In our study we provide a case study of implementing sustainability aspects into the product development process of a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME). The objective of the study is to, together with the company, co-create a product development process that represents a step towards sustainability. For this a tool called the Method for Sustainable Product Development (MSPD) is used. The methodology of the study includes mapping the current product development process in the organization, adapting the MSPD based on criteria set by the organization, implementing the MSPD into the product development process of the organization in a co-creative way and finally applying the new product development process to a test case within the organization. Various participatory action techniques including workshops and interviews are used to ensure co-creation of the results. It was found that raising questions on sustainability aspects in product development can be seen as a first step of an organizational move towards sustainability. With this the MSPD worked as intended. The practical application showed that further steps were necessary. Particularly additional education in sustainability and theinvolvement of entities in the organization external to the product development process were found as crucial next steps.

Vehicles, infrastructure, fuel systems and other energy-driven systems that serve public transport are complex with many resource inputs and outputs, and involve many processes. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) helps analyzing those by quantifying environmental and economic effects, but will not in themselves provide a full systems perspective. Swedish authorities have set ambitious national goals, and many regions targets a 100% increase in public transport by 2020. The medium sized city of Karlskrona (36,000 inhabitants), that is included in this study together with Sundsvall and Jönköping, embraces those goals too. This study analyzes relevant differences between bus solutions, to investigate a change to more sustainable bus propulsion systems. The study zooms down to compare energy carriers (diesel, biodiesel, biogas, and electricity) in different powertrain combinations (combustion engines, electric hybrids, and pure electric). The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) where principles are defining a sustainable future is used to broaden from a cost and environmentally shortsighted perspective to a long-term sustainability perspective with systems thinking. The Strategic Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) is first used to give a quick full scope of sustainability challenges in each bus life cycle stage from extraction to end of life. Then LCA and LCC approaches are used to” dig deeper” into prioritized identified challenges. Initial study results suggest that electric drivetrains would be preferable in city buses within the coming decade - both from an economic and a sustainability perspective. It not only lowers emissions and energy usage, but also provides a platform for future promising energy carriers.

Dagens vägtransporter hjälper människor att berika sina liv genom möjlighet till snabba, flexibla och bekväma resor, samt förbättrad tillgång till varor och tjänster. Dock bidrar dagens vägtransporter till hållbarhets- problem och andra problem såsom klimatpåverkan, buller, barriärer i landskapet och olyckor med dödlig utgång. Det svenska samhället har under de senaste decennierna börjat uppmärksamma de stora hållbarhets- utmaningarna världen står inför. Regeringen har satt mål för växthusgasneutralitet år 2050 och en fossil- oberoende fordonsflotta 2030, samt andra mer närtida miljömål. Tyvärr pekar bl.a. indikatorer i miljömåls- portalen på att de flesta av dessa mål inte kommer att uppfyllas. Samtidigt kommer bebyggda områden att förtätas och vägtransporter förväntas öka. Vägtrafikens negativa påverkan på människors hälsa kommer därför att öka om ingen förändring görs, framförallt i stads- miljö. För att bidra till hållbar utveckling behöver utsläpp från lastbilar, bussar och personbilar minska. Regionala och kommunala organisationer kan bidra till omställningen till hållbarhet bl.a. genom ökade krav på lokaltrafikens fordon så att de blir mer energieffektiva, samt avger mindre luftföroreningar och buller. Bussar med elektrifierad drivlina, som laddas med förnyelsebar ny el, är i dagsläget ett lovande alternativ för en sådan förändring. Ett högt inköpspris för eldrivna fordon är i dagsläget ett hinder i upphandling för kollektivtrafik, men det kan komma att sjunka med ökade försäljnings- volymer och teknisk utveckling, framförallt beträffande batterier. Tidigare studier visar på fördelar för eldrift av bussar i storstadsmiljöer (Stockholm, Göteborg och Malmö). Denna studie syftar till att utreda hållbarhets- implikationer och lönsamheten i att använda bussar med någon form av eldrift i kollektivtrafiken i mellan- stora städer jämfört med dagens bussar som drivs med förbränningsmotorer. Med hjälp av Blekingetrafiken, Jönköpings Länstrafik, Västernorrlands kollektivtrafik- myndighet och Volvo Technology Corporation har författarna gjort fallstudier på utvalda stadsbusslinjer i Karlskrona, Jönköping och Sundsvall. Studien tillämpar metodik för strategisk hållbar utveckling som utvecklas i en internationell vetenskaplig samverkansprocess med Blekinge Tekniska Högskola som koordinerande nod. För att bl.a. undvika suboptimeringar ur ett helhets- perspektiv (förbättringar i en fas som kan ge fler och större problem i andra faser, samt hindra global hållbar utveckling) används strategisk livscykelanalys (SLCA) för att identifiera särskilda analysområden, livscykel- analys (LCA) för kvantifiering av emissioner, och livs- cykelkostnadsanalys (LCC) för beräkning av lönsamhet och konkurrenskraft. Beräkningar baseras på tidigare studier och dessa kom- pletteras och verifieras genom simulering av energi- användning för respektive linje. Författarna har valt att studera energibärare då dessa utgör största skillnaden mellan traditionella fossildrivna bussar och de som drivs med el i någon form. Studien utgår från diesel med 5 % FAME/RME och lokalt producerad förnybar ny el från källor som per år ger mer till nätet än vad som tas ut, exempelvis genom s.k. vindkraftsandelar. Eldrift förekommer i tre varianter varav två är hybrider. Primär drivkälla för elhybrid är förbränningsmotorn, vilket förväntas spara i snitt 33 % energi gentemot en dieseldriven buss. Laddhybrid drivs primärt av elmotor med batterier (laddas internt och externt) samt i andra hand av förbränningsmotor, men kan styras till att bli 100 % eldriven. För att utreda lämpligt biobränsle för dessa studeras lokalt framställd biogas ur hushållsavfall och biodiesel (RME) från lokalt odlad raps. Det senare har ur tillgänglighetssynpunkt valts som bränsle till elhybrid och laddhybrid i denna studie. Slutsatserna från studien är att bussar för stadstrafik i medelstora städer som primärt drivs av el (från lokala vindkraftsandelar) jämfört med dieseldrift är... ... tydligt bättre i alla livscykelfaser beträffande energi- effektivisering och emissioner bidragande till växt- huseffekt, försurning, övergödning, skapande av marknära ozon, och partiklar. Detta trots nyttjande av knappa material som Litium i batterier. Det finns också potential till radikal minskning av ljudnivån på bullriga platser. En elhybrid- eller laddhybrid- buss bör ur miljösynpunkt drivas med biogas. ... enligt ekonomisk nuvärdeskalkyl ekonomiskt kon- kurrenskraftiga när anskaffning av laddinfrastruktur (en extra snabbladdare), fordon, samt underhålls- kostnader (med 1 batteribyte), energianvändning (årlig prisökning med 6 %) inkluderas. Elhybrid är 7 %, laddhybrid 18 % och helt eldriven buss 24 % billigare än dieseldrift i Karlskrona (linje 1/7). Lokalt producerad förnybar ny el ger dessutom nya lokala och regionala arbetstillfällen, vilket kan värderas mer än det gjorts i denna studie. ... om något år ekonomiskt lönsamma för linjer vars sträckning kräver mer än 5 snabbladdningsstationer. Resultaten visar på vissa skillnader mellan de studerade städerna, som till största del beror på utnyttjandegraden av bussar, linjernas karaktär, samt stadens storlek och ventilationsfaktorn. Förbättringar ur miljösynpunkt jämfört med dieseldrift är ganska lika i de studerade städerna, men besparingspotentialen (i kronor) för elhybrid-, laddhybrid och el-drift är störst i Karlskrona.

From a theoretical perspective, Electric buses can be more sustainable and can be cheaper than fossil fuelled buses in city traffic. The authors have not found other studies based on actual urban public transport in Swedish winter climate. Further on, noise measurements from buses for the European market where found old. The aims of this follow-up study was therefore to test and possibly verify in a real-life environment how energy efficient and silent electric buses are, and then conclude on if electric buses are preferable to use in public transport. The Ebusco 2.0 electric bus, fitted with a 311 kWh battery pack, was used and the tests carried out during November 2014 to April 2015 in eight municipalities in the south of Sweden. Six tests took place in urban traffic and two took place in more of a rural traffic setting. The energy use for propulsion was measured via logging of the internal system in the bus and via an external charging meter. The average energy use turned out to be 8 % less (0,96 kWh/km) than assumed in the earlier theoretical study. This rate allows for a 320 km range in public urban traffic. The interior of the bus was kept warm by a diesel heater (biodiesel will probably be used in a future operational traffic situation), which used 0,67 kWh/km in January. This verified that electric buses can be up to 25% cheaper when used in public transport in cities for about eight years. The noise was found to be lower, primarily during acceleration, than for buses with combustion engines in urban bus traffic. According to our surveys, most passengers and drivers appreciated the silent and comfortable ride and preferred electric buses rather than combustion engine buses. Bus operators and passenger transport executives were also positive to start using electric buses for public transport. The operators did however point out that procurement processes need to account for eventual risks regarding this new technology, along with personnel education. The study revealed that it is possible to establish a charging infrastructure for almost all studied bus lines. However, design of a charging infrastructure for each municipality requires further investigations, including electric grid capacity analysis, smart location of charging points, and tailored schedules to allow fast charging. In conclusion, electric buses proved to be a preferable alternative for all stakeholders involved in public bus transport in the studied municipalities. However, in order to electric buses to be a prominent support for sustainable development, they need to be charged either by stand-alone units or via an expansion of the electric grid, and the electricity should be made from new renewable sources.

