Measuring the Health of Our Common Home

Our common home.

Let’s be honest: most of us grew up hearing that GDP—Gross Domestic Product—was the way to measure a country’s success. More GDP = more growth = good, right?

But what if that’s only part of the story?

Imagine your doctor only checked your heart rate and ignored your lungs, liver, and sleep patterns. That’s a bit like focusing only on GDP while ignoring the planet’s health.

That’s where the Environmental Health Balance Index (EHBI) comes in. It’s not here to replace GDP—but to complement it. EHBI is a way to measure how healthy and balanced our environmental systems are—things like forests, rivers, air, soil, and wildlife. You know, the stuff that makes life… livable.

So What Is EHBI?

The EHBI is a number between 0 and 2:

• 0 means the ecosystem is deeply damaged.

• 1 means it’s in balance.

• 2 means it’s not just surviving—it’s regenerating.

It’s based on real data from environmental “stocks” like:

• River flow and pollution levels

• Soil nutrients and erosion

• Air quality and smog alerts

• Species health and biodiversity

• Human well-being indicators (like respiratory illness or access to green space)

These numbers are scored, normalized, and combined into one simple signal.

IPQ Integral Prosperity Quadrant: The Story in Two Axes

EHBI Quadrant.

Think of the Integral Prosperity Quadrant (IPQ) as a two-axis map of wellbeing. On one side, you have how well the economy is doing (like GDP). On the other, how healthy the environment is (EHBI). When you plot a place on this grid, you can instantly see if it’s growing at the Earth’s expense, healing but struggling financially, or moving toward real, shared thriving. It’s not about choosing economy or ecology—it’s about finding balance and seeing the story both axes tell together.

• X-Axis → Environmental Health (EHBI): This shows how healthy the ecosystem is. Are we degrading it? Maintaining it? Helping it regenerate?

• Y-Axis → Economic Output (e.g. GDP per capita): This shows how much economic activity is happening. Are we generating value? Creating jobs? Producing wealth?

When you put these together, interesting patterns emerge:

Zone	Description
Top right	Win-win — Healthy environment and strong economy. Everyone wins.
Top left	Economic growth, but at a cost to the environment. Classic “degenerative growth.”
Bottom right	The environment is healing, but the economy may be contracting or transitioning.
Bottom left	Trouble — Both the economy and environment are under stress. Time to rethink fast.

Why It Matters

When you plot a place (country, region, city) on the IPQ over time, you can see trajectories: maybe it started in the lower-right (growth‑at‑cost) but can move toward thriving. Maybe it falls into degeneration.

IPQ helps us ask better questions:

• Are we growing in a way that supports life?

• Are we restoring what we depend on?

• Are our wins today becoming someone else’s losses tomorrow?

IPQ doesn’t give you all the answers—but it gives you a better place to start asking the right questions.

And that’s what systems thinking is all about.