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Paper short abstract:

Based on the HDCA, we created the Livable Cities Index (LCI) as a collaborative tool for urban business, government, and social sector leaders to prioritize human flourishing in responding to the overwhelming managerial challenges of rapidly expanding urban populations.

Paper long abstract:

For the first time in history, humanity is an urban species. Historically, cities have been incubators of wealth spurred by growth in production and trade, but millions of new urbanites are poor, overwhelming cities with the challenges of building and managing sustainable material, administrative, and social infrastructures for a rapidly expanding population. The burden of industrial urbanization weighs most heavily on the poorest nations while wealthier nations hold levers of power shaping the future of cities. The Livable Cities Index (LCI) is a collaborative tool for urban business, government, and social sector leaders to prioritize human flourishing in responding to the overwhelming managerial challenges of rapidly expanding urban populations. The LCI integrates the HDCA with the UN-HABITAT sustainability framework to place human beings at the center defining factors for a livable city.

The time is right for US business to focus its global leadership role on a livable future for humanity and the planet. This assertion is based on four factors:

1) The UN New Urban Agenda articulates decades of multilateral, multisector effort to focus development on urban sustainability for the future of humanity and the planet.

2) The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a platform for generating the kind of knowledge, technology, and products that synergize wealth creation, human development, and sustainability. Ambivalence about “saving the world” through a new era of business is spurring public accountability for the social and environmental impact of business.

3) The “shareholder growth machine” is widely perceived as no longer viable but actually part of the sustainability problem. The 2019 Business Roundtable Statement and growth of ESG investing – despite recent challenges -- are indicators of a widespread business climate shift away from glorifying greed and towards creating wealth for the flourishing of humanity and the planet.

• Business is already pivoting away from rapacious capitalism

• Business can leverage this pivot to continue economic growth on a livable cities/sustainability platform

• Sustainability is evolving to a much broader view of human, societal, and planetary health and wellbeing.

4) Public trust in business is relatively high compared to government, the press, and other institutions. A dramatic change from a time when public trust in business was at an all-time low, this is an opportunity for business to lead in fostering livable cities initiatives.