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. In the first paper of this tandem publication, the authors propose a new generic process model embedding the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development. The purpose of applying it in an action-research mode as described in this paper was twofold: (i) to develop a vision for sustainable regional transport and a coarse roadmap towards that vision, and, while doing so, (ii) get additional empirical experiences to inform the development of the new generic process model. Experts from many sectors and organizations involved in the GreenCharge project provided vital information and reviewed all planning perspectives presented in Paper 1 in two sequential multi-stakeholder seminars. The results include a sustainable vision for electric vehicle systems in southeast Sweden within a sustainable regional transport system within a sustainable global society, as well as an initial development plan towards such a vision for the transport sector. The vision is framed by the universal sustainability principles, and the development plan is informed by the strategic guidelines, of the above-mentioned framework. Among other things, the vision and plan imply a shift to renewable energy and a more optimized use of areas and thus a new type of spatial planning. For example, the vision and plan implies a lower built-in demand for transport, more integrated traffic modes, and more multi-functional use of areas for energy and transport infrastructures, for example. Some inherent benefits of electric vehicles are highlighted in the vision and plan, including near-zero local emissions and flexibility as regards primary energy sources. The vision and plan also imply improved governance for more effective cross-sector collaboration to ensure coor- dinated development within the transport sector and between the transportation sector and other relevant sectors. Meanwhile, the new generic process model was refined and is ready to be applied and further tested in the GreenCharge project and in other projects within the transport sector as well as other sectors. The study confirmed that the new generic process model suggested in support of sus- tainable transport system and community development is helpful for giving diverse stakeholders, with various specialties and perspectives, a way of working that is goal-oriented and builds on effective, iterative learning loops and co-creation. 

Ambitions within the EU for moving towards sustainable transport include major emission reductions for fossil fuel road vehicles, especially for buses, trucks, and cars. The electric driveline seems to be an attractive solution for such development. This study first applied the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to compare sustainability effects of today’s fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles that have batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The study then addressed a scenario were electric vehicles might be in majority in Europe by 2050. The methodology called Strategic Lifecycle Assessment was first used, were each life cycle phase was assessed for violations against sustainability principles. This indicates where further analysis could be done in order to quantify the magnitude of each violation, and later to create alternative strategies and actions that lead towards sustainability. A Life Cycle Assessment of combustion engine cars, plug-in hybrid cars, battery electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars was then conducted to compare and quantify environmental impacts. The authors found major violations of sustainability principles like use of fossil fuels, which contribute to the increase of emission related impacts such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and particulate matters. Other violations were found, such as use of scarce materials for batteries and fuel cells, and also for most life cycle phases for all vehicles when using fossil fuel vehicles for mining, production and transport. Still, the studied current battery and hydrogen fuel cell cars have less severe violations than fossil fuel cars. The life cycle assessment revealed that fossil fuel cars have overall considerably higher environmental impacts compared to electric cars as long as the latter are powered by renewable electricity. By 2050, there will likely be even more sustainable alternatives than the studied electric vehicles when the EU electricity mix mainly should stem from renewable sources, batteries should be recycled, fuel cells should be a mature technology for use in vehicles (containing no scarce materials), and electric drivelines should have replaced combustion engines in other sectors. An uncertainty for fuel cells in 2050 is whether the production of hydrogen will have had time to switch to renewable resources. If so, that would contribute even more to a sustainable development. Except for being adopted in the GreenCharge roadmap, the authors suggest that the results can contribute to planning in the upcoming decades for a sustainable increase of EVs in Europe, and potentially serve as an inspiration for other smaller or larger regions. Further studies could map the environmental effects in LCA further, and include other road vehicles to get a more precise perception of how much they could affect sustainable development.

The current public transport offers in the South Baltic region seldom meet customer expectations for easiness and attractivity of cross-border/regional journeys and rarely include integrated tickets for multimodal rides. To address that, stakeholders from six regions around the southern Baltic Sea developed the INTERCONNECT project that was guided by a holistic perspective on sustainability. Informed by that, this paper's objective was to propose a tool/method containing a planning process with a comprehensive and on-line open-access catalogue of solutions for sustainable cross-border/regional public transport services to inspire and guide planning and decision-making. The tool/method that was developed in this paper include a 7-step process and a catalogue of 42 solutions that were developed through several workshops and discussions among the authors and other experts in the field. The findings were compared and integrated with literature findings, practical experiences, then assessed against a principled definition of sustainability, and finally scrutinized and reviewed by project partners and external experts. The authors expect the results to sufficiently cover possible solutions for strategic sustainable development of cross-border/regional public transport and to inspire further development in other regions with similar infrastructure and financial means. © 2021 Owner/Author.

In response to the increasingly competitive global market, there is a growing interest in design optimization. Being able to include aspects of socio-ecological sustainability in product design should aid companies to both improve current competitiveness and to identify viable long-term investment paths and new business opportunities in the evolving sustainability-driven market. A case study of a water jet cutting machine is used to illustrate a new iterative optimization procedure that combines a technical assessment with a sustainability assessment. Sustainability assessment methods/tools are first used to identify prominent sustainability problems from present-day flows and practices (“societal indicators”) and to generate ideas of long-term solutions and visions. Based on this, preliminary ideas about likely desirable changes in machine properties are obtained. Technical investigations are then performed to assess if/how these particularly desirable changes in machine properties could in principle be realized through changes in design variables. After that, obtainable changes are fed back to a new and more refined sustainability assessment to find out the societal implications of these changes. This may in turn result in other desirable design changes, which may call for a new and more refined technical assessment, etcetera. The experience from the case study indicates that the suggested integrated and iterative working procedure should be able to add information about socio-ecological impacts of product properties and influence design criteria used in prioritisation situations during product development.

This article aims to explore a new approach to assess company decision systems regarding sustainability-related communication and decision support between senior management and product development levels. The assessment approach was developed in theory and its applicability was directly tested in action research in two small and medium-sized companies and two large companies. The results were validated against experiences made by two management consultancies. Our study indicates that successful companies should: (i) integrate sustainability into business goals and plans, backed up by suitable (ii) internal incentives and disincentives and (iii) decision support tools. Our study also indicates that the new assessment approach can be used as a template to assess the current state of sustainability integration in company decision systems.

Next generation jet engine technologies are typically driven by performance, value and environmental challenges, and appropriate technologies are developed in international research programs. One on-going engine component technology project at an aerospace component manufacturer aims to develop an engine with less fuel consumption. A likely consequence is higher pressure in the core engine, which leads to higher temperature. One way to handle the higher temperature is using a more advanced Ti-alloy for the product component, which will render a different sustainability profile. One weakness in current decision situations is the inability to clarify and understand the “value” and “sustainability” implications compared to e.g. performance features of concepts. Both “value” and “sustainability” include a rich set of features important for successful introduction of new products and product-service solutions to the market. The purpose with this research is to provide decision support for companies in early development phases for assessment of value and sustainability consequences over product-service system lifecycles. A workshop was held with the aerospace component manufacturer and a value chain partner focusing on material handling, to: i) get a better understanding of activities, flows and ownership related to the studied materials at the two companies, ii) to understand the companies’ perspective at new suggested scenarios with regard to these materials, and iii) define relevant scenarios to look into more in depth from asustainability and value perspective. Three different scenarios were developed with differences in ownership, responsibilities and value streams. It is therefore essential to be able to quickly assess and optimize consequences of such alternative scenarios. Based on the workshop experiences and scenarios, a modeling and simulation approach to assess sustainability and value consequences for the scenarios is proposed. The sustainability consequences are based on a sustainability life cycle assessment and a risk assessment. Key features of the proposed tool include: consideration of the time dimension, societal sustainability consequences, risk assessment, company value assessment, and cost/revenue perspectives.

Increasing awareness in business and society regarding socio-ecological impacts related to society's use of materials is a driver of new materials management practices. The aim of this study is to gain insight into what considerations come into focus and what types of solutions are revealed when companies apply a strategic sustainability perspective to materials management. Through literature reviews and semi-structured interviews we found that the companies studied have assessed material choices and related management actions, not only regarding their potential to reduce a selection of current socio-ecological impacts, but also regarding their potential to link to future actions to move towards the full scope of socio-ecological sustainability. Through this approach, these companies have found several ways through which materials with characteristics that are commonly considered problematic can be managed sustainably by making strategic use of some of these “problematic” characteristics and other characteristics of the materials. For example, a material associated with problems at end of life, could be managed in closed loops facilitated by the persistence of the material. Based on the findings, we conclude that by not applying a strategic sustainability perspective to materials management, organizations risk phasing out materials perceived to be unsustainable which, managed differently, could be helpful for sustainable development.

Planning in modern urban environments requires skills to address complexity in order to move towards sustainability. Co-production of knowledge in transdisciplinary groups was found to be a useful tool in such contexts. Using the concepts of multilingualism, epistemic communities and culture, the article proposed a conceptual framework for analysing complexity of co-production settings, as an indispensable means of managing complex challenges. The framework was evaluated based on inclusiveness, cross-sectoral understanding, applicability in different contexts and time perspectives. Moreover, it was compared to other studies. Based on the framework, several suggestions to maintain were put forth for a process leader (facilitator) when preparing for a co-production process: linguistic equality between participants, disciplinary integrity, a working culture of mutual respect, simultaneous mitigation and informed facilitation. Finally, the article suggested possible future research questions, related to development of the framework: identification of levels of complexity and mapping specific tools to address complexity at each level; integration of other factors of diversity, such as gender, age, as well as political and institutional contexts.

