To meet the decarbonisation targets for maritime transport, a sectoral energy transition is required. This report presents an overview of the maritime energy transition in the Nordics, from several perspectives. First, governmental strategies, policies, regulations and supporting schemes are reviewed, followed by a description of the Nordic ship traffic, and scenarios for the future maritime fuel mix.

The recent uptakes of novel energy carriers and alternative fuels, in terms of production, infrastructure and end-use, are summarised, as well as previous studies on Nordic sectoral strongholds. Emerging markets influencing the maritime sector are touched upon, such as offshore wind, digitalisation, and carbon capture.

Based on this overview, and drawing on scientific literature, Nordic strongholds were assessed through a sectoral innovation systems analysis. On this basis, a set of policy recommendations is provided.

The construction sector is a major global GHG emitter, responsible for 40% of carbon emissions and 50% of raw material use it's crucial to drastically reduce the sector's carbon footprint while meeting housing needs. The Nordic countries have been leading the way since 2018, aiming to become the most sustainable region in the world. Their efforts include harmonizing building regulations, implementing LCA measures, and setting emission limits. However, achieving a carbon-neutral construction sector requires a full systems transformation, integrating environmental, social, and economic sustainability. 

This publication explores these challenges and opportunities through 24 expert interviews, offering insights on the future of sustainable construction and the necessary cultural and legislative reforms. 

New Nordic report: Government initiatives to promote reading and interest in reading among children and young people in the Nordic region

 Children's and young people's reading is a prioritized cultural and educational policy issue in the Nordic countries and in the Nordic cultural policy co-operation programme. The aim of national initiatives to promote reading is to increase literacy, strengthen the interest in reading and make literature a natural part of children's and young people's everyday lives. A strong reading culture is considered to provide better opportunities for education, culture and participation in democratic dialogue. In this policy brief, Kulturanalys Norden presents a compilation of current government reading promotion initiatives for children and young people in the Nordic countries and the autonomous regions.

 The report is produced by Kulturanalys Norden. Kulturanalys Norden is a Nordic knowledge centre for cultural policy established on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The network project titled “Nordic animal gene banks – added value through Nordic cooperation” (NordFrost), has aimed to strengthen the collaboration and competence for ex-situ conservation of animal genetic resources (AnGR) in the Nordic region. This project was launched as a case study following the Horizon2020 funded IMAGE project (2016-2020) where it was concluded that there is a broad variation in the current state of practices and the distribution of responsibilities related to cryoconservation activities between the Nordic countries.

The national strategies on conserving AnGR emphasise ex-situ conservation in varying degrees. However, collection of samples, metadata, back-up storage of material or common strategies and action plans for ex-situ conservation on a regional level does not exist. This makes conservation of AnGR an exposed area that threatens the resilience of Nordic food security. By developing new collaborative models, strengthening Nordic infrastructure, and enhancing the development of Nordic strategies for ex-situ conservation in the region, this network will contribute to increased sustainability for populations and future Nordic food security.

Funding: The Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural and Food Research (NKJ).

Initiating organisations and steering group members: Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) / Farm Animals (coordinator)Aarhus University / Morten Kargo, Center for Quantitative Genetics and GenomicsNorwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) / Ian Mayer, The Faculty of Veterinary MedicineNatural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) / Annika Tienhaara, Bioeconomy and Environment

Ubiquitous digital connectivity is a challenge to literary reading for leisure and recreation, and there is a tension between online life and reading concentration. On the empirical basis of a qualitative study on adult readers of literature, in this chapter I explore the tension between the act of reading and the readers’ priorities in today’s era of deep mediatisation. The chapter presents a typology of three attributes to describe the interrelation between disconnection and concentrated attention as demonstrated by literary readers. First, being a literary reader adheres to personal values that lay the groundwork for pride in self-understanding as a reader. Second, the identity as a reader triggers the power to self-regulate digital connectivity. Third, being an experienced reader enforces enduring patience to read, though not without struggle and firm decisions. The identified attributes represent both positively motivating and negatively stressing experiences. Hence, combining modern media life and long-form reading triggers ambivalence and evokes a paradox of attention. This chapter demonstrates how even personally preferred and well-experienced cognitive demanding acts, such as long-form reading, requires attention on disconnection to keep up attention.

