Shift 8

Integrate Thinking, Planning, Investment and Action

Optimise Auckland's social, cultural, environmental and economic opportunities by taking an integrated approach to thinking, planning, investment and action.

Understanding the interdependencies between various parts in society is a key concept of sustainable development. It acknowledges the complexity and interdependence of the real world. Moving towards an integrated approach of thinking, planning, investment and action will require a changed mindset and the use of new concepts, tools and processes.

This shift provides emphasis on:

  • Working collaboratively
  • Planning more efficiently
  • Creating multi-functionality
  • Recognising there are no linear futures.

Working Collaboratively

Governments, stakeholders and communities are increasingly working collaboratively. Processes continue to be developed to enable different disciplines, functions and interests to come together to better define problems and solutions. How we operate organisations needs to change to increase collaboration and integration.

Planning More Efficiently

Harnessing economies of scope - spreading overhead capital across a multitude of uses and activities - is likely to become a key challenge for organising cities in the future. Distributed networked systems will become more important for manufacturing, infrastructure and governance. They will also lead to increasing de-centralisation and complexity, where small-scale activities in a mixed use environment become commonplace and large-scale ‘one size fits all' solutions become less common.

Creating Multi-Functionality

Creating multi-functionality can optimise outcomes and minimise resource depletion and expense. This requires collaboration and lateral thinking. For example, at a regional scale Auckland could develop a natural network throughout city, suburban and rural areas to provide a wide range of benefits including; ecological corridors, recreational areas, the greening of the city and suburbs, walk and bikeways, water catchments protection and green infrastructure. At a local scale, one small part of that network could also be developed for environmental education for a neighbouring school and a community garden for local residents. Alternatively the infrastructure and institutional development required to run an international event can be planned and implemented to provide a legacy of physical, economic and social benefits to the region.

Recognising There Are No Linear Futures

When building scenarios or predicting trends for the future it is important to recognise that the relationships between different forces (e.g. peak oil and globalisation or peak oil and climate change) can collectively create very different scenarios than when they are considered separately. We need to be aware of all potential outcomes and work towards multi-dimensional solutions.