GPIAtlantic Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada / Indice de progrès véritable – Atlantique
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A New Measure of Progress

Founded in 1997, GPIAtlantic is an independent, non-profit research and education organization committed to the development of the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) – a new measure of sustainability, wellbeing and quality of life.

For more information on the Genuine Progress Index and GPIAtlantic see About Us.

News and Announcements

What is the Genuine Progress Index and Why do We Need It?
May 2009
New video interview with GPI Atlantic Executive Director Ron Colman
7:30
Download

Summary GPI Materials for 2009 Nova Scotia Election
May 2009
Survey from the NDP PDF
Survey from the Liberals PDF
Survey from the PC PDF
Survey from the GP DOC
What is the GPI , why is it important, and what you can do 1 page PDF
Sample letter to MLAs and election candidates 1 page PDF
Sample letter to the editor 1 page PDF
Sample letter to leaders 3 page PDF
Genuine Progress Index brief 6 page PDF
The GPI and the Current Economic Crisis 4 page PDF
Resolution/statement for GPI adoption and use DOC
Draft sample questions for proposed economic debate between finance minister and opposition finance critics PDF

Using GPI would be genuine progress
May 2009
Author: Silver Donald Cameron
Source: The Chronicle Herald
Word Document: Download
THE BIGGEST single advance that Nova Scotians could gain from this election might be the adoption of the genuine progress index as the province’s core measure of success. In theory, this should be simple. The GPI ( www.gpiatlantic.org) is all about our progress toward a society which cares for people and the environment — and in 2007, the province adopted the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act, a deeply sane piece of legislation entirely in tune with the GPI. The EGSPA commits the province to fully integrate environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. Its two primary goals are to ensure that Nova Scotia has one of the cleanest and most sustainable environments in the world by 2020, and also that the province’s economic performance is equal to or above the Canadian average by 2020. Bravo. And that Act grew out of the 2006 Opportunities for Sustainable Prosperity development strategy, which recognized — as does the GPI — that our future well-being depends on the way we steward five forms of capital: financial capital, social capital, environmental capital, built capital and human capital. All this happy talk is endorsed by all three political parties. As Ron Colman, executive director of GPI Atlantic, likes to say, these ideas represent consensus values. "No politician argues in favour of more pollution, more poverty, more family breakdown, more obesity," Colman says. "Rodney MacDonald doesn’t stand up and say, ‘Vote for me and I promise you the air quality will be worse.’ Darrell Dexter doesn’t say, ‘Vote for me and crime will be worse.’ We all know that certain things are good and others are bad, and we pretty much agree on what those things are." So what’s the problem? The problem is the addiction of politicians to the notion of economic growth, which is code for a rising gross domestic product — even though the gross domestic product ignores the things that the EGSPA says we care about. Electrical engineers use a measure called the signal-to-noise ratio, which compares the level of a desired signal — speech, for instance — to the level of background noise. If it’s hard to make sense of the speech because of the static, the signal-to-noise ratio is poor. The GPI filters out the static, and makes sense of the conversation. The GDP simply measures economic noise. Anything that makes money change hands increases GDP. If we declared war on New Brunswick, or made divorce mandatory, or encouraged terrorist attacks in Malagash and Antigonish, all of that would make the economy "grow" again. Silly? Sure. But primitive tools like the GDP prevent us from measuring our progress towards the goals we all agree on, and thus prevent us from developing intelligent policies in a timely way. Using the GDP for policy purposes is like getting on the scales to measure your collar size. You’ll get a number, certainly, but the number won’t be useful. For example, the GDP took the constantly-rising levels of groundfish catches in the 1980s to mean that the fishery was doing fine — just before it collapsed. The GPI would have asked whether we were leaving enough fish in the sea as natural capital to sustain such catches. Quite clearly, we were not. Today, the GDP reports that farm cash receipts have grown. So farmers are doing well? No: GPI Atlantic reports that the cost of farming has grown even more. Nova Scotia farmers are losing money, farms are vanishing, and our food supply is increasingly insecure. That’s the signal, but it’s lost in the noise of the GDP, so it’s inaudible to the public and the politicians. GPI studies reveal that unemployment generates crime, stress and family breakdown. Please applaud Stanfield’s in Truro and Composites Atlantic in Lunenburg, who are meeting this recession by reducing working hours rather than laying off workers. That prevents a great deal of human misery — all of which would have registered as positive for the GDP. During this election, an informal alliance of environmental and other non-government groups will be pushing all the parties to adopt the GPI as Nova Scotia’s yardstick for progress. The initiative deserves everyone’s support. When the candidate tells you she’s going to get the economy growing, ask her how she’ll measure success. If she doesn’t know the answer, tell her. These are our leaders. Make them follow us. Visit Silver Donald Cameron’s website at www.silverdonaldcameron.ca.

