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Towards sustainable living in the Nordic Region

  • Published on January 14, 2022

The purpose of the program is to help make it easier to live sustainably in the Nordic region, make sustainable lifestyle choices and to accelerate the normalization of a sustainable lifestyle. The program consists of six projects that look at our lifestyle challenges through a unique combination of perspectives and disciplines, across education, gender equality, nutrition, communication, and culture. The expectation is that there is great potential for creating synergies between the various professional groups.

"The Nordic countries are often highlighted as best in class when it comes to sustainable societies. We do a lot right, but we also face big tasks. Massive private consumption in the Nordic region is a challenge for our climate goals. Therefore, it must be made easier for citizens in the Nordic region to choose sustainable solutions."

Paula Lehtomäki, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers

Towards sustainable living in the Nordic Region is a new program created by the Nordic Council of Ministers and released at the Helsinki Hub for COP26 on the 12th of November 2021. It comes in response to a recent report 'Towards sustainable consumption in the Nordic Region', which highlighted how overconsumption in the Nordic Region is causing large environmental spillover effects in other parts of the world. These spillover effects are hindering other countries in achieving their SDG targets, by outsourcing production emissions to those countries which rely upon the exportation of energy and goods. This is highlighted in the broadcast by Anders Fink of the Ministry of the Environment, Denmark who explains that although the Nordic countries are ranked at the top of the world for their work towards the SDGs, in the latest sustainable development report, where countries are also ranked by a spillover score, the 5 nordic countries are ranked between 135 and 155 in the world. 

Therefore, the aim of this program is to affect change in the consumption habits of individuals in the Nordics by making it easier for people to make more sustainable choices in all aspects of life. As described by Julian Lo Curlo, of the Nordic expert group for sustainable development “Sustainable choices should be the default and not the alternative. We want to ensure that the systemic level enables sustainable choices to also become the easiest ones”. 

Due to the multi-faceted nature of a 'sustainable lifestyle', which can cover a broad range of topics within all sectors of society, the program is split into six individual projects. Each project is aimed at a different area in society that contributes to a more sustainable way of living. These projects are: 

Project 1: Durable and Healthy Food Systems 

Project 2: Sustainable cultural experiences in the Nordic region 

Project 3: The Nordic Ecolabel’s contribution to the realisation of NMR’s vision and climate plan

Project 4: Sustainable education in the Nordic countries 

Project 5: Sustainability, lifestyle and consumption from a gender perspective 

 

Project 6: Good Life Goals – A communication effort for and by young people

More information on each project can be found at: https://www.norden.org/da/project/baeredygtig-livsstil-i-norden

 

 

External source(s)

Project start date
12/11/2021
Project end date
12/11/2025

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