CAPSI

Welcome to a unique website that allows YOU to work with other leaders to develop realistic plans that can be used immediately – to make our industrial systems more efficient, sustainable, and profitable for all concerned.

This website is designed to help stakeholders in Canada, the United States, and Mexico create Continental Action Plans for Sustainable Industry (CAPSI) – in effect, redesigning our industrial systems for sustainable life.

This is how society can solve the urgent challenge of expanding economic vitality while preserving our environment.

The pages linked from the box on the right explain our rationale and the methods involved in developing improved industrial systems:

• Current industrial systems are fragmented and fail to take full advantage of our rail system in transporting materials and goods. As a result, our supply chains are inefficient and unnecessarily costly.
  
  
• Collaboration among all stakeholders is central to designing vastly improved industrial systems and supply chains.
  
  
• Land is no longer so plentiful in North America that we can afford to use it unwisely. In the same way that communities preserve land along scenic lakefronts for low-impact, non-industrial uses, land adjacent to rail lines should be used as much as possible for rail-served industrial activities – and these potentials should be included when assessing land values.
  
  
• From natural resources, agriculture, and raw materials to production, consumption, and recycling, our society can redesign its fragmented industrial systems. CAPSI employs innovative principles and tools, including Wikipedia's open-source software and IntelliSynthesis®, an inquiry-based methodology for efficiently gathering collective intelligence into productive solutions. The conception of CAPSI is informed by our thirty years of infrastructure advisory work on projects and systems in 47 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

Launching the First Continental Industrial Planning Process

What do we mean by industrial systems?

CAPSI relates to industrial systems as the complete set of commercial, policy, and planning activities that deliver materials and products for modern civilization’s survival and satisfaction. We understand industrial systems to include all inputs and impacts, including land use, transportation, recycling, and disposal. What occurs between properties is often as critical as what happens at the property. For instance, to create an effective strategic mineral supply chain, we must intentionally position Lithium mines, battery plants, vehicle factories, and recycling facilities to optimize systemwide logistics. We call this design process “Collaborative Industrial Optimization.”

What do we mean by redesign?

Redesigning industrial systems begins with establishing collective goals and pragmatic measures to guide CAPSI's work. This process recognizes the reality of prior strategies and investments while optimizing sustainable profitability. Redesigning requires sensible reconstruction, repurposing, and relocation of certain physical elements. It also calls for an inspiring evolution of the human element by incentivizing organizations and individuals to contribute to systemwide sustainability.

Who are the stakeholders?

You are all stakeholders, along with everyone involved in or impacted by our industrial systems. Complete stakeholder representation is a central CAPSI principle. OnTrackNorthAmerica has catalogued over 32,000 stakeholders across the industrial, political, and geographic landscape. CAPSI invites additional stakeholders throughout North America to work towards complete representation across all industrial systems, including representatives from all sectors: Academia, Advocacy, Business, Community, Funders, Government, Labor, and Media.

How do we convene stakeholders?

CAPSI convenes stakeholders in IntelliConference® forums that apply IntelliSynthesis®, our breakthrough question-and-response dialogue method, for efficient input from large groups of diverse stakeholders. Participants are invited from all relevant sectors in the system and region to ensure representation of all perspectives. Each participant agrees to periodically read and respond to rounds of questions. The facilitation team creates and shares a digest of each round of responses, saving participants time. Outlier perspectives are considered for the value they may offer the group.

What do we mean by sustainable life?

Sustainable life is the long-lasting, harmonious co-existence of humans and nature.

What is a Continental Action Plan?

“Continental” includes Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which already engage in extensive cross-border commerce and can greatly benefit from regional coordination. This is an “Action” planning process for producing results, distinct from static reports and studies that typically sit on the shelf. CAPSI brings together private and public leadership to tackle challenges in improving the global performance of industrial systems. CAPSI intends to facilitate a continental agreement by April 2026 on the initial principles, goals, and measures for guiding the redesign of our industrial systems to serve a sustainable quality of life in North America.