Roundtables with Stakeholders on our Urban 10-Year Plan

On 13 and 20 September, Future Earth Australia convened roundtables in Canberra and Sydney to revise our draft of the Urban Systems Transformation Plan (working title) with stakeholders working on urban sustainability and governance across the private, government and not-for-profit sectors.

The Urban Systems Transformation Plan is due for launch in late November 2019.

The Plan looks at how we can improve collaboration, undertake deep citizen and stakeholder input into urban governance and ultimately, how we can harness urban systems to create more liveable cities for people.

With the majority of Australians living in urban areas, cities must be the kind of habitat which facilitate healthy, happy and connected people and communities. If Australia is to be a sustainable country, cities must be leveraged – as economic and social nodes – to generate less waste and use less resources. They must facilitate creation of good jobs and connect people with quality working opportunities on an ongoing basis.

The Urban Systems Transformation Plan has come as a result of workshops around the country and interviews with expert stakeholders working in the urban sphere. The Plan will give a roadmap for government, private sector, philanthropy and civil society to make cities a driver for Australia’s active undertaking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals at a domestic, local level.

In Canberra, attendees included government officials, scientific and university representatives such as RMIT, ANU and CSIRO, governance peak bodies such as the Planning Institute of Australia and the Australian Local Government Association.

In Sydney, metropolitan and regional representatives such as the Greater Sydney Commission, National Growth Areas Alliance and the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils contributed. Private sector representatives included the Urban Development Institute of Australia, the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia and the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council.

Incorporating the perspectives of actors across the spectrum of urban work, the roundtables were invaluable in helping us to shape changes to our Plan. The high level of agreement on systemic barriers to improvement of cities was testament to the need to transform the way the cities are planned and governed, how we work together, and what the can achieved in terms of carbon abatement and resource use improvement, and how we can put people at the centre of our infrastructure.

We would like to give special thanks to Lendlease who hosted our Sydney roundtable and to all attendees who made the time to assist in this process.

Stay tuned for updates on the launch of our Urban Plan!