Sustainable development processes

The NZ2100 model provides the basis for an ecosystem approach for achieving sustainable development. In general, an ecosystem approach would have the following elements:

• Defining the boundaries of the area of concern, clarifying the agendas of the principal participants, and high level issues to be addressed
• Gathering information on the historical ecosystem and the present economic, environmental, and social conditions and trends, and building understanding
• Identifying stakeholders and associated perspectives on the situation, including their conflicting aims
• Identifying issues, assembling information on possible solutions, and creating alternative visions for the future, from the perspective of various stakeholder groups, firstly qualitatively with stakeholders, then increasingly quantitatively drawing on resources available for research and modelling, with clarity on tradeoffs
• Debating the alternative futures, and producing a common vision, and designing an implementation plan including provision for collaborative learning
• Implementing the plan, including resolving priorities and responsibilities, and establishing institutional arrangements and policies
• Monitoring and evaluating implementation and associated outcomes, including selecting indicators and resolving responsibilities for measurement, information management, interpretation and subsequent action and adaptive responses.

The greatest benefit in use of NZ2100, and KiwiGrow, is that, because it is universal and scale-independent, it underpins an ecosystem approach to sustainable development. So, a region or city, or a large catchment is envisaged as a mosaic of ecosystems, each of which can be managed to achieve sustainable development using KiwiGrow™.

Achieving changes in complex systems

The essentials of the ecosystem approach have been available for many years, but the approach has not yet provided the basis for an "epidemic of change" leading to sustainable development. It can be argued that this is because there has been no easily understood management framework that can be replicated through the community, and the ecosystem approach, if implemented rigorously, is information intensive and demands significant effort to explore the systems under consideration, and develop visions and action plans.

Even without the additional requirement for research and learning, planning processes can be expensive and time consuming. While the steps of an ecosystem approach are eminently reasonable, implementing them will always be difficult in circumstances that may involve multiple political jurisdictions, short time frames dictated by electoral and planning cycles, and other economic and infrastructure imperatives. Particularly when large areas and populations are involved, the complexity of the interacting issues is often so great that single issue, unsustainable responses are always liable to emerge. Different agendas emerge throughout the community, supposedly all aligned to the idea of sustainable development.

Without embarking on a treatise on strategic management, there are three ways that change is achieved - from the top down, through firm enlightened leadership; from the bottom up, through smaller initiatives that have bought into and understand the wider goal; and, thirdly, through a combination of these two. The KiwiGrow™ approach supports all of these, through being comprehensive, easily communicated, and easily replicated.

Cultivating a Sustainability Language

Firm, enlightened leadership may be seen as a key requirement in overcoming problems in managing complex systems. However, more important is development of a sustainability value-base that infuses decision-making behaviour within the community. Such a value-base minimises conflicts and makes planning much more straightforward. Traditionally, it would be expected to develop, over time, through involvement in and exposure to successful sustainability projects, and through formal education programmes. However community-wide advancement, almost as a mantra, of a universally-relevant, easily understood language and management framework such as NZ2100, has the potential to significantly accelerate establishment of the sustainability value-base, and the processes for developing strategies aligned to those values. KiwiGrow™ and NZ2100 can be applied informally, by small groups and organisations, or using sophisticated information management and decision tools accessible to larger agencies and organisations. Thus, a "common sustainability language" can underpin debates about outcomes, processes, and tradeoffs, help to overcome expertise and policy "silos", promote values convergence, and support self-sustaining sustainability initiatives throughout the community.

Businesses are always seeking better ways to improve company performance. Small businesses can take the basic NZ2100 framework and use it in a qualitative way to improve their strategic and tactical thinking. Larger businesses can easily adopt NZ2100 as a basis for company visioning and planning, and sustainability reporting, complementing or replacing business and organisation reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative that do not encourage so much insight and sharp focus on key issues relevant to local and individual business sustainability. All of this helps to build up an infrastructure of shared values and purpose.