KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE FIRST "SI TALK 1 - SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES"

Importance of Green Trade
Trade is an important pillar for the relations of Sweden and Portugal, thus increasing our knowledge of green trade strategies is important. As Portugal and Sweden are both active countries in fighting climate change and are pursuing the green transformation of their economies through innovation and investment, sharing and learning from each other's experiences and best practices is a further step in the direction of our common goal. 

Sustainability is ranked top in the global agenda, it embraces several motions beyond the climate crisis and the protection of the planet, namely the resilient and sustainable business and the global economic recovery, and the ethics and transparency dimensions, particularly the pillar related to diversity and inclusion. 

“Younger employees expect their employers to take a stand on important issues, so sustainability must be at the core and must be part of the DNA of institutions if they want to thrive now and in the future”  

Cities are the places where the battle for sustainability can be won or lost

• Cities capture people, operations, and infrastructures which provoke a heavy environmental footprint - cities are presentable for about 70% of Co2 emissions.
• Successful strategies for quicker results is to focus on bigger cities that are major sources of innovation and ecosystems where larger companies and small companies work and come together - big cities are where the transformation will be accelerated

“Challenges lie in getting our citizens to think further than the status quo as adaptation is for everyone“ 

Gender equality brings stronger economies and sustainable societies

• Societies or countries where you have a high level of equality are also strong democracies
• If you include a representation of the whole population in discussions results will also reflect a stronger and more resilient solution

Younger generations see sustainability as a given 

• We are seeing our younger generation is eager to see a change in action and what we can do as universities is to help them structure their course of action 
• Students, therefore, learn the language of the ESGs, and they learn this new language by applying it
• Sustainability is not just about transforming and doing, but about - Accessing, transforming, measuring, and communicating

The financial sector holds one of the largest possibilities of sustainable transformation.
Being sustainable now and into the future, holds competitive advantages, as sources of funding more and more are becoming conditional to companies' sustainable values.