“The digital backlash” covers a range of social and cultural practices of digital disconnection, as well as critiques of the impact of digital technologies and platforms in the world today. Through calls for more restrictive, or more “mindful”, uses of digital technologies, “mobile-free” schools, work regulations along the lines of a “right to disconnect” framework, the rise of new entrepreneurs in the growing “digital detox” industry, as well as critiques of the role of Big Tech – society is deliberating on the stakes of the digital for the human condition.  The digital backlash can best be described as a kind of zeitgeist: a moment in history in which the norms about digital behaviour, consumption, and habits are being questioned, and where the early hype of the digital era beginning in the 1990s is being challenged. This edited volume offers a collection of empirical and theoretical analyses of the digital backlash as it manifests across national, institutional, and everyday contexts.  The  contributions span analyses of discourses and public debates around disconnection and the so-called techlash, the ambiguities and tensions of digital connectivity for work, labour, and productivity, the reordering of family and school life along with the perceived negative consequences of digital connectivity for the well-being of children and young people, as well as the playful and sometimes subversive recreational practices that people reinvent in search of authenticity as a response to all things digital. A distinct focus is placed on social practices and dilemmas related to new ways that people adapt to, appropriate, and push back against digital technologies in everyday life. 

This chapter expands the understanding of contemporary disconnective technologies by providing a case study of a mundane, low-tech artefact that has gained popularity in both private and public spaces: the mobile phone box. A mobile phone box (or a phone basket, as it is often called) is a place to put away smartphones for shorter or longer durations; boxes range from sophisticated products to simple homemade solutions. In this chapter, we identify the mobile phone box as a post-digital consumer object, representing the disenchantment with hyper-connected life that is visible in studies of digital disconnection. To scrutinise the diverse meanings of the artefact – and the broader discussion about the role of connective technologies in our lives – we investigate the debate following a Swedish trade association’s decision to award the mobile phone box the title “Christmas Gift of the Year” in 2019. Our analysis indicates that the box, and the solutions it embodies – putting away one’s phone – is highly contested, yet also an indication that the digital backlash and disconnection sentiments have become part of mainstream culture. The chapter contributes insights into hitherto under-researched guises of the post-digital and the kind of discursive battles that this condition may trigger. 

What we in this volume call the “the digital backlash” covers a range of social and cultural practices of digital disconnection, as well as critiques of the impact of digital technologies and platforms in the world today. It thus includes a variety of overlapping and multifaceted changes and tendencies across societies, including digital disconnection, digital detox, the right to disconnect, media refusal, and what has been called “the techlash”. Hence, it can best be described as a kind of zeitgeist: a period in history in which the norms about digital behaviour, consumption, and habits are being questioned, and where the hype of the early digital era beginning in the 1990s is being challenged. In this introduction, we set the scene of the book by giving an overview of these tendencies and the history of digital critiques, serving to provide a framing for the chapters in the book. 

The 2020 documentary film The Social Dilemma, produced by Netflix, is one of several examples of Big Tech critiques that have emerged in recent years. At the time of writing, it is the second most watched documentary Netflix has ever released, reaching 38 million viewers in 28 days. The film provides a scathing condemnation of Facebook, Google, and others, and acts as an admission of guilt for former central figures in the industry. The fact that Netflix, a Big Tech company itself, produced the film gives it an ambivalent status. In this chapter, we present a qualitative analysis of how the The Social Dilemma was received on social media, comparing its reception in the US and Denmark. We highlight how dominant discourses were composed both of praise for the film’s main message as well as critiques of its creators. Such critiques display a widespread scepticism of both positive and negative portraits of Big Tech coming out of Silicon Valley.

In the public debate, problems due to excessive use of digital media are often explained with reference to neurological functions and addressed through calls for self-regulation. This digital backlash and the desire to disconnect from the digital environment can be understood as the latest expression of the perennial concern with adverse media effects. For decades, media and communication research has dealt with the question of what the media do to us, pointing out the complex entanglement of social, psychological, technological, political, cultural, and economic aspects that are part of the question. The difficulties involved in reaching any absolute conclusions have motivated critical media studies to formulate different research problems and thus risking missing the opportunity to make an important contribution in one of the more pressing public debates of our time. Drawing on Latour’s distinctions between “matters of facts” and “matters of concern”, in this chapter, we suggest that critical media and communication scholars ought to treat media effects as a matter of concern to remain a relevant actor in the public debate about problematic media use. 

