What’s sustaining your community’s culture, and how is it being integrated into future planning? Our Assets of Cultural Sustainability service equips communities, governments, and organizations with the tools to recognize, gather, and evaluate the critical data needed to integrate cultural identity into sustainable development. By identifying, documenting, and assessing both tangible and intangible assets, communities can build on the cultural systems that support resilience, identity, and well-being.

Unlike traditional cultural asset mapping, which often focuses on preservation alone, this service takes a broader, future-facing approach. We work alongside community members to assess not only heritage landmarks and cultural traditions, but also the policies, practices, spaces, and social systems that allow culture to thrive, adapt, and remain relevant through change. This includes everything from public celebrations to informal networks, governance models to community media. By considering assets that support cultural innovation, adaptation, and resilience, communities can use cultural identity to create sustainable growth; marrying preservation with development.

Through this process, local values and knowledge shape custom indicators that reflect what cultural sustainability truly means in context. To complement this locally grounded data, we align findings with global frameworks—specifically the UNESCO Culture|2030 Indicators—to demonstrate how community-led cultural efforts contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By the end of the process, you’ll have a clear, community-rooted understanding of your cultural landscape—knowing which assets are sustaining local identity, how they are performing, and how they can be leveraged to support long-term sustainability, strategic planning, and a powerful narrative of cultural resilience.