How to use the assessment

Contribution: Roles and Goals for the city/region

The roles and the goals of the city/region are the two axis of the ”contribution” heading. The role, how the city/region acts in relation to climate/sustainability and innovation, is divided into three main categories. The goals, what the city/region has set as the target and vision for its work, is also divided in three main categories.

Many cities/regions belong to multiple categories depending on what part of the city/region that is assessed. In addition, many cities/regions are changing fast. This is why the assessment tool allows for multiple sources for the benchmarking.

Expanding from only how to also what

The role the city/region has is at the core of the contribution. Regardless of goals, the key is the actual role the city/region has in society. This is important to understand as too many cities/regions focus on how they can communicate different goals, rather than focus on what the role they actually have. The current focus on scope 1-3 reduction, that is important, has also contributed to a situation where many cities/regions only look inwards to HOW they produce things and how they can report reduced emissions from their territorial area, instead of asking WHAT human needs the deliver on, what they export, and what their actual impact in society is.


A fact that is not discussed enough is that many cities/regions are already significant solution providers, but due to the static problem focus they only see measures to reduce scope 1-3 emission reduction as relevant.

The three main categories  

  1. Traditional static problem agenda
  2. A human need driven climate and innovation agenda
  3. A solution driven climate and innovation agenda