Sustainable Assessment by Nations for Nations
We support Indigenous Nations self-determination by providing tools to support impact assessment and decision-making that reflects individual Nations communities or organizations’ priorities and values.
Overview of the Sustainability Assessment System
Indigenous community-based partners will be able to thoroughly consider, plan, measure, evaluate and manage efforts to enhance community well-being from their own perspectives, for a wide variety of projects.
This online web tool is customizable based on Indigenous Nations’ existing capacities, Indigenous knowledge, and worldviews. The intention of this tool is to support Nations in economic-decision making by evaluating development projects to determine whether or not they align with Nations’ values and aspirations.
Balance Co-Lab ensures that Indigenous Nations have continued ownership of all data used to inform their SAS, guided by the Principles of OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession).
SAS in Action with Toquaht Nation
The Balance Co-Lab worked in collaboration with the Toquaht Nation to identify their values, knowledge and vision of well-being in order to help guide Toquaht economic development efforts, culminating in the creation of a SAS specifically used by the Toquaht Nation.
Values-Based Assessment
The SAS is a values-based system that is used to assess projects by considering impacts on four dimensions of well-being: environment, economy, community, and culture. Indicators of valued elements are selected based on Nations priorities and values related to each dimension of well-being.
Project and Land-Use Informed Assessment
The SAS can be customized to evaluate a wide variety of projects, including land and marine stewardship, energy, retail, aquaculture, forestry, real estate, public works, tourism, industrial projects, and beyond.
Specific areas within Nations’ territories can be identified as project-specific land use areas, such as economic development lands, or culturally important lands. The weighting placed on different dimensions of well-being can be set to conform with a Nation’s particular land-use priorities.
Contact Us
Provide as much detail as you can, and a Balance Co-Lab team member will contact you to find out more about how we can support your community’s goals.
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