Big ideas to transform Sydney’s environment and create a more resilient city have been shortlisted for Sydney Big Ideas, presented at the 2026 Sydney Summit. 

Now in its sixth year, the agenda-setting Sydney Summit is presented by the Committee for Sydney at ICC Sydney on February 6, in partnership with BDO, Built, Hassell, ALTRAC Light Rail, Maddocks, Ipsos and Lendlease. 

Following a public call-out for submissions, 16 bold ideas have been shortlisted across four categories with a final three set to pitch their ideas to the Sydney Summit’s audience of experts, decision makers and city leaders. 

The four shortlisted ideas to future-proof Sydney’s environment are: 

• Seascapes on Sydney Harbour 
• Ditching the power poles and wires 
• Communal composting
• Daylighting urban water systems. 

Eamon Waterford, CEO of the Committee for Sydney, said: “Climate change is having a profound impact on the way we live our lives in Sydney. Heatwaves, storms and flooding are now the norm – if we’re going to address them, we have to think outside the box. 

“Sydneysiders are nothing if not innovative and these ideas show what we can do to cool, connect and declutter our city, and make it more resilient in the future.” 

Seascapes on Sydney Harbour – William Glamore 

As sea levels increase, water in Sydney harbour will slowly flood coastal foreshores, limiting harbourside access, impacting recreational spaces and inundating built amenities. Without adaptation, mangroves on Sydney’s living foreshores will disappear and harbour linkages will go under water. 

This is already happening across the world in cities like Jakarta, Amsterdam and Venice, and without effective planning, the most prominent solution is engineering large flood defence systems that block off the tide and create disconnected and dammed waterways. Without a nature-based approach, Sydney Harbour is at risk of becoming a line of desolate concrete bunkers. 

Creating a network of floating seascapes on Sydney Harbour will mean foreshore communities can adapt to sea level rises while also providing improved harbourside linkages.  

Professor William Glamore, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW, said: “Nature-based solutions offer immeasurable benefits over large concrete infrastructure projects.  

“Think of these as floating forests that support thriving mangroves and saltmarshes, with public access routes that connect different parts of the harbour and naturally adapt to rising seas. 

“These floating seascapes would be constructed using modified pontoons and once established, would reduce wave energy, improve water quality, provide habitat for endangered species, sequester blue carbon and provide educational opportunities for the community. 

“Rising sea levels are already impacting Sydney Harbour with foreshore access limited in many places.  A floating seascape would provide a new pathway linking the city and supporting biodiversity, while also ensuring Sydney is a recognised world leader in climate adaptation and nature-based solutions.” 

Ditching the power poles and wires – Tanya Vincent

Power poles and wires are littering local streets. A dated feature in an otherwise modern country, they fail in bushfire and storm events, stop trees from growing in their natural place and almost every neighbourhood built before the 1980s has them. 

As energy demand has increased, more overhead infrastructure has been added, and, according to the Australian Energy Regulator, 83% of our nation’s more than 700,000 kilometres of distribution circuit line length is currently crisscrossing overhead. 

Undergrounding all low voltage power lines will make Sydney’s energy supply more resilient to climate events, keep streets cooler and greener and take a step towards embracing full-scale electrification.  

Tanya Vincent, Vice-President of the Urban Design Association NSW, said: “System problems need system-scale solutions, and as climate change accelerates, we will need to focus on the fundamental elements of our built environment. 

“Undergrounding power is a smart and necessary investment in Sydney’s future that will offer multiple economic, environmental, social and health benefits. 

“Everything from transforming the grid, creating a more resilient power supply, reducing risk to emergency workers, more attractive streets and lowering urban heat are all possible if we ditch the power poles.”

Communal composting – Dom Svejkar

Greater Sydney sends almost a megaton of food and organics to landfill each year, wasting resources, generating emissions and missing a major soil health opportunity.  

As the city grows, so will food demand, waste generation and pressure on already degraded soils which are vital for regulating water, filtering pollutants, supporting biodiversity and enabling local food production.  

Kerbside communal composting is an opportunity for more accessible, visible and community-centred solutions.  

Dom Svejkar, Senior Manager, Consulting at KBR, said: “Communal composting builds everyday habits around waste diversion and helps people become active participants in the food waste cycle. 

“While waste diversion programs work well in some areas, many households and apartments – especially those in high-density areas – are hard to reach, and current systems don’t suit their lifestyles. 

“Communal composting is already working in cities like New York and Budapest, demonstrating that publicly accessible composting dramatically reduces landfill, cuts emissions and strengthens local soil systems.  

“For councils, it reduces landfill volumes and associated costs, while generating usable compost for parks, gardens and ecological restoration.” 

Daylighting urban water systems – Dom Svejkar

Urban water systems are largely hidden underground, moving across the city through pipes and disconnecting communities from the natural water cycle.  

This invisibility leads to poor public awareness of the value of water, with things like stormwater often treated as waste which infrastructure must remove and relocate as fast as possible.   

‘Daylighting’ – surfacing and re-naturalising urban water systems like hidden streams and stormwater channels – can help to decrease urban heat stress, improve urban biodiversity, and resilience to flood and pollution. 

Dom Svejkar, Senior Manager, Consulting at KBR, said: “Historically, ‘hard infrastructure’ has been prioritised over ecological processes, resulting in systems prioritising efficiency over resilience. 

“Daylighting urban water systems involves connecting with Country to redesign how streets, parks and public spaces integrate open water corridors, wetlands and rain gardens that follow and mimic the flow of natural waterways. 

“Daylighting slows, spreads and sinks water through landscapes – reducing flood peaks, improving water quality, recharging groundwater and enhancing habitat. Visible water infrastructure strengthens climate adaptation, urban cooling and community connection, making our cities more liveable and loveable.” 

About the Sydney Summit

The Sydney Summit is the Committee for Sydney’s annual half-day leadership conference, bringing together bold leaders, thinkers, politicians and researchers to discuss the critical questions facing our city. Running every year since 2021, the theme of the 2026 Sydney Summit is ‘The Bold City’: Turning bold ideas and ambitious vision into practical action for Sydney’s future. More information at: https://sydney.org.au/sydneysummit  
 
About the Committee for Sydney

The Committee for Sydney is an independent urban policy think tank working to make Sydney the best city in the world, for all. We are advocates for the whole of Greater Sydney, and its broader national impact, researching and developing solutions to the most important problems we face. More information at: https://sydney.org.au