A tool that provides an organised overview of sustainability goals for relevant stakeholders at different levels is proposed. The MUSTS tool was developed and prototyped, then tested within a multistakeholder collaborative project for sustainable transport planning in Sweden. By applying the tool, this study managed to sort and organise 179 goals in 30 documents at five levels into 109 goal categories and help stakeholders identify the goals relevant to their work. An exemplification of the results from the tool shows that different aspects of ‘health’ are aimed for by the goals in the various policy and planning documents. It also shows the different stakeholders with mandate and legitimacy to act on these goals. The usefulness of the tool for various contexts and for other purposes, such as sustainability assessment of the goals in policy and planning documents, monitoring and reporting of the goals, and supporting dialogue-based processes is discussed.

Sustainability related challenges in mobility planning have been recognised at the international level and the urgency for change has been widely discussed among scholars. However, there seems to be no general agreement on the best ways of pursuing such change. To seek answers to the question of how to pursue change, this study analysed the development of the broad research fields of mobility, urban planning and transitions, and the overlap of these bodies of literature. Both academic and non-academic literatures were covered. By means of a systematic literature review, as well as bibliometric studies, several prominent research themes that address change from planning and transition perspectives were identified. Moreover, these themes describe different viewpoints and challenges in mobility planning. These include planning and policy for sustainable mobility and accessibility, backcasting and scenario planning, indicators in planning, modes of transport, decision-making, studies of global North and global South, as well as overarching themes of equity, equality and justice, roles of institutions, and co-production of knowledge. Strategies for staying up to date with these fields were also identified. In the literature covered, the temporal dimension in mobility planning was described in four different ways, but little was found about how accelerated transitions towards sustainable mobility can be achieved. Further knowledge gaps were identified in relation to behavioural change, policy development, institutionalisation of planning capacity and social sustainability in mobility planning. This created an outline for possible future studies.

To reach Swedish national climate change reduction targets, organizations collaborate for a sustainable development to improve energy efficiency, reducing pollution and noise in public bus transport. This follow-up study continues to strengthen the previous study by deepen the economic comparisons of two electric buses with different driving range and different type of chargers. The study aims to emphasize on sensitivity analysis for the total cost of ownership (TCO) to reduce uncertainty by identifying which factors of interest that most likely cause the estimated cost values for the electric bus. The result shows that the percentage change of line distance (km/year), operational years, and investment cost would be the most influential and significant factors on TCO.

European national, regional, and local authorities have started to take action to make public bus transport services more effective and less polluting. Some see the possibility to move beyond a narrow focus on efficiency or carbon dioxide reductions towards an integrated sustainability perspective. This paper uses this perspective to build and test a new assessment approach that should enhance decisions on bus transport powertrains and energy carriers for Swedish medium-sized cities. The study suggests that a superiority of electric powertrains is revealed if a traditional economic analysis is integrated with a strategic sustainability perspective.

This article aims to develop and test a new approach for comparing sustainability effects (mainly approximated through CO₂ emissions) and the total cost of ownership of various business models (Regular Purchasing, Car Pooling, Car Leasing, and Taxiing) applied to private cars with different energy carriers (Biogas, Ethanol, Gasoline, Plug-in Hybrid, and Electric). The results indicate that, out of all of the vehicles, electric vehicles are the most competitive—from both an ecological and economic perspective. Moreover, of all of the business models, Car Pooling is the most competitive when driving short to medium distances, reducing CO₂ emissions by 20-40% compared with Regular Purchasing. Meanwhile, Car Leasing emits the same amount of CO₂ emissions as Regular Purchasing if both are driven the same number of kilometers per year. The results also indicate that, from a cost effectiveness perspective, people who travel less than 2000 km per year should primarily consider using Taxis or similar services, while Car Pooling is most cost effective for those who travel from 2000 to 8500 km. For those who travel between 8500 and 13500 km per year, Car Leasing is the most cost effective, and Regular Purchasing is the best option above 13500 km per year. If most car owners were to accept and adapt to this identified need for a market move towards Car Pooling with Electric Vehicles, necessary transportation could be ensured while significantly reducing the number of cars on the road, whether from Regular Purchasing or Car Leasing, as well as those that run on fossil fuel. This, in turn, would result in less fossil fuel use, fewer emissions, and decreased negative effects on human health.

In 2020 and 2021 the Swedish debate about high speed ground transport intensified. Conflicting facts and opinions have been presented in a way that is quite inconsistent with a global sustainability perspective. It is important that all societal sectors can be sustainable together. This implies a need to model futures within sustainability constraints that take all essential sustainability related challenges into account. This study is an independent preliminary strategic decision support overview on fast ground transport - directed towards Swedish transport politicians and other high level decision makers within the transport sector. The study covered three steps:

Step 1. Describing a Vision of the Desired Future. What societal goals and requirements does a future sustainable system for fast ground transport need to live up to?

• It should meet customer expectations for “value for money” (e.g. speed, punctuality, comfort)
• It should not contribute to systematic destruction of the environment (e.g. through emissions or physical destruction) or the social system (e.g. through health problems and discrimination).
• It should be prudent with the societal economy and resource reserves.

Step 2. Assessing the Current Situation in Relation to the Vision. It was found that fuels and infrastructure for travel with trains are much better than private cars or domestic flights from a sustainability perspective. But it was also found that the Swedish train system has a maintenance debt and is operating near its maximum capacity with frequent disturbancies and delays.

Step 3. Reviewing Strategic Investment Choices. What are some potential alternative investment choices to close the gap between the current situation and a desired future and what are their likely economic, ecological and social effects? Assumptions and variations around three main alternatives were reviewed with the following results:

• Scenario 1. Upgrade the Existing System. This may add some marginal benefits but may risk to not meet transport demands, to not protect the environment and to add societal costs.
• Scenario 2. Build a New High Speed Rail (HSR) System. This would likely be better for transport demands and the societal economy but also have some environmental impacts.
• Scenario 3. Build a New Magnetic Levitation (‘Maglev’) Train System. This could have the best potential to meet transport demands and to create benefits for the societal economy with the least environmental impacts.

The main recommendation from this study is that Swedish transport politicans initiate a new independent investigation that compares at least the three future scenarios for high- speed ground transport suggested here and their potential effects for society at large and all modes of transport. If the initial findings of this study could be confirmed and acted upon then Sweden might become first in Europe to implement the new breakthrough Maglev technology in the transport sector. This could help Sweden to fulfil its goal to become one of the first fossil free welfare countries and also give the country great export opportunities.

Overarching project goal

From 1 april 2013 to its end in 2015 the project shall support Southeast Sweden towards a fossilfuel independent transport system by 2030 through the promotion of regional sustainable market introduction of electric vehicles that run on regional renewable energy.

The project's contribution

1. Development of an electric vehicle system (vehicles, charging infrastructure, renewable electricity, IT support, etc) and a supporting business network in small town regions.2. Research Methods for the development of customer-focused product and service systems for electric vehicles and identification of their economic, environmental and social sustainability implications.3. A comprehensive roadmap for sustainable and profitable development of a fossilfuel independent regional transportation system 2030.

Results until 20150630 (goals 20150331 – extended to 20150930)

530+ Electric vehicles (200)204+ charging spots (200)25 pilot municipalities (25)70+ business stakeholders (50)1 charging demo park (1)

I ansökan specificerades projektmålen från 2012 till 2014 till:

1. Demonstration 1: Ge underlag för marknadsintroduktion av elfordonssystem i 15-20 pilotkommuner i Småland Blekinge (fordon, laddstolpar, IT-stöd, etc)2. Demonstration 2: Starta en regional affärssamverkan för ökad tillväxt på en växande elfordonsmarknad3. Använda ett systematiskt kommunikations- och spridningsarbete för förbättrat hållbarhetsanseende för regionala företag4. Bidra till forskningsfronten med metoder för utveckling av produkt- och servicesystem (PSS) samt identifiering och optimering av deras hållbarhetseffekter5. Resultera i en färdplan för ’grön tillväxt’ och uppskalning av ett elfordonssystem som en del av en regional fossilfri fordonsflotta 2030.