Political workers represent a category of workers whose professional reliance on social media is well-documented. However, while many studies inquire about the role of social media in politics per se, ours is designed to capture political workers’ subjective experiences of what it is like to live and work in the post-digital society. This involves asking to what extent – and at what perceived cost – political workers intentionally seek to self-regulate their media use in the direction of disconnection. Qualitative interviews with 14 Norwegian politicians serve as our window into personal experiences of political work under post-digital conditions and into daily, morally induced dilemmas pertaining to work-related use of digital, connective technology. Our results suggest that today’s political workers are “post-digital experts”, which is required to learn how to endure the entrapping and distracting mechanisms of the post-digital society. 

The Cambridge Analytica scandal shook political establishments and news audiences alike in 2018. The scandal, which figures prominently in accounts of the “techlash”, has been followed by a substantial reorientation in the attitudes held towards the digital sector. The aim of this chapter is to tell the story of the developing history of the digital backlash as seen through an empirical analysis of the Danish media coverage of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. While we find that the public’s view of Zuckerberg, Facebook, and the tech industry did change dramatically, we suggest that this was anticipated by a long-term change in the media representation of them in the years before. This challenges the notion of quick and sudden pushback, as implied by the metaphor of a backlash, instead suggesting that the scandal is part of a gradual process of change in public opinion regarding technology companies, their CEOs, and their operations.

In this chapter, I explore the multifaceted gamified digital disconnection within the technology-driven context. Forest, as a productivity app pioneering a gamified approach to foster focused work, embodies a paradox of using apps infused with game design elements to aid users in their quest for digital disconnection. Employing the app walkthrough method, drawing on disconnection and gamification research, in this chapter I critically examine Forest’s game design elements, and the paradoxical role disconnection plays in a hyperconnected context. Three primary game design elements – game feedback, social connectivity, and real-life contribution – are identified as facilitators of disconnective practices in the app. These game design elements encourage users not only to optimise their own disconnective experiences but to compete with peers and contribute to nature. The indicated work may, at times, seem to contradict the app’s intended goals, making distractions, fostering social connections, and potentially greenwashing rather than blocking distractions, promoting individual disconnection, and greening the environment.

The backlash against digital media usage has manifested in everyday practices of digital disconnection, or deliberate non-use of media. This chapter provides an overview of the last decade of empirical disconnection research, tracing both its overarching tendencies and its boundaries. This is done through an analysis of 346 empirical studies on digital disconnection. For the purposes of this chapter, digital disconnection research is defined by a research ethos which does not consider the act of media non-use or restricted media use as something to be remedied. In review, the typical interest of the research has been in studying the disconnection of relatively young and individualised agents from social media, a disconnection which is often temporary or partial. Therefore, in the discussion portion of the chapter, I consider the opportunity for the openness of digital disconnection studies to extend even further, with particular emphasis on structures and contexts where disconnection may not only be problematised by the imperatives of “always on” communication, specifically in working life and other organised contexts. 

In this chapter, we explore how participants experience disconnection in practice at a digital-free summer camp for adults. Underleir is an annual week-long camp originating from discussions on the Norwegian social network Underskog and draws inspiration both from Silicon Valley disconnectionist ideology and Scandinavian traditions of friluftsliv [outdoor recreation]. When the camp was f irst organised in 2014, digital detoxing was not a well-known concept in the Norwegian context, and such camps are still rare in Scandinavia. The study is based on fieldwork, interviews, and online material. In the chapter, we discuss how camp experiences relate to the participants’ life course along three temporal dimensions: the past (nostalgia, play), the present (freedom from status games, relaxation), and the future (survivalism, utopianism). The study contributes to the disconnection literature by moving beyond the media-centred issue of how users relate to their gadgets. Instead, the chapter explores how being digital-free is made meaningful within a concrete and unusual holiday setting and relates to the societal and personal values of those attending.

