Using Systemic Approaches and Simulation to Support Transformation Toward Sustainable Mobility

As populations and cities grow, the world’s transport networks will need to expand and modernize to meet demands. Sustainable transport can provide safe, accessible, efficient, and resilient mobility while minimizing carbon dioxide and other emissions. Despite these benefits, sustainable transport infrastructure is not being developed at the scale needed to adapt to ever-increasing climate impacts and to meet net-zero targets by 2050.

All infrastructure investments generate benefits and costs, which is why it is crucial to identify, quantify, and analyze all impacts surrounding a project. We use our Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology, which is rooted in systems thinking and uses tools like spatial, Excel-based, and system dynamic models, to provide a more holistic understanding of the value of sustainable transport infrastructure by weighing the environmental, economic, and social co-benefits of a project. These approaches can be key instruments for helping investors, planners, and policy-makers make informed decisions about sustainable transportation investments.

For this project, we will deploy the SAVi methodology in 9 countries, as well as providing capacity building and training activities for policy makers and decision-makers. The general goals of this project are threefold​:

1. To review strategic frameworks, methods, and models for sustainable transport.​
2. ​To generate evidence of the societal benefits of a variety of projects, considering direct, indirect, and induced social, economic, and environmental project outcomes.​​
3. To inform decision making for upscaling investments in sustainable transport, also in the context of green and resilient recovery packages.​

The project will specifically estimate investment avoided costs and added benefits of sustainable transport based on social, economic, and environmental indicators with a view of informing and influencing decision making on project selection, financing strategy, and implementation. It will also focus on the macro-economic level by providing an estimation of the contribution of sustainable transport to national sustainable development, considering its role in strengthening growth and in reducing public and private costs.

This will result in increased knowledge of the benefits of investing in sustainable transport infrastructure, as well as guide decision-makers on why and how to plan, choose, and implement sustainable transport and mobility-related investments.