Hittills har vi nått följande framsteg i förhållande till projektmålen:

1. Demo 1. Greencharge Sydosts har haft fyra länsvisa kick-offs och projektgruppen har rest runt och ordnat många aktiviteter för att påskynda den regionala förankringen av projektet Detta har lett till att vi har kunnat överträffa förväntningarna med involvering av hittills ett tjugotal företag, 24 kommuner, alla fyra länsstyrelser och regionförbund, samt två av fyra Landsting. Dessutom har vi blivit kontaktade av andra regioner i Sverige som Dalarna, Skåne och Sundsvallsområdet och samarbete har inletts. Internationella företag som BMW, Hertz och Volkswagen är nu också involverade. För att öka tempot i regionen och hjälpa kommunerna så har vi inom projektet under våren och sommaren 2013 kört ”Green Charge Roadshow med elfordon” – en turné med marknadens utbud av elfordon där vi besökte flertalet kommuner som då var medlemmar i projektet. Projektets styrning och regionala förankring förtydligades i och med att man 12 april 2013 kopplade till sig en mer permanent och formaliserad styrgrupp. Hösten 2013 har projektledningen sammanställt en uppföljning mot samtliga kommuners framsteg och ev hinder i införskaffande av bilar och laddinfrastruktur. Energideklarationer har också tagits fram för projektets samtliga kommuners som visar att det i princip utan extra kostnad går att fasa in 90% elfordon i bilflottorna. I början av 2014 fanns det ca 250 elbilar i projektregionen och alltför få uppkopplade laddstolpar. Därför genomförde vi i mars och april 2014 Sveriges hittills största roadshow för elfordon som besökte Norge och Danmark och samtliga 24 projektkommuner i syfte att påskynda utvecklingen. Kommunuppföljningen, energideklarationerna och en utredning över lämplig omfattning och placering av snabbladdare var viktiga komponenter i roadshowens informationspaket. I slutet av december 2014 fanns det mer än 350 elfordon i projektregionen och det totala projektmålet för detta och kompletterande projekt på 300 elfordon hade därmed överträffats. Dock släpar laddinfrastrukturen fortfarande efter och därför fokuserdes insatserna där under projektets avslutsskede. Detta arbete fortsätter i kompletterande projekt. 2. Demo 2. Affärsnätverket initierades via en stor regional kick-off i Växjö under hösten 2012 och ett par personer i projektgruppen har nu fått ansvar för att nätverket utvecklas på bästa sätt. Projektet fick också under 2013 en ny projektledare för affärsnätverket som förstärker projektteamet med teknisk kompetens. Ett antal nätverksträffar utfördes under mars 2013 för att kunder och leverantörer ska kunna mötas och hitta och undanröja hinder för snabba framsteg. Fokus låg på vissa delar av elfordonssystemet vid varje nätverksträff (laddstolpar, bilar, etc). Greencharge har i år fastlagt ett antal nya samarbetsavtal med partners inom nätverket. Samarbetet med ingenjörsutbildningarna på BTH har under våren 2013 lett till att flera studentprojekt kunnat påbörjas för att snabbt ute hos våra partners kunna utreda angelägna frågeställningar och på sätt få fart på arbetet mot projektmålen. Under hösten 2013 och under hela 2014 har arbetet tagits upp igen i leverantörsgrupperna för laddinfrastruktur, bilar och energi. Speciellt fokus har legat på att påskynda kommunernas inköp av rätt sorts intelligenta laddstolpar och att få dem inkopplade i CGIs IT-system CiMS.

3. Kommunikations- och spridningsarbete. En kommunikationsansvarig har utsetts och en kommunikationsplan fastställdes under hösten 2013. En reklambyrå genomförde den 6 dec 2013 en strategisk workshop med projektledningen kring vad projektet ska kommunicera. Hemsidan www.greencharge.se kvarstår som central informationskanal projektledning och forskningsorganisation men kompletteras nu mer tydligt av av facebook, twitter och youtube. Vi har där lagt upp logotyper för alla kommuner och landsting som är medlemmar i GreenCharge Sydost samt för offentliga finansiärer. Projektlednings- och forskningsorganisation deltar också aktivt i konferenser och evenemang inom elfordonsområdet. T.ex. BTH framhåller Greencharge som ett ’flaggskeppsprojekt’ när skolan under åren presenterat sig för politiker i Almedalen, vid frukostseminarier i Riksdagen och på plats på BTH. Forskarna från BTH deltog i januari 2013 vid Energisystemdagarna i Linköping där viktiga nätverkskontakter kunde tas. En stor nationell elfordonsdag utfördes också tillsammans med IKEA i Älmhult den 21 mars 2013 och Kungen träffade Greencharge i samband med Karlskronabesöket den 6 april. Forskningsgruppen har i en annan Greencharge-demonstration (som finansieras av energimyndigheten) vid flera konferenser presenterat miljö- och kostnadsjämförelser för elbussar och andra busstyper. Parallellt med projektaktiviteterna tar också forskargruppen fram kurser och ett nytt högskoleingenjörsprogram (Energisystem för hållbar utveckling) med fokus på förnybar energi, smarta energinät och elfordon. Här ska vi kunna sprida projektresultat och forskningsrön till många studenter som får lära sig nära praktiken ute i företagen. Studenterna deltog aktivt i den road show som genomfördes under mars och april 2014. De gjorde enkäter och undersökningar mot den testande allmänheten och testade själva samt spred erfarenheterna via egna social nätverk. Under Almedalsveckan 2014 arrangerade projektet en workshop för att sprida kunskap om projektets resultat som bl.a. av Vindkrafttidningen blev utnämnd till den bästa i Almedalen. Allt detta förväntas också på sikt ge nya regionala arbetstillfällen inom det starkt växande området hållbara transport- och energisystem.

4. Forskning mot projektets demonstrationer. Vi har anställt två doktorander och forskargruppen har påbörjat litteraturstudier och skisser på hur vår metodik för PSS-modellering och hållbarhetsanalys ska kunna vidareutvecklas och anpassas till att kunna göra systematiska kartläggningar och jämförelser av kostnads- och hållbarhetsprestanda för fordonssystem. Slutanvändaren finns i fokus under detta arbete. I en annan Greencharge-demonstration (som finansieras av energimyndigheten) har denna metodik testats i jämförelser mellan eldrivna och andra bussar i landsbygdstrafik i Karlskrona, Jönköping och Sundsvall. Detta kommer framöver även detta projekt till del när prestanda för olika bilar och affärsmodeller för bilägande ska jämföras. Dessa nya jämförelser är i full gång. Ovannämnda energideklarationer för kommunernas bilflottor utgör en grund.

5. Forskning mot färdplanen. Erfarenheterna från de praktiska elfordonsdemonstrationerna och forskningens analyser integreras här i färdplansscenarier. Vi har som en förberedelse deltagit i nationella satsningar för att ta fram färdplaner till fossiloberoende och mer hållbara transport- och energisystem. Vårt eget arbete påbörjades på allvar under första kvartalet 2014 med två seminarier för att tillsammans med ledande aktörer från elfordonsbranschen ta fram en brett förankrad vision om hur elfordon kan bidra till ett hållbart samhälle – bortom den fossiloberoende fordonsflottan 2030. Under resten av året tar vi fram scenarier för hur olika viktiga delsystem (användare, fordon, infrastruktur, bränslen, energi samt regler och styrmedel) ska kunna utvecklas parallellt till det fossiloberoende systemet 2030. Efter en inledning i lägre takt än planerat skruvades forskningsgruppens arbetsinsats upp under 2014. Förstärkningsrekrytering av flera deltidsforskare till forskargruppen har därför genomförts under hela året. Forskningen drivs härnäst också vidare i kompletterande projekt.

Many specific methods and tools have been developed to deal with sustainability problems. However, without a unifying theory it is unclear how these relate to each other and how they can be used strategically. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is being developed to cover this need for clarity and structure. It includes backcasting from a principled definition of sustainability as a key feature. The aim of this thesis is to study how this framework can guide the use and improvement of detailed methods and tools, in particular to support sustainable product innovation (SPI). First, a new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the selection of aspects to be considered are not based on typical down-stream impact categories, but on identified major violations of sustainability principles. Ideas of how this approach can inform various specific methods and tools are also presented, as a basis for an integrated “toolbox” for SPI. As part of such, a new “template” approach for sustainable product development (TSPD) is developed through a sustainability assessment case study of TVs. That study indicates that this approach can create a quick and strategically relevant overview of critical sustainability aspects of a product, as well as facilitate communication between top management, product developers and external stakeholders. Based on such an assessment, it is sometimes necessary to go deeper into details, including the use of specific engineering methods and tools. To facilitate a coordinated assessment of sustainability aspects and technical aspects, an introductory procedure for sustainability-driven design optimization is suggested trough a water jet cutting case study. Equally important, to get a breakthrough for SPI, it is essential to integrate sustainability aspects into the overall decision-making process at different levels in companies. An approach to assessing sustainability integration in strategic decision systems is therefore also developed through a case study involving several companies. Finally, the integration between the FSSD and general systems modeling and simulation (SMS) is discussed and tested in another water jet cutting case study. It is shown feasible to start with the FSSD to create lists of critical flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS can be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the FSSD. This research shows that the combination of the FSSD with detailed methods and tools cohesively provides decision-makers with both a robust overview and, when needed, a more coordinated and effective detailed support. To utilize its full potential, this approach should now be integrated into decision processes, software and manuals for SPI.

Decision makers are challenged by complex sustainability problems within the socio-ecological system. In response, a vast range of sustainability-related methods/tools have been developed, each focusing on certain aspects of this challenge. Without a unifying theory it is, however, unclear how these methods/tools can support strategic progress towards sustainability and how they relate to each other. This need for clarity and structure urged some sustainability pioneers to start develop an overarching framework for strategic sustainable development (SSD), often called “The Natural Step (TNS) framework”, from the NGO that has facilitated its development and application, or the “backcasting from sustainability principles (BSP) framework” from its main operational philosophy. The aim of this thesis is to study if, and in that case how, this framework can aid coordination and further development of various sustainability-related methods/tools, specifically to increase their capacity to support sustainable product development (SPD). Life-cycle assessment (LCA), “templates” for SPD and systems modeling and simulation (SMS) are the methods/tools in focus. A new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the main sustainability aspects, LCA “impacts”, are identified through socioecological sustainability principles. This creates new opportunities to avoid the reductionism that often follows from traditional system boundaries or from a focus on specific impacts. Ideas of how this approach can inform the studied tools are given. This may eventually lead to a whole integrated toolbox for SPD (a “Design Space”). As part of such a Design Space, a new “template” approach for SPD is developed. A case study of a sustainability assessment of TVs at the Matsushita Electric Group indicates that this approach can create a quick overview of critical sustainability aspects in the early part of the product development process and facilitate communication of this overview between top management, product developers, and other stakeholders. A potential integration between BSP and SMS is also discussed. It is suggested that this should start with BSP to create lists of critical presentday flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS should be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the BSP framework. v Decision makers seem to need more of an overview and of simplicity around sustainability issues. A general conclusion is, however, that it is important that this is achieved without a loss of relevant aspects and their interrelations. Over-simplifications might lead to sub-optimized designs and investments paths. Combining the BSP framework with more detailed methods/tools seems to be a promising approach to finding the right balance and to get synergies between various methods/tools.

