The challenges of the global climate crisis are heightened in large part by a pervasive uncertainty regarding how architects and de-signers can address this challenge most effectively. In a situation where action is needed, but the correct strategies remain un-known, it is essential for architects to share their experiences and knowledge as broadly as possible. They must seek out perspectives that can help them overcome these impasses. When climate change was put at the top of the international environmental agenda more than a decade ago, Scandinavian countries were ready and able to respond quickly and methodically. Today, Scandinavia is still on the forefront of sustainable development, reorienting cultural engagement and economic growth to face climate change. The experience and knowledge accumulated by architects from Denmark, Norway and Sweden have the potential to enrich the exchange of ideas that is vital to a shift towards holistic thinking and sustainable architectural practice. In this book, essential aspects of sustainability in architecture and planning are approached from many diverse perspectives. They exemplify the breadth and depth of explorations underway. The collection of writings is based on six years of visits made to the three Scandinavian countries, and sustained engagements with the schools of architecture in the capital cities of Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. The book aims to illuminate lessons being learned by architects in Scandinavia, that are also relevant in a global perspective. The main drivers of sustainability are highlighted through case studies that cover all scales from planning and infrastructure to buildings and components. The cases illustrate central themes such as energy, lifecycles, industrialization, durability, transformation, and history. More acutely architectural topics such as adaptability, integrated design, and architectural education/tradition further permeate the cases. At the same time, the projects exempli-fy the best practices of sustainable architecture in Scandinavia in-cluding housing, offices, cultural buildings, and urban development.

For well over a decade, there has been a drive towards sustainability in planning throughout the Nordic countries. But are these countries experiencing a paradigm shift in planning research and practice with regards to sustainability? Or is the sustainability discourse leading them into an impasse in planning? This book includes overviews of the planning systems in the five Nordic countries, drawing attention to their increasing focus on sustainability. A leading team of scholars from the fields of planning, urban design, architecture, landscape, economics, real estate and tourism explore how the notion of sustainability has shaped planning research in the Nordic countries. Case studies from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark shed light on what lessons can be learned and some possible future developments. By focusing on the actual settings and practices of local and regional planning activities, it enables a discussion on the current state of planning for a more sustainable future. This book will be valuable reading for students and academics interested in planning policy, environmental policy, architecture and urban design work.

The working group on Sustainable Consumption and Production, under the Nordic Council of Ministers requested consultants from Gaia to identify, write out and publish best practice cases of sustainable consumption and production on the UNEP SCP Clearinghouse. This report presents nineteen initiatives that cover two particular themes: 1) Sustainable Lifestyles and Education and 2) Sustainable Public Procurement. The cases have also been added into the UNEP's 10 Year Frame-work Program (10YFP) information platform, the SCP Clearinghouse which is a concrete result of Rio+20. The objective is to enhance international cooperation in order to accelerate a shift towards sustainable consumption and production in developed and developing countries. The SCP Clearinghouse is a web-based information sharing tool, which can be used by different actors as an inspiration for advancing SCP worldwide.

All over the world young people are protesting for action on climatechange and sustainable consumption. In the Nordic countries, the youth are leading the way as sustainable changemakers with ambitious, radical,and urgent demands to politicians and decision-makers to take action now.This analysis looks at youth in the Nordic countries, aged 13-30, and their concerns, motivation, inspiration, actions, approaches, recommendations, and demands in relation to SDG12 on Sustainable Consumption and Production.

The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, outlines an ambitious and universal plan of action for people, planet and prosperity as it seeks to strengthen universal peace and freedom. This report presents national and Nordic action on Agenda 2030 with the aim to inform and support the Nordic Council of Ministers in formulating a new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme. All Nordic countries are engaged and strongly committed to implementing Agenda 2030 and there is a broad societal interest in joint Nordic action. The existing Nordic Strategy for Sustainable Development and several other key initiatives within Nordic cooperation already contribute to the goals of Agenda 2030. A new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme can build upon a strong foundation and add further value to the national and international work done by the Nordic countries.

The author examines policies and strategies for ecologically rational governance and uses the Swedish case study to ask if it is possible to move from a traditional environmental policy to a broad, integrated pursuit of sustainable development, as illustrated through the 'Sustainable Sweden' programme.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351765633, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. In the 21st century, Norway, Denmark and Sweden remain the icons of fair societies, with high economic productivity and quality of life. But they are also an enigma in a cultural-evolutionary sense: though by no means following the same socio-economic formula, they are all cases of a "non-hubristic", socially sustainable modernity that puzzles outside observers. Using Nordic welfare states as its laboratory, Sustainable Modernity combines evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives to illuminate the mainsprings of what the authors call the "well-being society". The main contention is that the Nordic uniqueness is not merely the outcome of one particular set of historical institutional or political arrangements, or sheer historical luck; rather, the high welfare creation inherent in the Nordic model has been predicated on a long and durable tradition of social cooperation, which has interacted with global competitive forces. Hence the socially sustainable Nordic modernity should be approached as an integrated and tightly orchestrated ecosystem based on a complex interplay of cooperative and competitive strategies within and across several domains: normative-cultural, socio-political and redistributive. The key question is: Can the Nordic countries uphold the balance of competition and cooperation and reproduce their resilience in the age of globalization, cultural collisions, the digital economy, the fragmentation of the work/life division, and often intrusive EU regulation? With contributors providing insights from the humanities, the social sciences and evolutionary science, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, institutional economics, Nordic studies and human evolution studies.