First Annual GPI Atlantic Online Art Auction
May 2009
A special fundraiser for GPI Atlantic
Leya Evelyn, well-known abstract artist and GPI Atlantic Board member, is generously launching what will be an annual event: the GPI Atlantic Online Art Auction. We need to be creative in our fundraising as many traditional avenues of covering operating costs and smaller programs no longer exist in these turbulent times. Leya has been leading the way with development of philanthropic donors who can help fund innovative programs that more traditional grants do not always cover. The sale of Leya’s work will fund the GPI Atlantic office at 3008 Oxford Street and various youth programs around sustainable development and cultural promotion, such as zero waste education, climate change research, and the celebration of coastal resources. LET THE BIDDING BEGIN! The online art auction will run from mid-April through May with winning bids being notified the first week of June. Shipping costs will be covered by GPI Atlantic. Visit the links below for detailed pictures of the three vibrant paintings being auctioned. You may also see Leya's the pieces in person at the GPI Atlantic office at 3008 Oxford Street, Suite 203, Halifax, Nova Scotia (902-489-7117). To place a bid, e-mail Gwen Colman: gwen@gpiatlantic.org.
	It, No.3 Opening Bid: $2,900 (currently received)
	Necessarily So Opening Bid: $2,600
	It, No.4 Opening Bid: $2,900

Written Submission by GPI Atlantic to Halifax Regional Municipality Council concerning HRM by Design. 4 May, 2009
May 2009
	Submission 748 kB PDF
Press release

The 2008 Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index
December 2008	Integrated ~ Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index
Authors: Linda Pannozzo, Ronald Colman, Nathan Ayer, Tony Charles, Chris Burbidge, Seton Stiebert, Dave Sawyer, and Colin Dodds
This comprehensive report provides Nova Scotia with its first integrated set of progress measures that assess how the Province is doing —socially, economically, and environmentally. The Nova Scotia Genuine Progress was developed as a pilot project for Canada, and is therefore also now ready for replication in other provinces and nationally. This 2008 Genuine Progress Index for Nova Scotia—which updates and completes 12 years of intensive research and development—presents the most recent available evidence on all 20 components of the Nova Scotia GPI-—from trends in health, crime, education, wealth, income, economic security, employment, and volunteer work to greenhouse gases, air pollution, fisheries, forests, transportation, energy, waste management, agriculture, and water quality. The report also updates all key GPI economic valuations—including the cost of crime to Nova Scotia, the economic value of voluntary work, and the benefits and costs (in dollar terms) of the Province achieving its greenhouse gas and pollution reduction targets. By contrast, conventional GDP-based progress measures misleadingly count natural resource depletion, and crime, pollution, and greenhouse gas emission costs as economic gains, and they ignore the value of voluntary and other unpaid work. In the past 12 years, GPI Atlantic—whose mandate is to develop new and better measures of progress, wellbeing, and sustainable development—has released nearly 100 separate reports on a wide range of different progress measures. This is the first report that integrates all these measures, and therefore for the first time makes it possible to answer the big question: How is Nova Scotia really doing? And are we really making progress towards sustainable prosperity?
	Full Report 4.6 MB PDF
	Policy Applications of the Nova Scotia GPI 2.5 MB PDF
	GPI Headline Indicators Database - Draft 1.6 MB XLS
	Table of Summary Results 156 kB PDF
	GPI Overview Presentation 3.4 MB PDF
	GNH 4 Conference Presentation 2 MB PDF
Media Coverage
Press release

Film and Video
There are a number of film clips on the GPIAtlantic website from the ReThinking Development Conference and other events since then, including Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt's visit (September 22, 2006) and the Micou's Island Beach Sweep (September 16, 2006).

Please visit the GPIAtlantic Media Gallery.

Ronald Colman was interviewed as part of the Acadia International Executive Insight Series, which is part of a larger series featuring many Canadian and International managers. For a trailer of that interview, as well as many others, please follow the above link.
Please note: The mentioned interview is located within the SME section of the trailers if you scroll down the list.

GPIAtlantic
535 Indian Point Road,
Glen Haven, NS
Canada B3Z 2T5
Phone: (902) 823-1944
Fax: (902) 826-7088
info@gpiatlantic.org

ReThinking
Development
The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness
Antigonish, June, 2005
Conference Proceedings
Conference Outcomes

Updated: 14-sep-07 webmaster@gpiatlantic.org
The GPI	Research	Media Gallery	About Us	Youth	Members	Resources