Feasibility Studies: Cities of Washington, D.C. and San Francisco
Ongoing Work: 2017-Present

Several major cities in the United States have retained Yorth Group to assess the ability of infrastructure, grids, and governance systems to achieve restorative outcomes and net-zero, net-positive goals in a place-based system. Included are Washington, D.C.’s Department of Energy and Environment and the City/County of San Francisco, California.

To meet urban growth projections, the global economy will need to invest approximately U.S. $90 trillion in the world’s urban, land use, and infrastructure systems by 2050. In the U.S. alone, the infrastructure gap is $9.1 trillion, according to the 2025 American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) infrastructure scorecard. If this investment is implemented in a broken linear “development as usual model” or incremental green improvements, it will drive a future of increased resource insecurity, climate volatility, economic turbulence, and social disparity. 

Yorth’s proprietary, proven tools and metrics measure and evaluate infrastructure performance in 11 key areas.

  • Energy

  • Water

  • Waste →materials

  • Habitat

  • Digital infrastructure

  • Land use

  • Governance

  • Mobility

  • Economy

  • Health and wellbeing

  • Identify of place

Yorth’s results are unique due to their inclusion of measurements of human impacts that are most often omitted by traditional accounting methods.  

Results:

  • The feasibility studies produced tangible outcomes for each city   

  • In one instance, the surprisingly low costs of building within this innovate design structure emboldened city leaders to implement restorative practices sooner than planned

  • Another municipal government leveraged the findings to drive progress with their local developers by offering fast-tracked permits if their developments were in alignment with circular economic methods

In each case, Yorth Group’s visibility studies demonstrate - in plain and approachable terms - the viability of making future-oriented infrastructure investments, while providing leadership with a solid financial case for restorative, circular development projects.

“Most sustainability services are about doing a little less damage, e.g., mitigation, which still produces net negative effects, while Yorth Group’s vision and services are net positive; they stand out as exceptional….. City leaders can use the robust set of turnkey market-based tools that Yorth has developed to chart and embark on a strategic path towards restorative success. Yorth’s vision, services, and expertise are exactly the type of skills city leaders and stakeholders need to boldly and successfully embrace and resolve the “wicked” 21st century city planning challenges.” Scott T. Edmondson
AICP, Sr. Strategic Sustainability Planner - Economist, Citywide Planning Division San Francisco Planning Department