In classrooms, schools, and homes around the globe, digital education platforms are becoming increasingly vital partners in preparing, conducting, monitoring, and evaluating formal educational encounters. In Denmark, as well as many other spaces of formal education, the swift and extensive efforts to digitalise educational practices, institutional administration, and other aspects of schooling have availed a series of questions pertaining to the material and micro-political effects of imbricating public education with commercial digital infrastructures that operate beyond the auspices of democratic control. This chapter combines thick descriptions of school life with (big) data on user tracking to unravel a day in the life of teachers and students intertwined in the digital economies of commercial platforms and datafication. Weaving together accounts of the (datafied) school lives of two individuals – a teacher and a student in Denmark – with visualisations of data flowing from individual and collective devices to platform owners and thirdparty corporations, we discuss the implications of an unchecked, continuous, and increasing influx of digital education platforms in public primary education as well as the (im)possibilities of disconnecting from the hyperconnected school.

In this chapter, I analyse how humans navigate recurring processes of digital disconnection and articulation work to manually repair and reconnect with their wearable devices. I ask what these processes tell us about the relations we form and experience as meaningful with our devices. Specifically, interviews and photo diaries on body-technology relations were conducted with couriers doing delivery services on app-based platforms, with employees who have volunteered themselves to have a microchip implanted in their hand, as well as with self-trackers using tracking devices embedded with sensors for various purposes in their private life. The vignettes in the analysis show how participants constantly navigate moments of disconnection and connection with their devices, resulting in them having to fix the breakdowns to stay connected and work on maintaining a meaningful relationship with their personal tracking device. The analysis shows how the characteristics of this work depend on the context of tracking, the material aspects and physical proximities of the relation between body and device, and the generated data.

This chapter starts out from previous research showing that people in possession of greater amounts of cultural capital are more sceptical of new media technology and more inclined than others to withdraw from media in time-spaces of leisure and vacationing. To get at the underlying sociocultural mechanisms behind such f indings, the chapter provides an overview of historical and contemporary patterns pertaining to how cultural capital plays out in relation to tourism and (new) media. Three main theses are presented, linked to representational, connective, and logistical media affordances, respectively. First, I argue that cultural capital generally fosters a predisposition for the “authentic” and thus rejects masscirculated tourism imageries. Second, cultural capital sustains the safeguarding of personal boundaries and thus works against open-ended connectivity and mediated intrusions into the “tourism-world”. Third, cultural capital feeds from a sense of independent navigation in foreign places and thus shuns certain forms of (mediated) guidance. Altogether, the three theses highlight the significance of cultural capital as a counterforce to digitalisation, and as a vector of the disconnection turn.

How are Portuguese dead zones positioned as tourist locations to disconnect from digital media? In this chapter, I use the concept of atmosphere to explore how tourist dead zones contain different dimensions that work to restrain as well as foster connection: on the one hand, mindfulness, romanticism, and nostalgic elements to deter connectivity as ways of suspending the mediatised and accelerated everyday life, and on the other, social media promotion and expansion of digital connectivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter is based on a study conducted in Portugal in 2021–2022 under the DIS/CONNECT project, combining in loco and social media observation with interviews with promoters and visitors to five tourist locations in dead zones. The analysis highlights how, in the aftermath of the backlash and still under the transformation brought about by a global pandemic, dead-zone tourism stands at the intersection of offline, nature, and rural tourism, seeking an idealised individuality and selective sociability – and that the promise of disconnection tourism is only exceptionally embraced by a few tourists. 

In this chapter, I propose that the concept of affective dissonance is theoretically helpful to account for young people’s sentiments of digital disconnection. This proposal is empirically substantiated through an analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 17 Norwegian youths, based on the following question: How do young people react to invasive connected media? The findings illustrate that affective reactions to digital impulses appear to be an integrated part of young people’s daily management of digital connectivity. Although these experiences may lead to negative experiences, they do not necessarily lead to disconnection practices. From young people’s perspectives, digital disconnection not only involves being physically separated from connectivity but also encapsulates attitudinal shifts and mental distancing. Based on these findings, this chapter posits that disconnection is also an affective state that does not necessarily transform into action or practice, but is as much about the potentiality to act. This chapter thus recognises digital disconnection as a process based on youths’ perspectives, acknowledging its affective facet, and contributing to a broader conceptualisation of disconnectivity beyond acts and practices.

