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Formative, a new independent consultancy, offers impact assessment, research and analysis services across a range of sectors.  
Massey University offers a professional Master’s of the Sustainable Development Goals and a Master’s in International Development
The Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge is focusing on improving the quality and supply of housing and creating smart and attractive urban environments and thriving regions. 
A land transport system connecting people, products and places for a thriving Aotearoa

Wednesday 30 November

Climate Resilient Development: A just and inclusive approach to wellbeing and sustainability

Bronwyn Hayward

Bronwyn Hayward (MNZM) is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury, and Director of The Sustainable Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research group. Her research focuses on the intersection of sustainable development, youth, climate change and citizenship.  Bronwyn is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR6 report (cities & infrastructure) and was a lead author for the 2018 Special Report on 1.5 (Sustainable development & Poverty eradication). She is also a co-primary investigator with the University of Surrey's Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and was named ‘Supreme winner’ of the 2021 Westpac/NZ Suff media: Women of Influence and Environment Awards. 

Wellbeing frameworks and impact assessment 

Using Treasury’s Living Standards Framework for policy options assessment: learnings so far

Tim Ng
Te Tai Ōhanga, Treasury

Tim Ng is a Strategic Economic Adviser at the New Zealand Treasury, and was previously Chief Economist. His role is to provide strategic vision and leadership to the Treasury on economic and fiscal policy. Tim is a macroeconomist with extensive experience in monetary, fiscal and financial system policy. Prior to joining the Treasury, Tim worked at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, at the Bank for International Settlements and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He studied economics and biochemistry at the University of Auckland, and economics at Victoria University of Wellington.
He Ara Waiora: charting pathways to wellbeing through te ao Māori perspectives

Phil Evans 
​Te Tai Ōhanga, Treasury

Phil has worked as senior policy advisor within the Public Service over a career of 25 years, which has encompassed a wide variety of kaupapa, from social development to the development of the Maihi Karauna strategy for Māori language revitalisation. Many of these roles have involved the development of performance monitoring approaches and the measurement of impact. In his current role he is supporting the implementation of He Ara Waiora in the advice of Te Tai Ōhanga (The Treasury). Phil is motivated to build a strong foundation for future generations to thrive in Aotearoa. Outside work, he enjoys whānau time, is involved with the rebuild of his ancestral marae in Taranaki, and is a published creative writer. He affiliates to Ngāti Mutunga and Kāi Tahu iwi.
Developing a framework to assess the impacts of land use change - Using the wellbeing indicators

Caroline Saunders 
Distinguished Professor, ONZM FRSNZ
AERU, Lincoln University 

Caroline's research focus is sustainable wellbeing (social, economic, environmental and cultural) and measuring the impacts of land use change. This includes increasing primary sector export returns, capturing greater value from global value chains and analysing the value given by consumers to different credence attributes ranging from conservation benefits of disease control to environmentally ‘cleaner’ and more sustainable production. 
Caroline undertakes research for a wide range of private and public bodies both in NZ and overseas. These include the EU commission, DEFRA, FAO,
OECD, MAF, MFAT, Treasury, MFE, MBIE, NZTE, Fonterra, MOT, Beef and Lamb and various other industries and sector groups.

​Caroline is a Crown appointee on the Board of Landcare Research and a member of the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee. Caroline was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009, the NZIER Economist of the Year in 2007 and made a Fellow of The Royal Society of New Zealand in 2021.

Integrating wellbeing, sustainability and impact assessment perspectives in policy making 

Critical Tiriti Analysis - An approach to strengthening public policy 

Heather Came
Auckland University of Technology

*Dominic O'Sullivan is a co-author of this paper. 
Associate Professor Heather Came is a seventh generation Pākehā New Zealander. Her background is in public health and social justice activism. She works at Auckland University of Technology. Her research focuses on critical policy analysis, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, anti-racism and institutional racism in the health sector. As an activist scholar Heather is a founding member and co-chair of STIR: Stop Institutional Racism has prepared evidence for Waitangi Tribunal, has presented to United Nations human rights committees and established the Decol 2020 series of virtual anti-racism gatherings. She was a joint winner of 2021 Kāhui Hauora Tūmatanui Public Health Champion Award and in 2022 was the winner of the AUT VC Individual Teaching Excellence Award.
Wellbeing and sustainability - Can the Sustainable Development Goals be used in Impact Assessment to help New Zealand navigate to a sustainable future? 

