Welcome to VitalRail and the Continental Action Plans for Sustainable Industry

Where stakeholders in Canada, the United States, and Mexico redesign our industrial systems for sustainable life.

Join us in advancing economic prosperity and preserving our natural world. Built on a foundation of collaboration, OnTrackNorthAmerica has created the Continental Action Plans for Sustainable Industry (CAPSI). Our first Industry Action Plan is VitalRail, a comprehensive growth plan for rail-enabled industrial productivity.

CAPSI employs an inquiry-based methodology for information-gathering, brainstorming, and actionable decision-making by large groups of stakeholders. Together, stakeholders redesign our fragmented industrial systems from natural resources, agriculture, and raw materials to production, distribution, consumption, and recycling. With railroads as the valuable backbone we will create a balanced multimodal transportation network that serves the profitability and sustainability of multiple industrial systems. OnTrackNorthAmerica’s leaders bring the insight and perspectives acquired from 30+ years of infrastructure advisory work in 45 states and Canadian provinces. CAPSI Industry Action Plans are an evolving set of initiatives from dialogue to action and we welcome your contribution at any phase.

What do we mean by industrial systems?

"Industrial systems” encompass the complete set of commercial, policy, and planning activities involved in delivering materials and products for modern civilization’s survival and satisfaction. Industrial systems include all inputs and impacts, including land use, transportation, recycling, and disposal. What occurs between properties is often as significant as what happens at a property.

What do we mean by redesign?

Redesigning industrial systems requires collaborative efforts to enhance efficiency and minimize negative impacts. The process begins with stakeholders setting shared goals and practical measures while acknowledging existing strategies and investments. This redesign may necessitate thoughtful reconstruction, repurposing, or relocation of facilities. For example, an optimized strategic mineral supply chain could strategically position lithium mines, battery plants, vehicle factories, and recycling facilities to improve overall logistics. We term this "Collaborative Industrial Optimization"—a framework where stakeholders identify necessary decisions, actions, and capital investments. This redesign also demands inspiring the human element by creating incentives for organizations and individuals to contribute to system-wide sustainability.

Who are the stakeholders?

You are all stakeholders, along with everyone involved in or directly affected by our industrial systems. Developing action plans for sustainable industries requires complete stakeholder representation. OnTrackNorthAmerica has already cataloged over 32,000 stakeholders across North America’s industrial, political, and geographic landscape. And for each Action Plan process we initiate, we invite additional stakeholders throughout North America to work towards complete representation from all sectors: academia, advocacy, business, community, funders, government, labor, and media.

How do we work together as stakeholders?

We convene stakeholders in IntelliConference Series® forums that apply IntelliSynthesis®, our breakthrough question-and-response dialogue method, for efficient input from large groups of diverse stakeholders. In IntelliSynthesis we invite participants from all sectors in a given system or region to ensure representation of all perspectives. Each participant agrees to read and timely 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. Planning transitions into action planning and decision-making. The IntelliConference Series® and IntelliSynthesis® processes are explained in greater detail elsewhere on this website.

What do we mean by sustainability?

Sustainability of life is the long-lasting, harmonious co-existence of our economies, 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 improved coordination. Action Plans specific to each industrial system or geography integrate with all other plans, emerging from a process that produces results immediately, distinct from static reports and studies that typically sit on a shelf.