p4 Performance Measures: In Depth on Valuing People, Planet, Place, & Performance

Surely you’ve heard about p4 by now – the city’s new framework for creating a sustainable, innovative, and inclusive model for development and design which focuses on People, Place, Planet, and Performance. Launched in 2015 by the Mayor’s Office and the Heinz Endowments, p4 is meant to build on our city’s strengths and opportunities while ensuring inclusive and thoughtful decision-making around future growth and development. Layered with values like sustainability and equitable development, the p4 framework will play a pivotal role in ensuring that everyone in our city can benefit from its future growth.

But how can we be sure that a model like p4 will work? Enter the p4 Performance Measures Project. Over 100 people from all corners and sectors of the city engaged in a year-long, collaborative process to create a quantifiable system of metrics for informing and improving decision-making on public investments in development projects. Their work resulted in 12 priority focus areas for improvement – the 12 Performance Measures. Each Measure contains a set of metrics that together, provide a comprehensive evaluation tool for the consistent assessment of real estate development projects in the city of Pittsburgh to advance sustainable and equitable development practices. These Measures reflect a first step toward transformational change in how we plan and develop for the benefit of all. Implementation will require changes in policy, behavior, and practice that occurs over time.

At this breakfast briefing, Rebecca Flora – GBA’s founding executive director and current p4 Performance Measures Project team leader – will share insights into the process of developing these Measures, along with expectations and next steps for the city’s development. We’ll also take a deeper look at some of the Measures, including Energy, Connect, Rainwater, Air, Innovation, Opportunity, and Design.