The business community stands for a great amount of the carbon emissions in the world, but also for many of the solutions.
In Sweden’s fifth largest city, Linköping, large businesses and other large organizations have joined forces to combat climate impact. The work aims to achieve the municipality's goal of becoming carbon dioxide neutral as early as 2025, but also to reduce the global climate impact overall.
The network started in 2018 and when a new agreement for the next two years was signed in early 2020, the number of members doubled. Members consist of both private corporations and public organizations. The common denominator is that they all consume large amounts of energy. The network is, however, multi-faceted and does not only work with energy challenges, but also with challenges in transportation and material flows.
”Sustainability as a business approach creates long-term value for companies. Taking active part in creating solutions to our societal challenges increases competiveness and attractiveness,”
— Louise Felldin, Director of Economic Development at The City of Linköping
All members have made a vow to lower their emissions of carbon dioxide. They meet approximately once a month (currently online) to work with selected common challenges. There is also a strong external network consisting of Linköping University and other key actors in the region, which meet up with the members twice a year. Once a year, business executives and local politicians meet to sum up the past year with the Linköping initiative. The guiding principles for the network are collaboration, learning, communication and change.
