The Nordic Report 03

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This week, the Nordic Council launched the third edition of The Nordic Report on decision making for sustainable consumption and production in Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway.

It follows the format of the first two reports, retaining section headings from last year, and each section has what is described as ongoing assessments …. examples of people or companies and their work or projects that are an inspiration to show the practical application of the UN Sustainable Development Goal for Sustainable Production and Consumption.

The report has been published at the end of a year when a global pandemic has forced major changes on the labour market and on the global economy and to our manner of producing, consuming and socialising.

Ignoring climate change or attempts, post pandemic, to return to business as usual - quite literally business as usual - is not and cannot be an option.

 

01 Nordic Values
02 Knowledge Sharing
03 Partnerships
04 Sustainable Methods and Models
05 Circular Economy
06 Reduced Waste
07 Sharing Economy
08 Robot Love
09 Responsible Procurement
10 Nudging
11 Transparency
12 Future Generations

SUSTAINORDIC

order copies of the report or read the Nordic Reports on line

 

The Nordic Report 02

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The first Sustainordic report - The Nordic Report 01 - was published by SUSTAINORDIC at the end of 2018 and now a second report - The Nordic Report 02 - has just been released and is available through bookshops and as a pdf version available on line.

This is an important publication that should be seen to mark a point where it is possible to claim that the principles of sustainability in design and production are bedding in … moving on from lobbying to mainstream implementation.

It is no longer acceptable for governments simply to produce lists of aims and targets and platitudes … a wish list that they hope will get them through to at least the next election.

This publication has the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers and is produced through a partnership of six major design bodies from each of the Nordic countries - so from Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway - with Iceland Design Centre, Danish Architecture Centre, Design Forum Finland, Form Design Center and Ark Des, and DOGA. SUSTAINORDIC was established in 2015.

As with the first report, this report takes as its starting point Responsible Consumption and Production - Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals - but with twelve points of action to form a manifesto “which resonates with Nordic values.”

It is interesting to see that the order of the action points in the updated manifesto for Report 2 have been rearranged, implying that priorities have been reassessed, and the impact of these manifesto points have also been sharpened up with stronger and more memorable headings. It is also clear that, in the year between the publications, some terms or definitions have entered a wider public usage so do not need to be explained in quite the same way.

In the 2018 manifesto, item 08 was to ….

Promote circular economy by improving the overall performance of products throughout their life cycle.
We inspire greater awareness of the urgency of products and environments being manufactured to be reused with high quality in technical or biological cycles.

…. but in this new report, at the beginning of 2020, the circular economy has risen up the order and has been given more punch. So now ….

05 CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Promote a circular economy by improving the overall performance of products throughout their life cycle. We encourage a circular approach to minimise waste and to make optimal use of resources in production, in contrast to the "take, make & dispose" model of the traditional linear economy.

The report makes full use of a strong layout design with good graphics, distinct colours and attractive line-work illustrations - although, of course, anything other than good design would have been roundly criticised with so many design organisations involved.

That it is not a stuffy government or public information paper - with bullet points, foot notes and pages of references to sources - shows that SUSTAINORDIC and the Council of Ministers understand that climate change can only be tackled and sustainability only achieved by political action that involves and engages people to gain their support and will be achieved through radical changes in the approach and the work of architects, engineers, planners, designers, food producers and manufacturers.

Some points set out here might seem obvious … so Film, literature, music and art can be powerful weapons … but maybe even now, even in our digital and online World, that still needs to be said and other comments seem obvious when set out here but I have never heard many of these arguments made so simply and so forcefully so ….

Around 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is determined already in the planning phase. Using the design process as a method – to think twice in the early stages, work against norms and involve the users – is an effective way to take sustainable action.

Again, in this second report, there are, within each section, profiles and inspiring interviews about companies and products and, again, this reinforces that, for the Nordic countries, sustainability is not about concerns and  committees and initial policies but about work and projects that are already in hand and moving forward.