As the development of new digital welfare solutions to an increasing extent is carried out in public–private innovative partnerships, the provision of care and the practice of patienthood are changing. In this chapter, I draw on a pilot study consisting of an expert interview with an employee at a global tech-pharma company and two patients with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) to tease out ambivalences and ways that disengagement and disconnection emerge as “disconnective care” in digital patienthood. Two narrative vignettes are presented and illustrate 1) digital patienthood as reinforcing the need for “boundary work” within a moral economy of (health) data-sharing, and 2) how partial disconnection is negotiated when full disconnection is not an option because of the everyday management of illness being dependent on digital media technologies. I point to the need for an ethics of “response-ability” in relation to chronically ill patients navigating digital patienthood as part of everyday life.

In this chapter, I examine how digital (dis)connection intertwines with andrelates to care in the practices of parents living in Denmark. I ask the following questions: How do parents strive to care for their children with and without digital technologies? And what can feminist care perspectives do for theories of disconnection? This chapter is based on 20 in-depth interviews with parents of children aged 0–12. Parents’ experiences demonstrate how digital technologies can help create both the preconditions and the context for care. The use of technology does not come without tension, however, as parents perceive that it can also interfere with an active good life and compete for their attention. Taken together, parents’ practices and discourses of (dis)connection offer insight into the moral imperatives surrounding digital media use in the family.

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis, and the ensuing diffusion of remote work, revived the debate about work meaningfulness, leading many workers to question their hyperconnected worklives. In Italy, this discussion has been animated by the “south working” proposition, which promotes moving towards the south of the country to work remotely and enjoy a slower pace of life and lower costs of living, while contributing to the revitalisation of rural and nonmetropolitan areas. Through digital ethnographic research that employs a variety of data sources, in this chapter I reconstruct the debate around south working across Italian mainstream and social media. I critically discuss the role that hyperconnectivity, disconnection, and digital work lifestyles play in this conversation, reflecting on the significance of the south working proposition in context of new aspirations for a “good life” that are distinctive of the post-pandemic scenario.

Rapporten, mål- og resultatopfølgning på budget 2023, dokumenterer, hvordan Nordisk Ministerråd har opnået de mål der blev sat i forbindelse med budget 2023 inden for de forskellige områder. 

The BIM4LCA project report outlines a BIM-based process for calculating building carbon footprints, offers guidelines for BIM-based material inventory, and suggests data requirements and best practices for modelling and data processing to improve BIM data's usability and accuracy for LCA. It envisions automated BIM-based LCA for instant feedback and low-carbon design solutions. The project produced two example buildings with BIM models for practitioners' learning and educational videos on BIM-based LCA. The report highlights the need for Nordic authorities to set BIM requirements for climate declaration and support information harmonization in the construction sector. The report emphasizes the importance of integrating BIM and LCA processes to achieve sustainable construction goals.

In the report  the latest savings from ecodesign and energy labelling policies in the Nordic countries are provided. This project aimed to enhance the Nordcrawl tool by providing updated calculations of energy savings from ecodesign and energy-labelling policies in the Nordic countries. The study employs two complementary methodologies – a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach – implemented on the Nordcrawl online platform. 

The expected increase in the number of people suffering from dementia is intertwined with the ageing Nordic population. More and more older adults will live with dementia diseases impacting their everyday lives.

The Nordic societies are trying to adjust to this challenge and to the rising needs of good dementia care. In parallel, mounting evidence on the efficacy of dementia prevention encourages the Nordic countries to upgrade their preventive work, and to mitigate the effects of cognitive decline in the population.

This report explores dementia prevention in the Nordics and provides examples of preventive policies and practices. It also reviews these measures in relation to current evidence on dementia prevention, striving to strengthen Nordic co-operation in the field.

The report describes the current policy and practice of dementia prevention in Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland with Åland Islands. Methodologically, the knowledge base for this report rests on a descriptive analysis extracting, systematising, and presenting data from literature and documents, individual interviews, and information and discussion from a reference group.

The Nordic Networks for Circular Construction project from 2021 to 2024. Its aim was to spearhead the adoption of circular economy principles within the construction sectors of Nordic countries. 

The project was structured based on the following focus areas:

• Barriers and Opportunities
• Metrics for Circularity
• Cultural Change Dissemination
• National Fora for Circular Construction
• Green Public Procurement as a Lever for Circular Economy 

 This Executive Report seeks to synthesise the essential findings from these themes and distil them into actionable insights and strategic recommendations to further advance circular construction practices across the Nordic region.

