Rethinking success: beyond GDP, where society and the planet are treated as a living system.
Salmon remind us that survival depends on systems working in concert. A successful run requires clean water, connected streams, and balanced ecosystems; disrupt one part, and the cycle falters. Cities function in much the same way. Social, environmental, and economic systems are interdependent, and long-term prosperity depends on keeping those connections healthy.
The Limits of Traditional Metrics
Despite this, many communities continue to measure progress through narrow indicators that capture only a slice of reality. GDP, job counts, and tax revenue may signal activity, but they overlook the conditions that make that activity possible in the first place.
Perspectives such as a Living Systems Approach push us toward a more complete view. One that sees growth as regeneration and measures the health of people, planet, and economy together. In Nanaimo, this shift is already underway, positioning the city as a test case for what it means to plan with systems in mind rather than in silos.
Understanding Interdependence in Practice
Look at the relationships behind a product going to market and a salmon returning to its natal stream. Both rely on a series of networks, relationships, and environmental factors to reach their end goal, whether that’s selling a service or product, or completing a million-mile round trip.
The moving parts of reaching these goals are all interconnected and dependent upon factors that could limit or contribute to the outcome. What if the stream has poor water quality? What if a business cannot find skilled workers? Whether we’re talking about a healthy salmon run or a thriving business community, we need to ask: What are we actively doing to strengthen the conditions that make success possible?
The Cost of Narrow Focus
Ecosystems collapse when we measure only water quality, and businesses suffer the same fate if we fixate on single-bottom-line metrics and ignore the broader social and environmental conditions that determine long-term economic well-being.
Toward a Holistic Lens
It is a holistic lens that we must apply to assess the well-being of our cities. It’s not just a strong GDP and high employment rates we look at, but a host of interlocking factors.
The issue with our current approach is that we often plan and measure in isolation. If one part is prioritized, another could be strained. What benefits a business may put pressure on the community, and vice versa. These tensions aren’t something to ignore; they’re signs of interdependence that require understanding.
Nanaimo’s Approach
In 2020, Nanaimo became the first city in Canada to adopt the Doughnut Economics framework. Now, Nanaimo Prosperity Corporation has taken this and a Living Systems approach and put it into practice, embedding it directly into its economic development strategy.
Rather than treating growth as a linear output of jobs or revenue, NPC views the local economy as a system: interconnected with social well-being and environmental health. By applying this lens, NPC is working with partners across the city to reimagine prosperity as something to be stewarded, not just expanded.
Designing Prosperity as a Living System
This shift is positioning Nanaimo not only to respond to the pressures of the 21st century but also to shape how other communities might approach them.
If we want cities that endure, we must stop treating economic success as a standalone scoreboard and start treating it like the living system it is. Just as salmon need clean streams, connected habitat, and time to complete their journey, our communities need aligned social supports, healthy ecosystems, and an economy designed to sustain them all.
Nanaimo Prosperity Corporation is showing what this shift looks like in practice: measuring and stewarding relationships, not just outputs, and embedding the Doughnut Economics framework and Living Systems principles into how the city understands well-being.
A Choice for the Future
The choice before us is simple but consequential: continue to rely on single metrics, or redesign how we measure progress so people, planet, and economy advance together. By choosing the latter, we build the foundations for resilient businesses, stronger families, and healthier communities for generations to follow.
Words By Alec Hansen