As you may have noticed, the MD-GPI website has been recently revamped and beefed up with several new interactive tools and (hopefully) useful resources. So I thought I would take this week’s Blog to highlight the additions.

Interactive Calculators

The most noticeable addition to the MD-GPI website is the new “Calculator” tab, where you will see two Calculators. The purpose of these tools is to allow you – the User – to change the data and/or values of the Maryland GPI for 2010 and see the effects. And we created two separate Calculators in order to provide different perspectives.

The first is the Statewide Calculator, which is designed for a more macro-view of Maryland’s well-being. If this sounds eerily familiar to you, that’s because I already wrote about it back in January, “DYI GPI: So you want to be a Czar?” So I won’t spend much more time here, but do encourage you to learn more at that Blog.

The newer member of the family is the Citizen Calculator, which is officially released today. The Citizen Calculator focuses more on what individual residents can do in their day-to-day activities and decisions, and what would happen if you and fellow Marylanders adopted more sustainable practices.

For instance, what impact would occur if you and others were to purchase appliances with longer lives? Well, the Economy wants you to buy appliances each year, which results in higher Gross Domestic Product. But it also means more resources extracted and more trash created.

But by changing the average life years of consumer durable from 8 years to 10 years, you will see a $7 billion uptick. That, in turn, increases the total Economic Indicators by 4.6%, and the MD-GPI by 4.9%!

Another great example is Volunteering. Not only are you be helping your community, you are also rewarded with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. If each of us volunteers just 50 hours a YEAR, we could add more than $1.5 billion to the MD-GPI!

In addition to altering and building scenarios, the Citizen Calculator also features web links. On the far right of each changeable indicator, simply click on the green cross to access valuable resources, initiatives, and opportunities. If you would like even more information, simply click on the Indicator text to take you to its homepage.

What Other States Are Doing

With so much going on in the field of “Beyond GDP”, we thought it would be helpful to develop a repository of links to Maryland and its jurisdictions, national efforts, and even international examples on the topic of Genuine Progress Indicators and related endeavors.

To find the list, we added another link to the left-side toolbar, entitled “What Are Other States Doing?”. This should not be thought of as comprehensive or complete, but rather a quick resource list to the Biggies. PLEASE, though, contact me if you know of another great resource, and I am more than happy to upload and share.

Media & Reports

I’ll be pretty blunt on this and simply say, with so much going on, we outgrew the homepage “MD-GPI News” area and needed a separate webpage for news stories, articles, videos, and reports that either specifically mention Maryland’s GPI or address GPI-related activities. You can access the site here.

Chest-thumping aside, we also included Factsheets, Links, and Reports as another resource list. Among them, I especially recommend the New Economics Institute’s report on State-Level activities on indicators and GPI’s. Lastly, I again want to convey that we warmly welcome your suggestions on other reports to add to the list.

Author: Sean McGuire
Office for a Sustainable Future, DNR