Green growth initiative to create competitive advantage for Nordic businesses
A strong Nordic contribution to creating European sustainability standards can boost the competitiveness of Nordic companies. ‘Working together in the Nordic region is both sensible and profitable and the Nordic green growth initiative could benefit a number of sectors in the Nordic countries”, says Dagfinn Høybråten, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, in an interview with the NIB Newsletter.
Launched by the Nordic prime ministers in 2011, the green growth initiative is a vision based on using the strong Nordic tradition of cooperation to promote energy efficiency, environmental awareness, as well as boosting innovation and research towards new sustainable solutions to a number of problems facing our societies today.
“Green growth is a key priority for Nordic cooperation. Nordic partnerships in this area make sense for a number of reasons, and will provide advantages that are only partially exploited at the moment”, says Mr Høybråten.
“The initial report from the Nordic Prime Misters also pointed out that cooperation on green growth projects could give a political lead in the EU and EEA. And here in the Nordic region we have a long tradition for working together on solving problems that affect all of us. Why not share these skills with others?” he continues.
Since the initiative was launched, Nordic working groups have provided in-put to the drafting of European standards for sustainable renovation, indoor climate, and environmental product declarations and sustainable construction.
“Currently, EU regulations related to green buildings are scarce. This creates an opportunity for Nordic companies to become the leaders in this field”, says Mr Høybråten.
“A joint Nordic contribution to European standards can foster a more sustainable building sector in a much larger region than our own. This obviously offers Nordic companies a competitive advantage.”
From waste to resource
So far, the green growth initiative has facilitated numerous proposals, policy recommendations and reports. One example of a problem the green growth initiative is dealing with: currently, 54–80% of used textiles in the Nordic countries end up on landfills. That is a huge pile of clothes that can still be reused or properly recycled to produce new clothes. Similar reports have been published on the collection, sorting and recycling of plastic waste in the Nordic countries.
“Recycling is a perfect example of how sustainable industries can benefit from cross-border cooperation”, says Mr Høybråten.
“Setting up a market for new recycled products is extremely difficult, particularly in smaller countries, such as ours. Working together means creating a bigger market. This is both sensible and profitable.”
“The green growth initiative has helped establish unique think tanks that bring together top experts from all the Nordic countries and across all fields of knowledge. As an international governmental organisation, we provide them with a meeting point where they can take a holistic approach to sustainability challenges”, Mr Høybråten continues.
In autumn 2014, the green growth project pipeline includes among other things, an analysis of financing for green investment, a report on bio-refineries and the bio-economy, and a report on further increase of customer flexibility in the Nordic electricity market.
“Our hope is that the green growth initiatives will eventually lead to practices and products that can be introduced also outside the Nordic region. This is a great opportunity for the Nordic countries to be pioneers in sustainability”, Mr Høybråten concludes.
The Nordic Council of Ministers’ publishes a Green Growth web magazine: Green Growth the Nordic Way – see more at http://nordicway.org/.