Lin Roberts 
Lincoln University

Lin Roberts is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Environment, Society and Design at Lincoln University. Her focus is pathways to a sustainable future, exploring the changes needed in paradigms, economic models, value systems, institutions, behaviour and action competence to achieve systems redesign, and decision-making that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Her recent research explores the connections between nature and wellbeing in New Zealand, how our concepts of persons as independent or interdependent affect personal and planetary wellbeing, and adaptation to climate and other disruptions.

Previously she has worked as a DSIR scientist, a senior manager at Ministry for the Environment, a sustainability consultant, and served on the Environmental Risk Management Authority and on an International Expert Panel on Trade and Sustainable Development. Recently she served on the Steering group for the 2020-2021 NZ SDG Summit.
Embracing the past, present and future of wellbeing data to assess and measure impact for better decision making 

Erina Hurihanganui and Malcolm Mersham 
​Trust Tairāwhiti

Erina Hurihanganui has led the development and design of He Rangitapu He Tohu Ora,  a Wellbeing Framework for Trust Tairāwhiti based in Gisborne. 
 
The Trust focuses on regional development and  is now in the phase of operationalising He Rangitapu He Tohu Ora. They have used the framework to create their strategic plan and priorities to 2026. They are currently developing a set of impact indicators and measures based on the activities they do and intend to do  – to actually see if they are making a difference to the wellbeing of their communities. 
 
The evolution of He Rangitapu He Tohu Ora and its impact assessment design has been an iterative journey for the Trust.  Operationalising the framework (which began late December 2020) has unfolded the complexities involved in the creation of a wellbeing framework and then the actual assessment of wellbeing impact against it. 
 
Malcolm Mersham joined Erina and the He Rangitapu He Tohu Ora team to help operationalise the framework, by developing systems of knowledge & data capabilities to capture the measures, activities and outcomes of He Rangitapu He Tohu Ora. Prior to joining Malcolm was part of the economic development team at Trust Tairāwhiti.

Critical perspectives: assessing the impacts of policy making and strategic actions on wellbeing 

Beyond Risk 

Jack Krohn 
DELWP, Victoria State Government

Jack has worked in environmental planning and assessment in the Victorian public service since the 1980s, and is currently a Senior Impact Assessor in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.  He has presented at several EIANZ and International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) conferences and at various EIANZ seminars and webinars.  He has worked on assessments across many sectors under the Victorian Environment Effects Act 1978, including quarries, mines, road and rail projects, wind farms and other energy projects and coastal infrastructure projects.  With Tanya Burdett, Jack co-chaired an interactive session on uncertainty at EIANZ's 2021 annual conference.
Implementing national policies for housing intensification in Porirua City - impacts on urban form, sustainability and wellbeing 

Stewart McKenzie 
Porirua City Council

​Stewart is a planner with 22-years’ experience across an extensive range of planning and related disciplines. He spent the first 7-years of his career with MWH in Wellington, before working in Edinburgh and London for 7-years. He worked for Scottish Water during this time, and as a contractor for various London Boroughs and the Mayor of London’s Office where he advised on transport, sustainability and urban regeneration projects. More recently he has been a principal planner and project manager for Waka Kotahi in the Wellington Region, principal RMA advisor for Wellington Water, and since 2019 Manager of City Planning at Porirua City Council where he has overseen the development of the Proposed District Plan.
 