Sustainable management of materials and products requires continuous evaluation of numerous complex social, ecological, and economic factors. A number of tools and methods are emerging to support this. One of the most rigorous is life-cycle assessment (LCA). But LCAs often lack a sustainability perspective and bring about difficult trade-offs between specificity and depth, on the one hand, and comprehension and applicability, on the other. This article applies a framework for strategic sustainable development (often referred to as The Natural Step (TNS) framework) based on backcasting from basic principles for sustainability. The aim is to foster a new general approach to the management of materials and products, here termed “strategic life-cycle management.” This includes informing the overall analysis with aspects that are relevant to a basic perspective on (1)sustainability, and (2) strategy to arrive at sustainability. The resulting overview is expected to help avoid costly assessments of flows and practices that are not critical from a sustainability and/or strategic perspective and to help identify strategic gaps in knowledge or potential problems that need further assessment. Early experience indicates that the approach can complement some existing tools and concepts by informing them from a sustainability perspective—for example, current product development and LCA tools.

Strategic sustainable development is a key research and teaching area at Blekinge institute of technology (BTH). This area involves a generic Framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) that helps sustainability practition-ers to structure tools and concepts according to their ability to support strategic sustainability planning at five levels: (i) system understanding, (ii) principled suc-cess definition, (iii) strategic guidelines, (iv) actions and (v) supporting tools. This structuring capability has been a key element of BTH sustainability courses for several years. Another related key ability of sustainability practitioners is to create ’intersystem’ planning frameworks or to adapt the FSSD to a specific organization or context. In 2011 we replaced a tools and concept focused assignment with a new ‘intersystems’ assignment in the BTH course introduction to strategic sus-tainable development (MI2407). This paper intended to assess the internal con-sistency and logics behind the development of the new assignment. It also intend-ed to follow up whether the students who went through the new assignment in 2011 could demonstrate the desired ability to create adapted planning frame-works. If possible this paper was also meant to check to what degree the MI2407 students would still be able to structure tools and concepts on the levels of the FSSD, now that they got less specific training on that skill. We found a clear in-ternal consistency and constructive alignment in how the new intersystems as-signment was put together. We also found indications that the students that went through the new assignment, in the MI2407 course in 2011, gained the intended ability to create adapted frameworks, while still gaining an ability to structure tools and concepts on the levels of the FSSD comparable to previous years. If these initial indicative learning outcomes are to be substantiated by further studies then the new intersystems assignment could also become a basis for new consul-tancy services that The Natural Step and other consultancies could pick up and spread to the business world. This would be much in line with our department’s and BTH’s general ambition to help sustainability practitioners to improve their strategic sustainability planning capabilities and to promote sustainable growth.

The transport sector's dependence on fossil fuels is one of the biggest challenges in a shift towards a climate-neutral and sustainable society.

This roadmap report aims to investigate how electric vehicle systems can contribute to a faster transition to sustainable passenger transport in Southeast Sweden, as well as to present a methodology for guidance of similar work for faster transitions in other regions and sectors.

This work has been guided by a scientifically designed and proven Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). Specifically, answers are given to four research questions structured in relation to the four subsystems 'Politics and instruments', 'Users and markets', 'Vehicles and infrastructure' and 'Energy and materials':

1. What could a sustainable vision for passenger transport in Southeast Sweden look like?
2. What could be a milestone goal for 2030?
3. What is the current reality in relation to the 2030 goal and the vision?
4. How could the gap between the present, 2030 and the vision be bridged?

The report's results show that today's focus on fossil independence and measures against climate change must be broadened to cover the whole sustainability challengeso that other sustainability issues are addressed and so that solutions to some of the sustainability issues do not create new ones.

The report also clarifies that it is necessary, practically possible and economically advantageous for Southeast Sweden to make a faster sustainability transition of passenger transportthan what has been proposed in previous studies and investigations. It is also likely that the same applies to the entire transport system and for the whole of Sweden and the world.

Even geopolitical benefits are likely. A global transition to transport and energy systems based on energy from widely available flow resources like sun and wind instead of the limited fossil fuels would likely reduce the conflicts risks in the world.Restricted cobalt, lithium and platinum resources that battery and fuel cell cars depend on, and other metals needed for solar cells and wind turbines can, however, give rise to similar conflict risks. This roadmap report's recommendations on reduced transport needs and car dependency and its focus on resource efficiency counteract these conflict risks by striking against underlying resource-driving mechanisms. Should this roadmap be translated into practical policies, the forthcoming transition would therefore likely be made considerably more 'future-proof'.

This paper outlines the need for a more structured and simplified Life Cycle Assessment approach – called Strategic LCA. It builds on a previously published and peer-reviewed methodology using backcasting from basic principles of socio-ecological sustainability. The idea is to simplify, not by excluding parts of the traditionally covered dimensions in this field, but by a new way of setting system boundaries. Rather than applying boundaries related to geographic regions, or fields of expertise, or particular impacts, all issues found to be relevant as regards achieving sustainability are taken into account. To that end, we use four previously published generic principles of socio-ecological sustainability for the scrutinizing of materials, products and services.

Product-Service Systems (PSS) have been justified by a desire to find sustainable solutions that go beyond contemporary approaches. The characteristics of PSS of-ferings are to link goods and services in development and to provide systemic per-formance-based solutions to the customers. This paper investigates how estab-lished strategic product development tools for socio-ecological sustainability could be adapted for PSS development. An approach is suggested for how to apply these tools in early PSS development phases.

We have previously developed a method for sustainable product development (MSPD) based on backcasting from basic sustainability principles. The MSPD informs investigations of product-related social and ecological sustainability aspects throughout a concurrent engineering product development process.We here introduce “templates” for sustainable product development (TSPDs) as a complement. The idea is to help product development teams to arrive faster and more easily at an overview of the major sustainability challenges and opportunities of a product category in the early development phases. The idea is also to inform creative communication between top management, stakeholders, and product developers. We present this approach through an evaluation case study, in which the TSPDs were used for a sustainability assessment of televisions (TVs) at the Matsushita Electric Group.We study whether the TSPD approach has the ability to (1) help shift focus from gradual improvements of a selection of aspects in relation to past environmental performance of a product category to a focus on the remaining gap to a sustainable situation, (2) facilitate consensus among organizational levels about major sustainability challenges and potential solutions for a product category, and (3) facilitate continued dialogue with external sustainability experts, identifying improvements that are relevant for strategic sustainable development. Our findings indicate that the TSPD approach captures overall sustainability aspects of the life cycle of product categories and that it has the above abilities.

In this study we are asking ourselves whether ■Systems Dynamic Modelling■ can be combined with ■Backcasting from Sustainability Principles■ to support strategic planning towards sustainability. From the perspective of a ■Backcasting Practitioner■, ■Systems Dynamic Modelling■ is a set of tools that help gaining insight into the detailed functioning of a given system, but lacks the ability to support strategic planning towards sustainability ■ unless complemented with a satisfactory goal definition. ■Backcasting from Sustainability Principles■, in the eyes of a ■Systems Modeller■, is the planning step of a learning loop that also includes action implementation and follow-up. Since no dynamic modelling takes place this methodology typically produces laundry lists of isolated problems and solutions, thereby missing potentially important feedback loops, delays, hidden problems and suitable intervention points in the system.

Om E-mission

E-mission är ett EU-finansierat (Interreg) projekt för att sprida kunskap om elfordon hos allmänhet, politiker och näringsliv i Öresundsregionen. Målet är att få fler att köra elbil, inte minst de som pendlar mellan de båda länderna. Medverkande parter är Köpenhamns kommun, Region Hovedstaden, Malmö stad, Helsingborgs stad, Öresundskraft och Region Skåne.

Om de aktuella delprojekten

I E-mission ingår olika delprojekt, bland annat ett om utveckling av laddinfrastruktur för elfordon i Öresundregionen och ett om stakeholder network, alltså nätverk för intresserade operatörer/leverantörer (betallösningar). Det är inom dessa delprojekt detta uppdrag och rapport genomförs och tas fram.

Om uppdraget

Uppdraget handlar om att gå igenom vilka förutsättningar som krävs för att elbilsanvändare ska kunna ladda sin bil på båda sidor Öresund efter modellen HITTA-BOKA-LADDA-BETALA. I samband med en utredning om laddinfrastruktur som görs av Trivector har E-mission träffat en rad olika aktörer och diskuterat förutsättningarna för en interaktiv laddkarta för de båda länderna – och gärna även för Norge. Emission har identifierat att det finns ett antal system på marknaden och en rad olika laddkartor, men inte några heltäckande samverkande interaktiva lösningar. Emission vill därför ta reda på hur de olika systemen kan samverka så att användaren (=elbilsförarna) upplever det som en samlad interaktiv laddkarta. Emission inser samtidigt att de vägar som föreslås kan vara påverkade av vilken it-leverantör som presenterar dem och vilket it-system som förordas.

