Abstract

The conference preamble suggests that sustainability decision making needs to be situated in the context of longer, broader and deeper views. Decision making is indeed at the centre of sustainability outcomes, and a fundamental requirement of good decision making is a process that ensures the holistic consideration of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social well-being alluded to above in terms of the need for broader views. <p> The fourfold base line for sustainability assessment in Aotearoa New Zealand legislation is based on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social well-being which has its limitations when interpreted within the contemporary context of economic rationalism dominating Western World decision making. More and more, economic rationalism is driving political expediency that over-values monetary based performance indicators. The decision making outcomes in such a context tend to be short-sighted and narrow, continuing the historic debasement and exploitation of ecosystems, cultures, and societies. </p><p> A new decision making framework known as the Mauri Model integrates the intrinsic value of ecosystems, hapū (tribes), whanau (families), and communities using the indigenous concept of mauri as the performance metric across all four sustainability dimensions. The Mauri Model has produced equally valid outcomes from workshops involving indigenous communities and professional engineers with strong agreement regarding the sustainability of common western engineering approaches such as wastewater reticulation. This workshop presents recent research outcomes and demonstrates the surprising alignment of thinking that can result from groups with diverse perspectives when using the Mauri Model decision making framework.</p>