The New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics was established in 2004 to provide techniques to help decision-makers in communities, industry and government work together to achieve sustainable outcomes. Research projects currently underway include analysing and minimising energy and material flows in the primary sector, which is important for sustainability in New Zealand as much of the country’s economic activity is land based. Another major project focuses on realizing sustainable cities. Once the biophysical functioning of cities in New Zealand is understood the objective is to provide a wider socio-economic framework for developing city and regional scenarios to better inform decision-makers of the options available for decoupling of economic growth and social progress from environmental harm.
