Shift 6

Reduce our Ecological Footprint

Redress global warming, biodiversity losses and diminishing natural resources through more efficient land, water and energy usage, and by ensuring economic development improves environmental well-being.

An ecological footprint (EF) refers to the area of productive land and water ecosystems required to produce the resources that a population consumes and to assimilate the wastes that it produces under prevailing technology. Too become sustainable we must transition to renewable resources and improve the efficiency of our systems.

This shift provides emphasis on:

  • Reducing consumption
  • Demand-side management
  • Developing and applying low emissions technologies
  • Using the right infrastructure
  • Viewing the region as one integrated system.

Reducing Consumption

The ecological systems which support the Auckland region are finite. Sustainable development requires us to create prosperity and well-being within these ecological limits. This means:

  • Developing alternatives to non-renewable resources and managing renewable resources to ensure they can naturally replenish.
  • Minimising pollution and waste and ensuring that the flow of life-supporting services from ecological systems are maintained and increased .
  • Radically improving resource productivity through transformations in design, technologies and processes to ‘create more with less'.

Demand-Side Management

By using demand-side management (DSM) we can significantly reduce our resource requirements and improve resilience to the impacts of price shocks. DSM usually focuses on public education, market adjustments and improved efficiencies in products and services. DSM can radically change supply solutions and mainstream new technologies. In developing DSM strategies, institutional factors need to be addressed such as developers seeking low initial costs through inefficient design, with high energy bills being met later by home owners.

Developing and Applying Low Emissions Technologies

Too often high quality utilities are used where lower quality resources could suffice. For example, using treated water which meets NZ drinking standards to flush toilets or to water gardens when ‘grey' water could fulfil the same purpose. Structural adjustments will be needed to facilitate greater alignment through building codes, infrastructure and building design and investment.

Using the Right Infrastructure

In some situations, centralising infrastructure and systems can be the most appropriate response to unsustainable activity. However, this approach suffers several critical disadvantages when compared to more localised systems:

  • Increased distribution costs
  • Less resilience
  • Less flexibility in meeting local needs.

By using the right scale of infrastructure and systems, we can maximise the benefit attained from the activity while minimising the effects on the environment.

Viewing the region as one integrated system

Instead of thinking of the urban environment as a collection of separate functions, cities can be designed as urban ecological systems where the outputs of one activity provide the resources for the next. For example, the heat loss from industry can be captured to power neighbouring facilities or communities.