Stewart and his team at Porirua are at the coal face of implementing a range of National and Regional Policy through their Proposed District Plan, including housing intensification required by the RMA-EHS.   Stewart will provide unique context and insight with regard to implementation of the RMA-EHS, including how the range of impacts resulting from housing intensification are to be managed through the Proposed District Plan.
National-scale pest eradication requires greater understanding and integration of multiple impacts

Duane Peltzer 
Manaaki Whenua, Landcare Research

Duane Peltzer is Principal Scientist of Ecosystem Ecology at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, and Chief Scientist of New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho. Understanding changes to ecosystems in Aotearoa New Zealand usually means learning about the crucial impacts of biological invaders and other drivers of global change on ecosystem processes. Major collaborative and cross-disciplinary efforts to improve landscape-scale management feature across Duane’s work, including research into the impacts of wilding conifers, considered by many as New Zealand’s worst weed problem, and involvement in ambitious efforts to make New Zealand predator free by 2050.

Thursday 1 December

Developing models of Indigenous-led environmental health risk assessment

Dr. Diana Lewis

Dr. Diana (Dee) Lewis, a member of the Sipekne’katik Mi’kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia, is an Assistant Professor appointed to the Department of Geography, Environment & Geomatics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Lewis’ research interests are to foster a wider understanding of Indigenous worldviews, and how Indigenous worldviews must inform environmental decisions, specifically as they are impacted by resource or industrial development. Dr. Lewis is a strong advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous-led decision-making. She now works with Indigenous communities across Canada to develop an Indigenous-led environmental health risk assessment approach.

Communities and integrated policy development practice 

People-centred policy and practice -  integrating health and equity thinking into IA

Kia Silvennoinen
​​​Manatū Hauora, Ministry of Health

​Kia is a Senior Policy Advisor in the recently established Public Health Agency. Her work focusses on the intersection of urban environments and their implications on public health, wellbeing, and equity. Originally hailing from Helsinki, Finland, she relocated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018 and has been working at Manatū Hauora since. During her studies at Lund University (Sweden) and Utrecht University (the Netherlands), Kia specialised in international development, human geography and spatial planning. She is particularly passionate about how planning and design tools can be used for sustainable health and environmental outcomes. In her talk Kia will elaborate how health and equity thinking in impact assessments is useful for ensuring people-centred planning, policy and practice. 
Creating an implementation learning system: early experiments to shape wellbeing policy

Penny Hagen
​Auckland Co-design Lab

Penny assists organisations, teams and communities to take a systems-orientated approach to wellbeing. Working across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Penny has supported cross-sector teams and communities to respond to complex social issues by connecting policy and evidence to the lived realities and aspirations of communities. Penny has a PhD in participatory design and her work integrates approaches from wellbeing, health, design, youth development, systems, and evaluation disciplines. Penny is currently Director Tangata Tiriti, co-lead of the Auckland Co-design Lab alongside Angie Tangaere Kaitohu Tangata Whenua. In addition to co-leading the Lab mahi on design for equity and intergenerational wellbeing, Penny is the design representative on the Ministry for Social Development Ethics committee, on the Understanding Police Delivery Independent Panel, and Ngā Aho Kaupapa Whānau. She is a strong advocate of social design and ethics practices that are of Aotearoa, supporting events and forums that develop and strengthen local practice and networks.

Creating positive social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing outcomes in development and planning 

From Policy to Practice - Waka Kotahi’s Sustainability & Social Outcomes Journey 

Rebekah Pokura-Ward and Julie Boucher  
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency

Rebekah is a Principal Sustainability and Social Specialist at Waka Kotahi/NZTA where she leads social and sustainability outcomes across policy, programmes and projects. She is qualified in environmental science and law with 20+ years’ experience in the private and more recently the public sectors.
 
A key role is leading Waka Kotahi’s sustainability certification programme (ISC and Greenroads) - providing an internationally recognised framework for projects to achieve sustainability certification across the social, environmental, cultural and economic sustainability spectrum.
 
Rebekah is a member of the EIANZ Specialist Environmental Advisory Committee (SEAC) which has worked to develop the CEnvP Social Impact Assessment Practitioner Certification Scheme.
 