Uppdragsbeskrivning

- Beskriva och bedöma det system som tagits fram av Logica.- Beskriva och bedöma det norska systemet Nobil.- Övergripande beskriva övriga system på marknaden (finns bl.a. i befintlig rapport från Trivector).- Identifiera problemen i dagsläget.- Föreslå och beskriva vad som behöver göras (lösning) för att uppnå funktionen hitta-boka-ladda-betala, dvs.

a. en gemensam laddkarta som innehåller interaktiv data från samtliga system på marknaden,b. identifiering av elbilsägaren vid bokning, laddning och betalning,c. smidiga betalströmmar mellan berörda intressenter.

- Sammanfatta en slutsats som kan ligga till grund för ett genomförande.

Sustainable management of materials and products requires continuous evaluation of numerous complex social, ecological, and economic factors. Many tools and methods are emerging to support this. One of the most rigorous is life-cycle assessment (LCA). But LCAs often lack a sustainability perspective and bring about difficult trade-offs between specificity and depth, on the one hand, and comprehension and applicability, on the other. This article applies a framework for strategic sustainable development to foster a new general approach to the management of materials and products, here termed “strategic life-cycle management.” This includes informing the overall analysis with aspects that are relevant to a basic perspective on (1) sustainability, and (2) strategy to arrive at sustainability. Early experiences indicate that the resulting overview could help avoiding costly assessments of flows and practices that are not critical from a sustainability and/or strategic perspective and help identifying strategic knowledge gaps that need further assessment.

The study was conducted in 2020 by The SustainTrans team at Blekinge Institute of Technology with support fromNetPort Science park as a pre-study within the Roadmapper project, an effort to accelerate regional transitions to sustainable transport.This particular pre-study was financed by the municipalities of Karlshamn, Olofström and Sölvesborgbut it also benefits the larger Roadmapper project that, in turn, is supported by a whole consortium of public and private organizations, led by the Swedish Energy Agency. The preliminary resultswere reported to themunicipalitiesin December 2020but thescientific review of the studywas finalized in March2021. 

Medan Sverige är en global föregångare inom hållbar utveckling betonar Klimatpolitiska rådet 2019 att hållbarhetsåtgärderna är för långsamma för att uppfylla de aktuella målen, särskilt när det gäller transport och stadsmiljö. Regional utveckling och kommunal fysisk planering spelar avgörande roller i förändringsprocessen eftersom planerare och strateger behöver ta itu med internationella avtal såsom Parisavtalet, Agenda 2030 och Den nya urbana agendan, samt svara på nationella mål och lokala prioriteringar. Det finns indikationer på att otillräcklig samordning mellan de nationella, regionala och lokala planeringsinsatserna är en nyckelfaktor bakom misslyckandet med att hålla sig på rätt spår. För att hjälpa till att hantera denna brist engagerade planerare från Region Blekinge i sydöstra Sverige SustainTrans-gruppen från Institutionen för Strategisk hållbar utveckling vid Blekinge Tekniska Högskola för att bana väg för en scenarioplaneringsstrategi över en 30-årig horisont (till 2050). Tanken var att ta fram åtminstone tre scenarier och att få med regionala, lokala och några relevanta nationella intressenter i genomförandet. Som ett minimum skulle de fyra identifierade nyckelområdena från projektet Strukturbild Blekinge 2.0 täckas in i studien:

Blekinges övergripande utveckling (exempelvis befolkningsutveckling)Arbetsmarknad, näringsliv och turismAttraktiva stads- och livsmiljöerInfrastruktur och transport

Rapportförfattarna från SustainTrans-gruppen arbetade iterativt med befintliga kunskaper, statistiska data och resultat från en intressent-workshop. Ett startläge identifierades och fyra utforskande scenarier togs fram och strukturerades efter de sannolika effekterna av höga och låga regionala hållbarhetsinsatser respektive hög och låg befolkningstillväxt: 

’Tveksamma Blekinge’ (oförändrad befolkning/ ej hållbart)’Blind tillväxt’ (ökad befolkning / ej hållbart)’Hållbarare Blekinge’ (oförändrad befolkning/ hållbart)’Nystart Blekinge’ (ökad befolkning/ hållbart)

Scenarioprocessen inkluderade alla nyckelområdena från Strukturbild Blekinge 2.0 som viktiga utvecklingsområden och resulterade i bredare samtal mellan offentliga intressenter. Detta kommer också förhoppningsvis lägga en grund för ökad samordning och integration mellan dessa organisationer.

Baserat på intressenternas synpunkter på scenarierna från workshopen, blev rapportförfattarnas bedömning att scenarierna ’Tveksamma Blekinge’ och ’Blind tillväxt’ skulle få för många negativa konsekvenser. Detta kunde ju också förväntas med tanke på scenariernas namn men mer specifikt handlade det om att det förstnämnda scenariot ge en gradvis nedgång medan det senare på sikt ge verkligt destruktiva resultat för livskvaliteten, naturen och samhällsekonomin. ’Hållbarare Blekinge’ och ’Nystart Blekinge’ bedömdes å andra sidan vara bättre eftersom de troligen skulle säkerställa en god livskvalitet. Med det senare scenariot kan den högre folkmängden sannolikt också ge extra fördelar som högre skatteinkomster och en mer välmående region. Det finns dock en risk att befolkningsökningen kan hämma hållbarhetsprestanda om den skulle drivas för långt.

En åtgärd som identifierades som avgörande för att slå in på spåret till något av de föredragna scenarierna var att stärka planeringsfokus för nya bostäder till täta blandade samhällen inom det befintliga urbana fotavtrycket. Det finns samtidigt regionala gränser för tillväxt som är svåra att uppskatta med den begränsade typen av kvalitativa bedömningar som denna studie skulle täcka. Därför rekommenderas att fler studier görs som bygger vidare på scenarierna, går in i mer detaljerad kvantitativ modellering och bygger färdplaner för ett attraktivt och hållbart Blekinge 2050.

Syftet med denna sjätte fallstudien inom projektet Energisamverkan Blekinge är att ge en översiktligbild av hållbarhetspotentialen i byggnaders integrering med andra viktiga samhällssystem (B2X) -med tidiga exempel mot energi- och transportsystem. I detta ingår både att analysera enskildabyggnaders integrering och bedöma uppskalningspotential mot hela byggnadsbeståndet. Aspektersom ingår är byggnadernas energiproduktion (solceller på i första hand tak, väggar och parkeringar)och energilagring (batterier eller vätgas) samt stöd till energisystemet (elutbyte mellan byggnaderoch elnätet) och transportsystemet (elutbyte mellan byggnader och elfordon).

Metoden som har använts bygger på det etablerade ramverket för strategisk hållbar utveckling(FSSD) och dess allmänt tillämpliga hållbarhetsprinciper. Detta för att ta itu med komplexiteten ihållbarhetsomställningen av byggnader och byggnadssystem och samtidigt säkerställa tillräckligekonomisk avkastning på vägen dit. Studien genomfördes i fyra steg enligt FSSD:s så kallade abcdprocess.

Resultatet kan sammanfattas med att:

• Det befintliga beståndet är den största utmaningen storleksmässigt och i potential aveffektivisering eftersom endast ett par procent av beståndet förnyas varje år.• Vi identifierade också gränssnitt mellan byggnader och omgivande system där vi såg synergieroch vi föreslår därför ett schematiskt koncept för att arbeta med frågeställningen B2X. Detta servi som ett komplement till Blekinges manual för hållbart byggande och vi vill framöver ävenutveckla en 4-stegsprincip som guide för åtgärder och strategier.• Det behövs helhetstjänster för upphandling av ombyggnad/uppgradering/effektivisering• Energirådgivarna blir viktiga framöver när underhållsberget byggs bort.• Det är genom att gå från demonstrationer och piloter till fullskalig implementering och spridningsom de positiva effekterna av ett integrerat helhetssystem når sin fulla potential. Där ärlösningarnas skalbarhet av högsta prioritet.

Slutsatserna kan sammanfattas med att en byggnad inte längre kan ses som en isolerad enhet utanen del av ett komplext system. Enskilda byggnader bör effektiviseras för att säkerställa effektivtutnyttjande av resurser. Samtidigt kan en byggnad ge ännu större nytta genom att bli ensjälvförsörjande enhet som kopplas upp till det större omgivande samhällssystemet (t.ex. ombyggnaden producerar energi och blir en plusenergibyggnad). Om byggnaden lagrar energi dessutomkan den bli en del i energisystemet och stötta samhällets effekthantering. Till detta kan man tilläggade elektriska fordonens lagringskapacitet. Redundansen blir alltså större då individuella byggnaderoch andra självförsörjande enheter kopplas ihop i ett integrerat energisystem som, till skillnad fråndagens centralt styrda system, en angripare inte kan slå ut. Detta blir alltså även en säkerhetspolitiskfördel i framtiden.

Sverige och världen är mitt i en omställning till ett ekologiskt, socialt och ekonomiskt hållbart samhälle. I detta förväntas en storskalig elektrifiering spela en stor roll under de närmaste decennierna. 

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om den senaste tidens rapporter om olika energislags samhällskostnader skulle kunna peka på att det blir billigare att möta en ökad elanvändning med ny kärnkraft, i linje med regeringens nya kärnkraftsfärdplan, än med en kombination av effektivisering och ny förnybar energi. 

