Translating the Process Leadership from Nordics
Nordic countries stand out as the world leaders in the sustainable transition: how can we inspire others to follow the same path?
Climate change knows no borders; we believe that improving the sustainability of one city carries positive externalities for all of us. Cities in the Nordics have developed a remarkable way and solutions to address the most pressing global challenges. Due to their close focus on people, holistic approaches to urban development and a legacy of collaboration, Nordics have indeed become the world leaders when it comes to sustainable transition in cities.
The one-week multi-disciplinary master class ‘Sustainable Cities. The Nordic Way’ took place in multiple locations across Denmark and Sweden and gathered multiple Nordic solutions providers along with representatives across different disciplines from the city of Brampton in Canada and St.Paul, the state capital of Minnesota, in the US.
Challenges, insights and aspirations differ across the cities who participated at the master class. The strong interest and curiosity towards the journey on how Nordic solutions came to be, illustrates that the actual export potential lies in translating the process leadership from Nordics to other global geographies.
The Nordic solutions providers excel in co-creating sustainable urban transitions together with municipal, civic, academic and business stakeholders. Process leadership at its core means bringing people on a joint journey. The approach and process are thus Nordic indeed, however ultimately the newly designed solutions become unique to the challenges and aspirations of the other global partner cities.
Quercus Group was pleased to host, programme and facilitate the first Nordic master class together with Climate-KIC Nordic as a part of the wider efforts of Nordic Innovation and the Danish Business Authority to foster and strengthen global strategic partnerships driving a sustainable urban future.
The program of the masterclass was designed as an interactive learning experience through themes such as strategic planning for sustainable cities, climate adaptation, social resilience, smart mobility, smart cities, putting people first and more. The participants got introduced to Nordic solutions from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
Efforts such as the master class aim to forge new global opportunities in a long-run. The master class showcased that bold and impactful urban solutions are possible — sometimes against all odds.
The continuous question throughout the week, however, was how a long-term transition can be kickstarted and enabled in St. Paul and Brampton as of now. The participants developed experiments to be kickstarted in their cities right after the master class.
We are also particularly pleased that the open innovation projects such as the ‘Affordable & Sustainable Housing’ lab in Hamilton, Canada two weeks ago facilitated by Quercus Group and other partners, were identified as expedient approaches to build a coalition, enable quick wins and pave creative and innovative ways for a sustainable urban transition.
We are eager to hearing more from our masterclass’ participants and are already planning the next ones.
— Wadim Baslow, Project Manager Sustainable Cities