Outside work Rebekah is taxi to her teenage son’s surf lifesaving and waterpolo activities and has recently returned to karate and the Auckland Ukulele Orchestra which in her words she is “very average at best” but enjoys immensely.

Julie is a Principal Social Sustainability and Planning Consultant at Just Add Lime with qualifications in environmental planning and project management and over 20 years experience in engagement, planning, project management and social impact assessment in New Zealand and Australia.
 
For the past almost 15 years Julie specialised in community engagement and the development and delivery of social impact assessment and management for the infrastructure and resources sector engaging with landholders, community members and key stakeholders.
 
Julie is also one of only 3 NZ licensed IAP2 Trainers, delivering training to engagement practitioners across New Zealand and Australia, both in classroom and online. More recently Julie has been a member of the Specialist Environmental Advisory Committee (SEAC) which has worked to develop the recently launched CEnvP SIA Certification Scheme.
 
Outside work Julie spends most of the time enjoying ‘beach life’ in south- east Auckland, kayaking in summer and pretending she is a gun mountain biker on her e-MTB.
Community-centric freshwater policy making: Implications for s32 assessment

Richard Sheild 
Greater Wellington Regional Council

Richard is a policy planner who specialises in regional planning. He leads the development of Greater Wellington Regional Council’s regulatory policy for water allocation, which aims to help turn community and Mana Whenua aspirations for freshwater into reality over the long-term.
Space and place in the assessment of policies and plans adapting to natural hazards 

Rebecca Foy 
Formative

Rebecca has over 20 years’ experience consulting on a range of demographic, economic, social impact, and resource management projects.  She has a background in geography and uses spatial analysis and GIS in many of her assessments.  She has a professional interest in the social effects of management practices in the fields of natural hazards, urban transformation, climate change, transportation, and freshwater policy.  She also has lengthy experience in assessing retail impacts, housing markets, urban and rural form, and strategic and planning policies.  Rebecca co-founded an independent consultancy, Formative, in 2021, which delivers high quality assessment and clear communication of a range of social, environmental, and economic issues.

Concurrent professional development workshops

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) - a tool for better policy and plan-making 

Richard Morgan

Richard Morgan is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Geography, University of Otago. He has been involved in impact assessment research, training and consulting for more than 40 years, and has published many research papers, chapters and books on impact assessment theory and practice. Richard’s interests range across all areas of impact assessment, from biophysical and ecological, to social, cultural and health considerations; and at all levels of decision-making, from policies to projects. He helped to establish, and is a trainer on, the IAIA online training course on environmental impact assessment, and has worked with international organisations in the Pacific and South and East Asia to promote and support impact assessment capability. The current chair of the New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment, Richard was President of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in 2004, and received the IAIA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

Nick Taylor 

​Nick Taylor has broad experience applying social research to projects, programmes, policy and plans in New Zealand and internationally.  He was a founding director of Taylor Baines & Associates and is now an independent researcher and consultant, working on strategic and project social impact assessments.  His recent work includes land and water plans, community regeneration strategies, predator control, irrigation development, aggregate mining and hydro-electricity.  He taught EIA at Lincoln University and is a Past President of the IAIA. Nick and Mike Mackay recently published guidelines on social impact assessment for NZ practitioners.
Infrastructure Sustainability Rating Scheme – driving outcomes across the full life cycle

Dr. Kerry Griffiths
Infrastructure Sustainability Council 

​Dr Kerry Griffiths is the IS Technical Director at the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC), a member-based, purpose-led peak body working to enable sustainability outcomes in infrastructure – through the IS Rating Scheme, capacity building, thought leadership and advocacy. Kerry leads the delivery of the ISC’s technical workplan and continuous improvement programme.
 
Kerry is well versed in infrastructure sustainability and has many years of experience in this field, having worked as a Technical Director Sustainability at AECOM and URS. She has extensive experience in sustainability assessment and performance management, and has been instrumental in delivery of positive sustainability outcomes on several iconic infrastructure projects.  In 2019, Kerry completed her PhD on how to enhance sustainability outcomes through the use of sustainability rating tools in infrastructure.