More than 350 delegates across government, business, iwi, academia, and civil society gathered for three days of frank, future-focused conversation on aligning economic systems with ecological realities. 

Unlike Antony Viles’s fantastic report a few weeks ago, on the NZGBC annual Housing Summit, where he rightly states that architects need no introduction to the NZGBC, I’d say that the majority of our profession requires one for EDS. Let me take a moment to introduce you to this compelling and much-needed organisation.

EDS was founded in 1971 as a think-tank and legal advocacy group for the environment. Led now by Gary Taylor, it works tirelessly for all our benefit to hold government and business to account and influence and challenge the law when it is found wanting. All to enable good environmental practice to prevail. As part of this, it prepares research reports, makes submissions, organises webinars and runs conferences.

In mid-May, I attended its 20th annual two-day conference, Dollars and Sense: making the economy work for nature. It saddened me when it was claimed by a student who approached me that I was the only architect in the room. I have yet to verify this, but I did not see any fellow architects lurking amongst the other 349 delegates.

Over the two days, much ground was covered and on a variety of discussions on climate change, energy, biodiversity, freshwater, land use, infrastructure, environmental law reform and the green economy (The full programme can be seen here). I will do my best to capture the essence of these two jam-packed informative days, particularly focussing on topics that are of key importance to architects and those they serve.

The day opened with a contextual sobering exploration of critical global threats from Chief Scientist of UNEP Andrea Hinwood and Professor of Law, Alexander Gillespie – covering geopolitical, world trade, and the polycrises – including up-to-date climate research and the impacts on planetary health; with nuclear winters again on the table. Well worth listening to the recordings of these sessions, they are now publicly available on the EDS Vimeo channel, you can watch these here.

After bolstering ourselves with hot beverages from the aftershocks of that session we dived into Session 2: Greening the economy. The European Union Ambassador to New Zealand was a soothing balm against the flow of other governments around the world, including our own weakening commitments, as he reassured us of Europe’s ongoing commitment towards carbon net zero. Overall, a key message was, that we cannot have long-term growth without a healthy planet and if we do it right there is money to be made in actively pursuing a green economy. And if you want an up-to-date Government report on our environment, check out the recently released ‘Our Environment 2025‘ and ‘Going with the Grain‘ reports. 

A particular value of the EDS conferences is the regular attendance of Ministers of the day fronting up and speaking. As part of the lineup, we had a political update from Chris Bishop, the Minister responsible for RMA reform, and his Under-Secretary Simon Court. This was followed by a panel discussion with Simon Court, and the Environment spokespeople, Rachel Brooking for Labour and Lan Pham for the Green Party. Whilst they and we can all agree that the RMA is well due for a reform, what we heard from the Minister and his Under-Secretary is of concern. The key concerns will be how they define private property rights, and splitting the RMA into two statutes for ‘planning’ and ‘environment’ which only seems to be problematic, especially when 87% of us in New Zealand live in urban areas. We need to include nature in our planning otherwise we will further exacerbate the rising costs of flooding, heat sinks and other factors occurring due to climate change.

Over the two days, the Government and its continuing churn of repeals to Acts, National Standards and infrastructure decisions were also debated and challenged, with a strong consensus in the room for the need to change this costly and exhausting current system. One strong suggestion that took root was that an overarching ‘elder’ government be created that provided the long-term vision and direction of the country to which the government of the day enabled.

Another session worth noting was the urban and infrastructure session that focussed on the economics of urban areas and how the natural environment can support thriving and safe urban places. Patrick McVeigh, Technical Director, Beca and Global Fellow of The Business of Cities provided a great summary of why cities are important but also the challenges such as increased inequality and congestion they face. Alyson Hutton, Managing Planning Policy for Queenstown Lakes District Council backed up his comments with the issues they face in Queenstown. George Weeks, Principal Urban Designer at Auckland Council provided a clear, engaging and brilliant case study of linking transport and urban development in Auckland.  If you ever need help in that department, he would be a great person to contact.

In summary, the over-arching message from the conference was that nature is not a handbrake on economic growth. The two can go hand in hand and now more than ever we need to do so. As the EDS conference summary noted, “We are in a moment of accelerating risk, but we are not without options. The challenge is having the courage to take them.” Hope to see more of you at the next conference.