Data related to use of electronic communications services play an important role in the investigation of crime and protection of national security. To secure the availability of such data, legislation has been passed imposing obligations of data retention on service providers. Data retention interferes with rights to privacy and data protection, and to be lawful in relation to these rights the legal regulation must fulfil several conditions. Uncertainty about the exact limitations and conditions applicable to the regulation, has led to disparate development of the legal regulation of data retention in the Nordic countries. The report compares the data retention regulation in the Nordic countries in force as per November 2023 and analyses the differences. Important findings are that the greatest problems concern data retention related to online services, and that legal concepts that prima facie are similar, still may have different meanings in different countries.

Begrebet ”Nordic added value” er i stigende grad blevet anvendt som et vejledende princip for det tværministerielle nordiske samarbejde og dets tilknyttede institutioner. Der er dog en vedvarende fornemmelse blandt interessenter i det nordiske samarbejde af, at den præcise betydning af begrebet ”Nordic added value” er uklar. Der er også usikkerhed omkring, hvordan begrebet kan operationaliseres i praksis. Fortolkningerne af begrebet og dets betydning varierer fra sektor til sektor inden for det nordiske samarbejde såvel som fra person til person.

The concept of Nordic added value has increasingly come to serve as a guiding principle of inter-ministerial Nordic co-operation and its related institutions. However, there is an enduring sense among stakeholders in Nordic co-operation that the exact meaning of the concept of “Nordic added value” is unclear, along with uncertainty around how the concept can be operationalised in practice. Interpretations of the concept and its significance vary from sector to sector of Nordic co-operation as well as from person to person.

As a part of the sustainability transition, circularity is gaining more and more attention from the Nordic construction sectors. It requires, however, a redefinition of current working practices, thereby becoming a multifaceted challenge for the stakeholders throughout the whole value chain.

 This research produced a set of recommendations on how local and national public authorities and the Nordic Council of Ministers can impact circularity in the construction field through advocacy, guidance, and financing. The report provides individual perspectives from five Nordic countries and synthesizes the findings in the form of recommendations.

I denna promemoria och tekniska rapport sammanställer Kulturanalys Norden en genomgång av litteraturstatistik i de nordiska länderna. Vi tar vår utgångspunkt i tabell CULT17 som redovisas i Nordic Statistics Database (NSD). I rapporten redovisar vi även förutsättningarna för en fortsatt harmonisering av standarder för statistiken över publicerade böcker. För att utveckla statistiken till ökad jämförbarhet är vår rekommendation att länderna framöver på ett samstämmigt sätt även inkluderar digital utgivning och egenutgivning. Vidare är rekommendationen att länderna undersöker möjligheterna till att leverera en separat variabel - ”varav barn- och ungdomsböcker” – utöver nuvarande genreuppdelning.

This report investigates approaches for monitoring decarbonisation of the building stock and for setting whole life carbon limit values for buildings. It provides an overview of the approaches for monitoring decarbonisation and their strengths and weaknesses, such as data requirements and accuracy of assessment. 

 The assessment of setting limit values looks into aspects such as scope and coverage of the limit values and how such different aspects may affect the derivation of limit values. The report presents a set of recommendations for further advancing this. Thus, providing a foundation for further activities on monitoring decarbonization and setting limit values in and across the Nordic countries and Estonia.

The vision of the AI & Data program is to establish the Nordic region as world leading in digitalisation, ethical AI, and responsible use of data.

 This report is part of a larger project, Nordic Ethical AI & Data Ecosystem Building, under the AI & Data program at Nordic Innovation. The goal of the project is to explore how Nordic datasets and capabilities in ethical AI and responsible use of data can contribute to the development of new innovative solutions in Nordic businesses. 

 The report aims to answer the following questions: 

- What are the benefits of adopting an ethical and responsible approach to AI?

- What does the regulatory landscape currently look like for AI? 

- What is the status of ethical and responsible AI in the Nordics today? 

- What is needed from businesses and decision makers to accelerate adoption of ethical and responsible AI in the Nordics?