Nordic Council of Ministers
SUSTAINORDIC

 
Nordic Report 2.jpeg

The Nordic Report 02 can be ordered on line from Form Design Centre or read online at the same site or the report can be read or downloaded from the SUSTAINORDIC site

Carbon footprint calculators for citizens

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Recently, I received an annual summary from the company that supplies electricity to my apartment. Apparently, my usage is "average" but I realised that I had no idea what that means or if it is good or bad. People can be average smokers but that still does not mean smoking is good for them

Here the meters are read remotely and payment is paid by my bank to the company automatically so it could not be easier and then electricity is one of those things I really don't understand. And that's even though I was relatively good at physics at school. I've got a literal sort of mind that likes to see cause and effect so, even now, I can't get my head around alternating current that, by simply its name, implies something that ebbs and flows. A pump can be switched to alternate … can suck or blow but if the water I use did the same then it would surely fill and then empty the sink!

I digress. What I really mean is that I can’t see or judge, in anything like real time, how much power I'm using and, in terms of my personal carbon footprint and my impact on global warming, that can't be good. Most people act only when they see the impact of what they do in real time.

So, out of interest, I looked on line and came across an article …. Carbon footprint calculators for citizens, Recommendations and implications in the Nordic Context by Marja Salo and Maija K. Mattinen that they published in 2017.

It does not provide the solution but does look at some of the problems in making this sort of interface easy to use and meaningful but also raises questions about how, in an age drowning in information, and, even in Scandinavian countries where there is probably a higher perception of the problems of global warming, it is still difficult to find out what we should do and what impact that will have.

In the first apartment I rented in Copenhagen, I was the first occupant in the place after it had been created in the attic space of a building well over a hundred years old and the owners pointed out just how much they had had to spend to comply with current standards for insulation but then I experienced the gains first hand when the first winter came. Despite being in the roof and despite large dormer windows and one large room with floor to ceiling windows onto a balcony, I did not turn on the radiators …. and that was despite the fact that it was on the community heating system so it would have been too easy to turn it on with no physical feed back of boilers going on and off that I'm used to.

In the second apartment, it was in a very large housing complex and monitoring electricity and heating use was outsourced through a heating consultant. He came one day to do an annual check with the figures for my power usage and said he wanted to check thermostats on radiators because I seemed to be consuming more than would be expected but that was resolved when I pointed out that it was a large and very open apartment and writing and doing research meant the apartment was occupied during the day and I was sitting at a desk in a large space with floor to ceiling windows in an apartment that was nearly twenty years old so not built to current standards and heating had to be kept relatively high or I'd have to sit at the computer wearing a scarf and gloves.

I'm suspicious of monitors and assessments offered by the utility supplier or the manufacturer of white goods because surely they just need to sell me more and, on the other hand, a generic and vague tick-box survey cannot, surely, take into account things like working from home and yet we really do need more guidance and more tangible proof that relates to us specifically if we are to change habits and make a difference.

Carbon footprint calculators

 

Sustainable Chairs at Designmuseum Danmark

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At the end of last year, the Nordic Council of Ministers held an open competition for the design of sustainable chairs with one winner chosen from each of the Nordic countries.

Judges considered the sourcing of materials; the energy required in production and distribution; consideration of disposal at the end of the life of the chair and general compliance with the United Nations 17 goals for sustainability.

At the beginning of December, winning designs were shown in the Nordic Pavilion at COP 24 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice in Poland.

The overall winner was the Danish entry - The Coastal Chair by Nikolaj Thrane Carlsen.

This competition was organised in partnership with the Nordic national design associations - Danish Design Center, Svensk Form, DOGA in Norway, Ornamo in Finland and The Icelandic Design Centre.

the chairs will be shown in the entrance area of
the design museum in Copenhagen
until 26 May 2019

Designmuseum Danmark

 

Petite
David Ericsson
Sweden

beech
components reduced to use less materials and light - just 2.5 kilo

 
 

Tangform
Nikolaj Thrane Carlsen
Denmark

shell eelgrass and carrageenan extracted from red algae
frame recycled from bamboo floorboards

 
 
 

Håg Capisco
Peter Opsvik
Norway

recycled plastic from household waste
no glue or harmful chemicals
durable, easy to disassemble and repairable
manufactured by HÅG/Flokk

 

Kollhrif
Sölvi Kristjánsson
Iceland

cork and aluminium recycled from 14,400 tea lights
manufactured by Málmsteypan Hella and Portland

 
 
 

Clash 331
Samuli Naamanka
Finland

aspen and birch
thicker at the part of the seat where the legs are glued so subframe not necessary
durable
manufactured by naamanka

The Danish Design Center has posted photographs and information about the ten designs in the finals in each country:
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden