Swedish town Trelleborg located on the Baltic Sea shore has been a member of the Union of the Baltic Cities since 2007. It has been active in developing a sustainable approach to economy, transportation, ecology and society – spheres fundamental to reaching the UN goals of 2030. Sustainability manager of the Trelleborg municipality Ms. Lina Wedin Hansson presents a local example of how to highlight the global sustainable development goals (SDG) in the context of sustainability awareness raising in Trelleborg.
Three steps to increasing local involvement
In order to start a journey towards improving knowledge regarding sustainable development, the sustainable development team in the City of Trelleborg decided to embark upon an information campaign. It was decided that a three-step seminar series should be organized in order to start knowledge dissemination. The aim of these seminars is to make descents related to local challenges, but drawn from the global goals on sustainable development. The invitation to the seminar series was distributed broadly and it was aimed at all the stakeholders related to the local community.
Three steps of the seminar series involved the following:
Step one: a Kick Off meeting with a frame-setting, inspirational lecture on the global challenges by a well-known authority on the subject matter, combined with short presentations of local knowledge and activities related to the SDG’s.
Step two: a seminar on a more specific subject related to the local setting; in our case, ecosystem services and local activities related to the subject matter. The seminar started with an inspirational lecture on the concept of ecosystem services and how it is relevant to us. It was followed by two local examples of projects aiming to increase the knowledge of ecosystem services.
Step three: a seminar on gender equality and local activities related to this area of the sustainable development goals.
The benefit of making descents that specifically draw on the local experiences increases the likelihood of local involvement and understanding of the local relevance for the global sustainability goals.
For more information, contact Ms. Lina Wedin Hansson, Lina.Wedin-Hansson(at)trelleborg.se.
Image attached: Dr Mikael Karlsson, the President of the European Environment Bureau at the Kick Off on 24 October 2016.