Celebrating World Town Planning Day!

Today (8 November) is World Town Planning Day, a major yearly milestone for planners the world over. It brings planners and communities together to celebrate how good planning improves the lives of people and benefits society at large, creating places to live, work and play.

This year’s theme is Learn Globally, Apply Locally. This theme focuses on the value of learning from planning and planning cultures globally, fostering innovative, sustainable and equitable solutions to address global challenges. One of the most significant of these global challenges is, of course, addressing climate change and recognising the role planners and the planning profession can play in tackling this.  

PIA is a member of the Global Planners Network and their 74th World Town Planning Day Statement is a powerful reiteration of the importance of planning.

"Every person and community in the world today is threatened by a deepening climate and biodiversity emergency, compounded by conflicts, the pressures of demographic and other societal change and the continuing legacy of the pandemic. The Global Planners Network calls for urgent action to stop any further irreversible degradation of the natural world and adverse impacts on communities globally before the window for action closes."  

Our Australian communities are no stranger to bearing the brunt of the global climate emergency. PIA is proud to be advocating for change in our approach to ensure our spaces and places are resilient and able to stand the test of time for generations to come.  

Over the past year our work has continued on the PIA National Climate Change Campaign across all states and territories, which now includes the recently released Achieving Net-Zero: An enabling role for planning report.  

There is much more to be done, and PIA will continue to advocate at all levels to ensure planners have the resources and support required to support their communities in creating a resilient and sustainable future for all.  

On this World Town Planning Day we want to thank you for your passion and dedication to shaping Australia’s enviable communities, spaces, and places. PIA is proud to recognise and celebrate all planners across Australia, today and every day!

Celebrating on socials

We thought there was no better way to celebrate planners than to highlight a few of those doing the hard work on the ground. We asked a few of our members what they love most about planning. Head to our post here or below to see what they had to say!