Despite a growing understanding of the environmental harm caused by the linear economy, most Swedish businesses continue to operate within its logic—prioritising growth and profitability over sustainable resource use. A fundamental redesign of the economy is essential to reduce environmental impacts significantly. 

 

This project aims to identify and illustrate leverage points for transformative innovation policy. Policy is understood broadly to include instruments, objectives, and processes that politicians can use to steer behaviours in a chosen direction. Building on expertise in transition studies and insights from earlier projects, the team examines the barriers that prevent businesses and societal actors from adopting circular and sustainable models.

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Collaborative Systems Mapping

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The work includes reviewing relevant literature and exploring tools, methods, and visual languages for mapping economic systems. In parallel, the team collaborates with stakeholders—including business leaders, academics, financial actors, policymakers, public sector representatives, and civil society—to identify key challenges and co-create potential solutions.

 

Toward A Model for Transformative Innovation Policy

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Through an iterative process, the project will develop a visualization and narrative of the current economic and financial system and how its inherent logic of short-term profit drives unsustainable behaviour and leads to an escalating depletion of the Earth's resources and climate crisis. The result will be a model that illustrates effective measures for transformative innovation policy, presented in infographics and other accessible formats—mainly aimed at business and finance leaders and policy actors at different levels.

 

The intended outcome is to support behavioural change and more informed decision-making that contributes to a more sustainable, safe and healthy economy operating within planetary boundaries.

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Project lead

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Derek Diener, RISE​​​​​​​​​

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