Metoden var att ställa upp fem scenarier baserade på Svenska Kraftnäts tidigare analyser och beräkna deras respektive livscykelkostnader, inklusive omkostnader för flexibilitet, utifrån nya data från International Energy Agency:

·         Scenario 1a. Planerbart (Svenska kraftnäts planerbartscenario)

·         Scenario 1b. Planerbart med ny kärnkraft (Svenska kraftnäts planerbartscenario med variant av Regeringens kärnkraftsfärdplan)

·         Scenario 1c. Planerbart med ny kärnkraft och förnybart (Svenska kraftnäts planerbartscenario med variant av Regeringens kärnkraftsfärdplan)

·         Scenario 2a. Förnybart (Svenska kraftnäts förnybartscenario)

·         Scenario 2b. Förnybart med effektivisering (Svenska kraftnäts förnybartscenario med energieffektivisering)

Resultatet blev att regeringens billigaste kärnkraftsfärdplansscenario (Sc1c) blir 470 miljarder kr dyrare än det dyraste förnybartscenariot (Sc2a) medan det dyraste kärnkraftsfärdplansscenariot (Sc1b) blir 1070 miljarder kr dyrare än det billigaste förnybartscenariot med effektivisering (Sc2b). Dessutom tillkommer en merkostnad för Regeringens kärnkraftsfärdplansscenarier på minst 2000 till 5000 miljarder kr från år 2050 till 2100. 

Slutsatsen blir alltså att vi har stärkt de samhällsekonomiska argumenten för att satsa på effektivisering och förnybart snarare än ny kärnkraft för att möta framtidens ökade elenergianvändning. Förnybartscenarierna har även fördelen att de skulle ge mycket mer hanterbara hållbarhetsrisker jämfört med kärnkraftsscenarierna och de skulle, till skillnad från kärnkraftsscenarierna, kunna genomföras tillräckligt snabbt för att bli relevanta för klimatutmaningen. Om vi skulle satsa på effektivisering och ny förnybar energi skulle hela landet också kunna byggas ihop till ett decentraliserat och integrerat energisystem. Ett ‘självspelande piano’ som när det väl är uppbyggt kan förse samhället med billig förnybar energi från eviga flöden. Ett sådant energisystem skulle, till skillnad från dagens centralt styrda system, vara motståndskraftigt mot översvämningar och andra klimatfaktorer samt bli omöjligt för en angripare att slå ut. Det skulle alltså även bli en säkerhetspolitisk fördel i framtiden.

Transportsektorns beroende av fossila bränslen är en av de största utmaningarna ien omställning till ett klimatneutralt och hållbart samhälle.

Denna färdplansrapport syftar till att undersöka hur elfordonssystem kan bidra tillen snabbomställning till hållbara persontransporter i Småland och Blekinge, samttill att presentera en metodik för vägledning av liknande snabbomställningsarbetei andra regioner och samhällssektorer.

Detta arbete har övergripande vägletts av en vetenskapligt framtagen och beprövadmetodik för strategisk hållbar utveckling (eng. Framework for Strategic SustainableDevelopment – FSSD). Specifikt ges svar på fyra forskningsfrågor som struktureras irelation till de fyra delsystemen ’Politik och styrmedel’, ’Användare och marknad’,’Fordon och infrastruktur’ samt ’Energi och material’:

1. Hur skulle en hållbar vision för persontransporter i Småland och Blekinge kunnase ut?

2. Hur skulle ett etappmål för år 2030 kunna se ut?

3. Hur ser nuläget ut i förhållande till 2030-målet och visionen?

4. Hur skulle gapet mellan nuläget, 2030-målet och visionen kunna överbryggas?

Rapportens resultat visar att dagens fokus på fossilfrihet och klimatåtgärder måstebreddas till hela hållbarhetsfrågan så att även andra hållbarhetsproblemadresseras och så att inte lösningar på vissa hållbarhetsproblem skapar nya.

Rapporten tydliggör också att det är nödvändigt, praktiskt möjligt och ekonomisktfördelaktigt för Sydostregionen att göra en snabbare hållbarhetsomställning avpersontransporterna än vad som har föreslagits i tidigare studier och utredningar.Det görs även troligt att detsamma gäller för hela transportsystemet och för helaSverige och världen.

Även geopolitiska fördelar är troliga. En global övergång till transport- ochenergisystem som baseras på energi från fritt tillgängliga flödesresurser som soloch vind istället för fossila bränslen skulle därför sannolikt minska konfliktriskernai världen. Begränsade tillgångar av litium och platina som batteri- ochbränslecellselbilar är beroende av, och andra metaller som behövs till solceller ochvindkraftverk, kan dock ge motsvarande konfliktproblematik. Denna rapportsrekommendationer om minskat transportbehov och bilberoende och dess fokus påresurseffektivitet motverkar detta genom att slå mot bakomliggande resursdrivandemekanismer. Skulle denna färdplan omsättas i praktisk politik så borde alltså denkommande omställningen som ändå är på gång bli betydligt mer ’framtidssäker’.

Most companies do not have a coherent and systematic approach for incorporating sustainability criteria into their decision support systems. Given this, what would such a <em>strategic </em>decision support system (SDSS) look like that that is coherent throughout a development process and systematically incorporates (1) a full sustainability perspective, including (2) a broader approach to meeting needs by product-service systems, and (3) interfaces toward both specific groups of decision makers and specialized in-depth tools? We anticipate such an SDSS being structured by a framework for strategic sustainable development that provides a principle-based definition of sustainability and a systematic method to identify problems and solutions by backcasting from that definition. This should aid identification of potential benefits and challenges of shifting from a product-only focus to a focus on product-service systems. Additionally, the new sustainability and product-service system decision support should be flexible enough to be incorporated into existing decision-making processes. It will likely be formed around a built-in product development process at the companies.

This report is the output of a case study run by the SustainTrans team within the project Energy Cooperation Blekinge, aimed to clarify the major climate and sustainability challenges for buildings and building systems and how to deal with them from a life-cycle perspective. The method of this study was split into first developing an analytical frame with consistent definitions for climatepositive and sustainable construction and housing sectors and then using the analytical frame to clarify the challenge and plan for solutions for Blekinge. The analysis gave the following results:

• Step a. An overarching goal that require future systems, as a minimum, to not violate the sustainability principles of the FSSD and to be climate-neutral by 2030.

• Step b. A list of current stakeholder violations of the sustainability principles of the FSSD with the main impacts being greenhouse gas emission from the raw materials phase and from the energy purchased during the building use phase of the building value-chain life-cycle.

• Step c. A brief review of projects and organizations with potential solutions for the climate and sustainability challenges covered efforts from the World and Swedish Green Building Councils, Fossil Free Sweden, LFM30, Project Drawdown, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, IVL and partner organizations within Energy Cooperation Blekinge.

• Step d. A decarbonization strategy package that takes its starting point in smarter urban design, direct construction projects towards climate-neutral materials, recycling, efficiency and renewable energy supply, and, at a broader societal level, emphasizes the need for climate compensation and improved sustainability competence among stakeholders.

The study’s results seem credible since they generally build on established research and internationally accepted definitions and point in the same direction as some comparable studies. Three major concluding points emerged when wider societal benefits of this study were considered: 

• The construction and housing sectors will have key roles in the societal climate and sustainability transitions and they would benefit from dealing with them proactively.

• The adapted analytical frame suggested in this study is generic and could likely help to clarify and speed up sustainability transition efforts also more widely both in Sweden and beyond. One such area is a parallel effort that develops generic approaches for how the sustainability transition of societal sectors could be done in a way that clarifies interdependencies and avoids major sub optimizations. A direct spin-off will be the Roadmapper project that aims to strengthen transport sector transition modeling with Blekinge as a first case study. Another related effort is the planned Drawdown Europe End User Portal (DEEP) project that aims to build support tools to adapt large scale global climate solutions to national and regional levels.

• The new clarified definitions of sustainability-positive buildings and building systems imply that it would desirable to build a similar strategic transition process with budgets also for other sectors and for other key aspects of sustainability like metals, use of productive surfaces, etc. The influential work done on planetary boundaries could here be a good starting point.

Detta är en fallstudie inom projektet Energisamverkan Blekinge. SustainTrans-gruppen anlitades för att studera de stora klimat- och hållbarhetsutmaningarna för byggnader och byggnadssystem samt hur de kan hanteras ur ett livscykelperspektiv. Metoden delades in i att först utveckla en analytisk planeringsram med konsekventa definitioner för en klimatpositiv och hållbar bygg- och fastighetssektor och sedan tillämpa den på Blekinge. Detta gav följande resultat: 

Steg a. Ett övergripande mål om att framtida system, som ett minimum, inte bryter mot FSSD: s hållbarhetsprinciper och blir klimatneutrala till år 2030. 

Steg b. En lista över intressenternas aktuella brott FSSD:s hållbarhetsprinciper där växthusgasutsläpp från råvarufasen och från den energi som köps in under bygganvändningsfasen i byggnadens värdekedjelivscykel utpekades som huvudproblem. 

Steg c. En kort genomgång av projekt och organisationer med potentiella lösningar för klimat- och hållbarhetsutmaningarna. Detta omfattade insatser från World Green Building Council, Swedish Green Building Council, Fossilfritt Sweden, LFM30, Project Drawdown, Boverket, IVL och partnerorganisationer inom Energisamverkan Blekinge. 

Steg d. Strategier för hållbar fossilfrihet som tar sin utgångspunkt i smartare stadsplanering, riktar byggprojekt mot klimatneutrala material, återvinning, effektivitet och förnybar energiförsörjning, samt på en bredare samhällsnivå betonar behovet av klimatkompensation och förbättrad hållbarhetskompetens bland intressenter. 

Studiens resultat bedöms vara trovärdiga eftersom de i allmänhet bygger på etablerad forskning och internationellt accepterade definitioner och pekar i samma riktning som några jämförbara studier. Tre viktiga slutsatser framkom när samhällsnyttan för denna studies bedömdes: 

Bygg- och fastighetssektorn kommer att ha en nyckelroll i omställningen till ett fossilfritt och hållbart samhälle och den skulle ha nytta av att hantera detta proaktivt. 

