city/region supports. It asks on what level the improvement take place to support a resource-efficient service being provided and delivered in a way that delivers on human needs.
Leading cities/regions also export solutions delivering on human needs. Today many export and innovation as well as climate strategies are far removed from the end-user and it is unclear what human needs they deliver on, if any. This mapping provides cities/regins with an opportunity to map their current and future potential delivery on human needs in globally sustainable ways. Currently some cities/regions tend to be overconfident when it comes to delivery on human needs. A city/region that exports plant-based protein such as beans, might see this as a direct contribution to nutrition. This is however not how this mapping should be done as this is a “renewable resource”, and the city/region needs to collaborate with different solution providers to ensure that people get access to the protein (and it is not wasted or burnt), that the people getting access are not getting it in a low nutrition form as fast food and served in a way that both results in unhealthy overeating and waste.
The mapping helps cities/region identify existing and potential clusters needed to deliver on human needs, as well as how data might be gathered to assess the impact.