Category: All Recent Updates

FLEXIBLE EMISSION FEES EXPLAINED

Externalisation – harmful emissions from commercial and civil activities – represents a negative side of the way business is carried out today.  Economic growth on one side brings profits to business owners while externalisation on the other flips the costs of emissions over onto citizens, who via taxes must bear the cost of environmental clean-up. The challenge for economists and scientists is to come up with ways of managing pollution-producing substances in a way that both supports economic activities and preserves the environment.

This workshop  covers the reasoning behind the mechanism  from scientific, economic and practical angles and then presents the mechanism itself in enough detail for delegates to be able to explore possibilities for introduction of the mechanism in their own work

Continue reading “FLEXIBLE EMISSION FEES EXPLAINED”

Local currency-driven knowledge exchange workshop at Uppsala University

ITK UPPSALAISSS fellow Stephen Hinton recently led a complementary time-based currency workshop as part of a project to set up a student knowledge exchange at  CEMUS, Uppsala University, Sweden.
The students, coordinated with the tireless energy of Jesse Shrage and his friends Christina Fagerlund and Adam Elinder , want to set up a collaborative exchange system where skills and knowledge could be swapped based on a time currency.

Continue reading “Local currency-driven knowledge exchange workshop at Uppsala University”

Lokalvaluta dagen

(Seminarium och Workshop)
LOKAL VALUTA SOM MOTOR I LANDSBYGDS- OCH LOKALEKONOMISK UTVECKLING

itk
Kan en lokal, volontär valuta vara ett sätt att organisera och stimulera landsbygdsutvecklingsprojekt? Tidigare har ISSS utfört pilotstudier och utveckling av modeller för introduktion av lokalvaluta. Dessa studier visade bl.a. stora möjligheter för användning av volontärvalutan ITK. ITK, som står för Ideell Tid Kuponger, introducerades inom projekt som syftar till att stärka den lokala ekonomin och öka den lokala beredskapen inför t.ex. extrem väder, elavbrott, ekonomiska svårigheter mm. Denna workshop ger dig som är involverad i landsbygdsutveckling, beredskap, lokalekonomi, miljöutveckling osv. nya insikter och metoder för att organisera, uppmuntra och finansiera projekt. Continue reading “Lokalvaluta dagen”

Case Study: Envisioning the sustainable city

porenaPLACE: Stockholm, Sweden

SITUATION:  The think tank  AVBP took on the challenge of working with the narrative of the sustainable city. Instead of seeing how we live as  being a burden on the Earth, and  dire prospects of having to give up our comforts, AVBP explored how tell the story of how we  can create great places to live sustainably.

FRAMING QUESTION: how can we create a narrative that gives us  a positive, feasible view of a sustainable future in a city? Continue reading “Case Study: Envisioning the sustainable city”

Case Study: Creating centers of well-being.

cover_COWBPLACE: Stockholm, Sweden

SITUATION:  The think tank of AVBP was given  an interesting challenge: how to develop tourism in areas  of natural beauty that have  easy access to cities? The need was to encourage visitors to be tourists  closer to home. These tourists were looking for active holidays, with high interest and with a high degree of health involved.

FRAMING QUESTION: how can we develop our tourism business using our proximity to cities, areas of natural beauty and focus on health to develop a booming tourist industry, where people come back year after year.

SOLUTION: The Center of Well -being concept was proposed by the think tank. The basic idea is to create and market an area in a way to make it “sticky” offering so much and such a range  that the visitor will be enticed back time and again. Continue reading “Case Study: Creating centers of well-being.”

The sustainability challenge of phosphorus

An important background briefing for all who want to understand sustainability: why the element phosphorus is one of the limiting factors in soil fertility and why we cannot rely on mined sources indefinitely.

For more information on the pollutant fee approach, developed by Höglund, see the white paper.

First edition of Signals of Change newsletter: September 2013

Signals of Change newsletter monitors the news flow from a wide variety of sources from the last 30 – 60 days for developments that could inform your organization’s social and environmental strategy which in turn could affect your overall business strategy. Signals of Change Newsletter is produced in cooperation between the Open World Foundation, the Institute of Swedish Safety and Security and Stephen Hinton Consulting.

The newsletter is released once a month to subscribers only. (To subscribe and be fully up to date – it’s free – click here). The newsletter is released a few weeks later for public reading on partner websites. Continue reading “First edition of Signals of Change newsletter: September 2013”

Case Study: using complementary currency to drive volunteering and collaboration

Journalist BirGitta Tornerhielm shows off her vouchers for ITK
Journalist BirGitta Tornerhielm shows off her environmental currency

PLACE: County of Uppland, Sweden

SITUATION:  Despite best efforts, rural areas – even some close to large cities – are experiencing a decline in population, investment  and or services. As unemployment is rising, and the production of services is moving away from the area, the ability of the area to handle challenges such as economic downturn, food shortages, freak climate, power failure etc. is decreasing.

When disaster strikes, the authorities and corporations cannot alone be relied upon, it is up to citizens to meet these challenges.

SECONDARY SITUATION: The above applies too, to the task forming the sustainable society. The challenges are similar but the time-frames differ. Firm public engagement, and collaboration between authorities and businesses is needed to meet the nation’s ambitious environmental goals.

FRAMING QUESTION: Are there  tools available that can be used to encourage citizens to take part in developing the sustainable society, tools and approaches that can encourage them to contribute their time and skills to developing a local resilient capability? Is so, how can these tools be implemented? How can corporations and authorities be involved? Continue reading “Case Study: using complementary currency to drive volunteering and collaboration”