CLIENT: AUCKLAND COUNCIL
Developing a regional plan that addresses ‘illegal dumping’ through the understanding of causal factors using human-centred design
PROJECT CONTEXT
This project was a collaboration between Auckland Council and other local agencies determined to understand the nature of illegal dumping by people. It’s a problem worth solving given that 1000+ tonnes of rubbish is dumped annually by Aucklanders, costing the council a huge one million dollars to clean up each year. In design terms, it’s a ‘wicked problem’- a complex, social problem that is hard to define and solve, involving numerous stakeholders and has high environmental, social and financial costs.
PROJECT PROCESS
Nicola was brought on board during her time at Council to lead the project given her experience of social innovation, wicked problems and co-design. The diverse project team based themselves in South Auckland, allowing immersion into the community and its people. We time-boxed the project to 12 weeks, planning core activities and identifying clear deliverables at each stage.
The Discover phase involved hitting the streets and talking to those who dumped rubbish, the kaitiaki of the land in the community as well as Council employees tasked with policing ‘hot spots’ and the removal of rubbish. We wanted to deeply understand the range of factors that contributed to the behaviour of illegal dumping by listening to the stories of our participants.
The Define phase consisted of the analysis and synthesis of our research resulting in a set of How Might We statements as a pre-cursor to the Develop and Deliver phases. We facilitated several co-design, ideation workshops within the community - participants included whānau and their tamariki, established Waste groups, community experts and Council. This collaboration resulted in several ideas being implemented immediately, with others falling into the longer-term regional plan.
PROJECT OUTPUTS
The impact of the design outputs for this project continue to have an impact several years later:
-
Personas that captured the essence of those who dumped rubbish illegally - their behaviours and the reasons behind these, their unmet needs as well as new insights. The personas became a tool used by many groups within and outside of Council
-
How Might Statements used in co-design, ideation workshops that enabled community and Council to solve the complexity of the problem
-
11 initiatives were identified across the system (from prevention to enforcement) to reduce illegal dumping and increase community responsibility. Some initiatives were specific to South Auckland whilst others addressed dumping at both a local and regional level
-
We immediately established an 0800 # for people who were on the verge of dumping rubbish to call, offering support and help
-
We engaged the community in a highly successful marketing campaign with whānau featuring in a set of stunning posters depicting their lives and love for their environment
-
Collaboration between multiple agencies and Council was increased to bring about change based on our findings
The project team physically located themselves in the South Auckland community with a dedicated space for co-design and walk throughs with stakeholders. Here, we are unpacking the user stories to deeply understand the problem of illegal dumping using the the categories of Surprises, Tensions and Contradictions.
One of five posters created for a marketing campaign through co-design with South Auckland communities - featuring whānau who were kaitiaki of the land.
The project’s findings and design outputs are captured in a single document for our diverse stakeholders. It provides the intent or rationale for the project up front followed by a summary of the different stages of the co-design process - Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.