Insights/Opinion – Sustainable Cities: The Role of Governance for Greater Innovations

Abstract

Tackling future demands and challenges requires a paradigm shift in urban governance and planning. It is no longer sufficient for cities to strive for sustainability, minimize environmental losses and repair damaged systems. Instead, cities will need to shift toward maximizing ecological gains such as restoring ecosystems and moving toward self-sustaining and self-restorative development that improve both human and planetary health. In an increasingly uncertain world where cities undergo rapid changes economically, environmentally, politically and socially, the role of strong urban governance is important to encourage innovations for sustainable cities while balancing the interests of various stakeholders and managing any risks or trade-offs in the process. This paper provides insights on three key urban governance strategies that can lead to sustainability at systems level: scaling up solutions through partnership and business model innovation; tracking performance through a multi-stakeholder local-level governance approach; and integrating front-end design and procurement with back-end data-driven operation processes.