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To remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment, more and more communities and regions are using tools to evaluate progress in a selected set of issues over a period of time and to determine where they stand relative to similar areas. Such tools include community scorecards and audits and community indicators. They can be used to measure where a community is today (the current conditions) and where it is going (the change over time) for either a comprehensive set of issues or a specific issue such as the environment, health care, or economic wealth. Those tools can also be used to assess how a community or region stacks up against similar areas and identify areas for improvement. The idea of regularly evaluating progress against measurable benchmarks or peer organizations is not a new concept. Benchmarking is a process used by successful businesses to identify performance improvement areas by evaluating aspects of their processes in relation to best practices and by comparing operating performance against that of their peers.
Resources
Information on benchmarking tools is available from a variety of organizations, including the Community Indicators Network [www.communityindicators.net], the Sustainable Communities Network [www.sustainable.org], and in Florida, the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University [www.cuesfau.org].
