Integral City proposes that all cities have a purpose that serves Earth’s sustainability and wellbeing. Glimmers that the value of purpose are breaking through into the world of organizational and business scorecards are showing up in the news and financial presss.

The Toronto Board of Trade just released a report showing how 7 major U.S. cities compare to 5 Canadian cities in 9 industrial sectors. We must recognize this opportunity to measure prosperity as the first step along the way to actually measuring wellbeing in cities.

The 9 clusters which effectively measure the success of business hubs in each city included:

  • Auto & Parts
  • Finance
  • Food & Beverage
  • Energy
  • Transportation
  • ICT
  • Bio-Medical
  • Aerospace
  • Entertainment

It is not surprising to notice that each cluster is still very hard asset oriented, with little nod to the Creativity or Innovation that underlies the capacity for each and all of these clusters to be successful. While it may be interesting to note that Calgary’s success could be attributed to the nexus of the Finance and Energy sectors in the city, it is only a first step to acknowledging that the expertise, relationships, consciousness and culture in the city enable those sectors to perform at world class levels.

However, the practise of Prosperity Scorecarding is a shift in the right direction for seeing cities as purposeful contributors to the prosperity and wellbeing of the planet. Can we anticipate that such a beginning will open up to a whole Integral Vital Signs monitor in the not too distant future?