Dunedin City Council
"The DCC have engaged the Planetary Accounting Network to help us explore the Ecological Ceiling of the City Portrait. Kate and Gabi have been able to explain a complex idea to staff from across the organisation, answer our many and varied questions, and make us feel more confident as we develop a City Portrait for Dunedin"
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- Maxine O'Neil, DCC
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Project overview
The Dunedin City Council (DCC) is exploring the Thriving Cities Portrait which applies the theory of Doughnut Economics to the city level. Doughnut Economics aims to meet social need whilst respecting the Planetary Boundaries. PAN have been engaged to support the environmental focus of this initiative.
APPROACH
Like most local councils, the DCC are already measuring and managing many environmental impacts. As such, our support began with an in-depth stock-take of the DCCs existing strategies against the Planetary Boundaries. In parallel we facilitated a series of workshops with each of the strategy teams to educate them about the Planetary Boundaries, promote engagement, and to gain insights to feed into the stock-take and subsequent recommendations.
oUTCOMES
There is already strong alignment between the DCC strategies and the Planetary Boundaries. Ongoing work includes the refinement of environmental metrics, a preliminary assessment of Dunedin’s “Planetary Footprints”, and preliminary advice regarding evidence-based targets each.
Whether or not the DCC formally adopt the City Portrait, the work to date and ongoing activities will have lasting benefits for the DCC and for greater Dunedin. The workshops have increased staff’s environmental literacy. The updated metrics create better alignment of the DCC strategies with one another and with what is scientifically necessary for the health of the planet. They also provide a strong foundation for wider stakeholder engagement as they provide a consistent and easy to understand basis for decision-making, community engagement, and alignment of local business strategies with local council goals, and they can be contrasted and compared with other cities and regions within New Zealand and internationally