Den anpassade analytiska ram som föreslås i denna studie är generell och kan sannolikt bidra till att förtydliga och påskynda hållbarhetsomställningsinsatser också i större utsträckning på andra håll i Sverige och utomlands. Ett sådant område är en parallell satsning som utvecklar generiska tillvägagångssätt för hur hållbarhetsomställningen i samhällssektorer kan göras på ett sätt som klargör ömsesidiga beroenden och undviker större suboptimeringar. En annan direkt avknoppning kommer att vara Vägväljarprojektet som ska stärka omställningsmodellering för transportsektorn med Blekinge som en första fallstudie. En annan relaterad satsning är det planerade projektet Drawdown Europe End User Portal (DEEP) som ska bygga stödverktyg för att anpassa globala klimatlösningar till nationella och regionala nivåer. 

De nya förtydligade definitionerna av hållbarhetspositiva byggnader och byggnadssystem innebär att det skulle vara önskvärt att bygga en liknande strategisk omställningsprocess med budgetar även för andra sektorer och för andra viktiga aspekter av hållbarhet som metallutarmning, användning av produktiva ytor, etc. Stockholm Environment Institutes inflytelserika arbete med planetgränser kan här vara en bra utgångspunkt. 

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. It is the following combination of objectives that puts demand on a new process model adapted for cross-sector and cross-disciplinary cooperation: (i) a fossil-free transport system in Sweden by 2030 and, to avoid sub-optimizations in the transport sector, (ii) assuring that solutions that support (i) also serve other aspects of sustainability in the transport sector and, to avoid that sustainable solutions in the transport sector block sustainable solutions in other sectors, (iii) assuring cohesive creativity across sectors and groups of experts and stakeholders. The new process model was applied in an action-research mode for the exploration of electric vehicles within a fully sustainable transport system to test the functionality of the model in support of its development. To deliver on the above combination of objectives, a framework was needed with principles for sustainability that are universal for any sector as boundary conditions for redesign, and with guidelines for how any organization or sector can create economically feasible step- by-step transition plans. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is designed to serve such purposes and therefore is embedded into the new process model. The exploration of this new model also helped to identify four interdependent planning perspectives (‘Resource base’, ‘Spatial’, ‘Technical’ and ‘Governance’) that should be represented by the respective experts and stakeholders using the model. In general, the new process model proved helpful by giving diverse stakeholders with various competences and representing various planning perspectives a common, robust, and easy-to- understand goal and a way of working that was adequate for each of their contexts. Furthermore, the evolving process model likely is relevant and useful not only for transport planning and electric vehicles, but for any other societal sector as well and thus for sustainable community planning in general. 

Today"s society is faced with a multitude of compounding and inter-related socio-ecological challenges. In order to adequately navigate this 'sustainability challenge" and to capture the innovation opportunities that come with it, we need professionals from all sectors of society who can help plan, act, and lead strategically towards sustainability. Sustainability handbook first outlines a structured approach to planning within this complex challenge, which is known as the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. It provides the readers with fundamental social and ecological knowledge from which a scientifically-derived definition of sustainability has been established. From there, the book shares examples of how this Framework can be applied in a variety of situations, sectors, and scales and points to the self-benefit for companies, municipalities and other organizations of working strategically for sustainability. The readers are left with a solid understanding of how to define sustainability, how to plan and act towards it, and how to select from the vast array of sustainability-related concepts, methods and tools in the field today. Sustainability handbook combines the academic and practical experience from a collection of authors. The content has been used, tested and refined over many iterations, and now serves as a primary resource for academic courses and programmes around the world. Any student or practitioner looking for more clarity on how to strategically plan and act towards sustainability in a structured, scientific, and collaborative manner will find value inside. Because of the generic nature of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, it can be useful for any discipline, from engineering, to product-service innovation, to business management, to urban and regional planning, and beyond.

Electrification of the transport sector has been pointed out as a key factor for tackling some of today's main challenges, such as global warming, air pollution, and eco-system degradation. While numerous studies have investigated the potential of electrifying passenger transport, less focus has been on how road freight transport could be powered in a sustainable future. This study looks at Electric Road Systems (ERS) in comparison to the current diesel system. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was used to assess whether ERS could be a stepping stone on the way towards sustainability. Strategic life-cycle assessment was applied, scanning each life-cycle phase for violations against basic sustainability principles. Resulting sustainability "hot spots" were quantified with traditional life-cycle assessment. The results show that, if powered by renewable energy, ERS have a potential to decrease the environmental impact of freight transport considerably. Environmental payback times of less than five years are achievable if freight traffic volumes are sufficiently high. However, some severe violations against sustainability principles were identified. Still, ERS could prove to be a valuable part of the solution, as they drastically decrease the need for large batteries with high cost and sustainability impact, thereby catalyzing electrification and the transition towards sustainable freight transport. © 2018 by the authors.

Companies are finding that customers increasingly demand “sustainable products” while also noticing economic benefits from eco-efficiency and other sustainability-related design approaches. Employees making product-related decisions need support tools to incorporate sustainability considerations — both at strategic (e.g. regarding product lines to develop) and operational levels (e.g. detailed design). This paper presents the results from a set of interviews that explored where and how sustainability considerations are taken into account in the product innovation processes of six Swedish companies. Results are presented as a map of the overall company operations in relation to a generic product innovation model, followed by a map of the places where sustainability considerations are made in that model. Some of the tools that are used to support those sustainability considerations are also briefly described. The conclusion is that there are some, but not sufficient, tools and methods to support inclusion of sustainability aspects in the product innovation processes of these companies.

Products designed for long-life often have significant potential for better sustainability performance than standard products due to less material and energy usage for a given service provided, which usually also results in a lower total cost. These benefits are not always obvious or appealing to customers, who often focus on price. Long-life products are therefore at an inherent disadvantage: due to lower volume of sales that results from the products’ longer-life, the margins (price) often need to be higher. In this paper, we demonstrate that when the revenue base is shifted to be the service of light (instead of the sales of light tubes), there is an opportunity for a “win-win-win” for the light user, the long-life light provider and society. Through a product-service system approach, resulting in a well-communicated total offer, the full array of benefits becomes clearer to the customer, including that they avoid the high initial cost.

This paper presents a case study of a transdisciplinary scenario planning workshop that was designed to link global challenges to local governance. The workshop was held to improve stakeholder integration and explore scenarios for a regional planning project (to 2050) in Blekinge, Sweden. Scenario planning and transdisciplinary practices are often disregarded by practitioners due to the perception of onerous resource requirements, however, this paper describes a ‘rapid scenario planning’ process that was designed to be agile and time-efficient, requiring the 43 participants from 13 stakeholder organizations to gather only for one day. The process was designed to create an environment whereby stakeholders could learn from, and with, each other and use their expert knowledge to inform the scenario process. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was used to structure and focus the scenario planning exercise and its subsequent recommendations. The process was evaluated through a workshop participant survey and post-workshop evaluative interview with the regional government project manager to indicate the effectiveness of the approach. The paper closes with a summary of findings which will support those wishing to conduct similar rapid scenario planning exercises to inform policy planning for complex systems.

The Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) Karlskrona, Sweden, will begin a new Master’s programme focusing on sustainable development in September 2004. The programme is intended to contribute to a growing international network of sustainability practitioners, including early and mid-career professionals, resource managers, executives and political decision-makers. As with many programmes of this type, this one will require coverage of numerous complex economic, social and ecological issues. In so doing, it will cover a number of interrelated disciplines concepts and tools (e.g. environmental science, system dynamics, public policy, business strategies, corporate social responsibility, dematerialization and ‘green technologies’). Various sectors of the sustainability arena will also be studied including agriculture, transportation, health, energy and product development. To deal with the high complexity inherent in sustainable development, we intend to test the enhanced learning capabilities of three unique and interrelated aspects of this Master’s programme including: (1) a structured comprehension of sustainable development, using “Backcasting from Basic Socio-Ecological Principles of Sustainability”; (2) free creativity within basic constraints established by the structured comprehension and (3) a learning process that ‘walks the talk’ with respect to free creativity within basic constraints. Recognizing that “society within the biosphere” is inherently a complex system, the programme will revolve around a generic, structured model for planning and decisionmaking in any complex system. The model is adaptable to any system at any scale – e.g. an organization, a football game, and in this case, “society in the biosphere”. The programme distinguishes five essential system levels including: (i) the system; (ii) success; (iii) strategy; (iv) actions and (v) tools. Second, a structured comprehension, anchored to basic principles at the success level – the ‘trunk and branches of sustainability’ – allows for and promotes free creativity on actions in a particular context – the ‘leaves’. Third, the students will be exposed to a learning process of creative use of actions and tools that the model allows for in any organization – sharing the basic trunk and branches and practicing free creativity amongst the leaves. The programme’s learning process will facilitate a systematic approach to analysis of all kinds of current sectors and problem areas through envisioning of solutions and finding strategic paths of actions and tools towards sustainable outcomes within those sectors. It will culminate in a thesis, following the same general structure, during the last-half of the programme.

This paper discusses how group model building can be used to support strategic sustainable development. Four cases in which causal loop diagrams and, or, system dynamics have been used are described. In addition, some recent and adjacent research studies are discussed to expand the ideas for future applications. The paper suggests how different means of visualization, that is, qualitative or quantitative modelling can support different levels of strategic sustainability thinking and planning.