The Green Growth road show continues with stops on Bornholm and Åland

Nordic working group for green growth – innovation and entrepreneurship has come to its final year and it is therefore time for evaluation and dissemination. Recently, the islands of Bornholm and Åland were visited and meetings and seminars with local stakeholders were held.

The meeting on Bornholm attracted more than 40 local stakeholders. The main topic of the event was the Bright Green Island of Bornholm, which is a vision decided by local politicians 10 years ago. Today it is still a vision rather than a concrete development strategy, although measures are made by individual actors across the island towards a green transition.

The event at Bornholm was a starting point for initiatives by the local authority to facilitate the development of a more well-defined strategy and its implementation. A representative from the local government of Åland participated in the event too, and presented the local strategy in Åland for sustainable development. Participants concluded that Åland has paid considerable attention to stakeholder involvement in the development of their strategy.

On 29 August the Road Show continued with a roundtable meeting in Åland hosted by Landskapsregeringen and Nordregio. 15 relevant stakeholders from business, the government, local level and academia, plus a special guest from Bornholm were present. There is a mutual interest from the Baltic Sea islands to collaborate on green transition issues and amongst other things Nordic bioeconomy strategies and cases were presented.

Kemi, Luleå and The Kalundborg Symbiosis are all included in the green growth road show cases, as they have been part of Nordregio’s recent research on industrial symbiosis. You can read about it in Nordregio Policy Brief 2016:1 as well as in the Nordregio Report 2015:1 and Nordregio News 2016:1. The road shows bring together symbiosis centres from around the Nordic countries, all of which have been studied by Nordregio. There will be presentations, workshops and discussions on future collaborations.

Nordregio’s new publication on 50 green growth cases has now been published and can be found here!