Have you been involved in a landscape architecture positive climate action project implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand? The Tuia Pito Ora NZILA Climate Action Working Group is keen to hear from you.

Practices and individual members are invited to express their interest in contributing a climate action case study to the Climate Change Guidelines website, sharing knowledge and experience with the wider profession and community.

Why case studies matter

Discussion over priorities and opportunities for climate action is becoming a regular feature in the media. As landscape architects, our practice options are framed by public policy and focused on regions, projects, places and communities.

In a presentation to a Parliamentary Select Committee on behalf of our Institute, Matthew Bradbury highlighted the potential contribution that landscape architects can make to climate action through approaches such as ‘nature-based solutions’. Our opportunity is to help translate this into practice.

Case studies are an effective way to describe and explain the opportunities and potential of positive climate action focused on landscape and whenua. They are also a great way to share knowledge and experience across our membership.

How to contribute

The Climate Action Working Group has developed guidelines on how to effectively communicate the essential features of a positive climate action project and has set up a process to identify and peer review potential cases that will be of broad value and effectively represent our profession.

Practices and individual members are invited to express their interest in contributing a climate action case study to the Climate Change Guidelines website.

An EOI (expression of interest) will include:

• A summary description of the project
• Its outcomes
• The lessons learnt

The Climate Action Working Group will review the description against the guideline and our knowledge of best practice. Based on the review, we will invite contributions of complete cases.

The full case format will be set out in a second guideline. It is an expanded but still concise template based on the initial expression of interest.

Three guiding principles

It is important to highlight three aspects of the guidelines and the integration of cases into the website.

Whilst the need for climate action is urgent, we are looking both to the past and future in the actions we support members to take.

1. A Taiao-centric, Te Tiriti-responsive perspective
The Working Group has a kaupapa to frame the climate action resource from a Taiao-centric, Te Tiriti-responsive perspective.

For example, where relevant, we seek information on how a proposed case effectively engaged with Mana Whenua.

We believe adopting such an indigenous-led approach will result in a distinctively Aotearoa-derived resource that will add significantly to the existing body of positive climate action knowledge internationally.

2. Learning from experience
We intend the knowledge embedded in the climate action resource to be cumulative and therefore encourage reflection on lessons learnt from a project and what could be done differently in future projects.

No project is ever perfect, and we learn most from our mistakes, so we encourage contributors to be part of a collective learning process.

3. Sharing knowledge widely
We ask that the knowledge, skills and experience of our profession that are represented in the case study reports be presented in a way that can be made widely available.

The guidelines ask for the IP/copyright status of case study material to be explained.

Ideally, it would be presented in a form that can be published under a Creative Commons licence (see notes on the guideline templates), but we also respect that contributors may require some images or sensitive content to have more specific protection, and this can be indicated on the EOI.

Can you help us?

The Climate Action Working Group is excited about the potential of a collective climate action resource and seeks your support.

If you have suggestions for case reports or would like to express your interest in contributing a case study, please complete the Call for Climate Action Case Studies form. If you have any questions, please email admin@nzila.co.nz.