This study is part of the Nordic Networks for Circular Construction (NNCC) project. It builds on the report Nordic Networks for Circular Construction WP3: Metrics for Circularity, which resulted in a list of potential indicators. Most of these indicators will be collected at the macro level. However, strategic criteria should be enforced locally as part of the public procurement process to realise the indicators. The overall objective of this study is to support the inclusion of circular construction criteria in public procurement. The study answers the question: How are the recommended indicators being implemented as part of public procurement for construction projects at the municipal level?For each Nordic country, a municipality that has demonstrated leadership in circular construction has participated in the study.

The goal of the NOW Ports project has been to make Nordic ports ready for the expanding offshore wind industry with a stronger green infrastructure and new value chains across developers, manufacturers and subcontractors for offshore wind.

17 Nordic ports and sites has entered an innovative collaboration with offshore wind players in order to upgrade, redesign and adapt existing facilities and decarbonise the port’s infrastructure.

The aim of the project has been to create the most attractive, innovative and cost-effective concept for future offshore wind port infrastructure and supply chain in the Nordics (both bottom fixed and floating).

This report covers the different ports and their opportunities. 

Young people are vital agents for a just green transition, but participation varies across social identities and backgrounds. Men and boys tend to be less interested in both sustainability and gender equality. How can organisations strengthen the conscious and committed, while also bringing underrepresented voices to the table? This report analyses experiences of young people in Nordic nonprofit organisations from a gender and climate perspective. It identifies clear patterns and obstacles and considers key approaches to enabling more inclusive youth movements. 

In this report, Anthesis and iNudgeyou share the results of behavioural interventions (nudges) implemented to increase the use of reusable cups at cafés and similar locations. Nudges were implemented in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg, in collaboration with Original Coffee, Espresso House, Circle K, Nordrest and a Nordea office café. Results reveal varying impact of different types of nudges. In general, direct questions from personnel is much more effective than infographics with various content. Other types of nudges, such as revealing social norms also show potential. How nudges are implemented also matters, as do the setting (closed or open) and systems used for the reusable cups alternative. We discuss the importance of not only increasing the uptake of reusable cups, but also the return. We also discuss conditions for successfully scaling impactful interventions and conclude with recommendations for both businesses and policy makers.

This report presents the findings of a study of the various approaches taken by the Nordic countries to involve the private sector in national strategies to achieve climate targets. As part of their climate mitigation strategies, each Nordic country has engaged the private sector in climate action through specific government-led public-private collaboration initiatives. 

 The report’s primary objective was to analyze and compare the diverse strategies adopted by Nordic governments to seek input from the business and industry sectors in the form of roadmaps developed in coordination with public authorities. In all the Nordic countries such sector roadmaps are viewed as important components of public policies to achieve national climate targets.

This report examines the integration of social sustainability within the national tourism policies of the Nordic countries, focusing on how these policies address the social dimensions of sustainable tourism. As tourism continues to grow in the Nordic region, the economic benefits of tourism have to be balanced with the environmental and social impacts, to ensure the well-being of local communities and the preservation of cultural heritage.

The primary aim of this forum was to serve as a platform for stakeholders encompassing the fisheries, aquaculture, scientific, and policymaking realms to engage in substantive dialogues about their role in climate change and the co-existence with offshore wind. Its overarching goal was to foster the exchange of ideas and insights towards active mitigation of the impact of these critical sectors on climate change. Recognizing climate change as a pervasive global challenge necessitating concerted efforts across the maritime industry, the forum endeavors to galvanize actionable solutions that promote harmonious co-existence of sustainable offshore activities across diverse sectors.

This appendix is a part of the report: Nomad Maas roaming final report. 

The primary project addressed by the NOMAD (The Nordic Open Mobility and Digitalization) project is the need for seamless, cross-border journeys involving scheduled services and on-demand services like taxis, micro-mobility, and car-pooling. 

The challenge lies in compensating for services provided by different Maas agents, whether publicly or privately funded. 

The project proposes a solution by standardizing interfaces between mobility providers, enabling the roaming of travel services and creating unified, user-friendly experiences. The Maas roaming concept, inspired by mobile phone roaming, envisions using local Maas agent apps to plan, book and pay for trips across borders. 

In Summmary, the NOMAD project addresses the complex landscape of corss-border mobility challenges, striving to create a standardized, user-centric approach to Maas roaming.