In September 2018 Global Umaning organised, together with the International Federation for Housing and planning and with funding from Nordic Innovation, a Nordic Urban Lab in the City of Hamilton, Canada. The lab was designed as a peer-learning opportunity between local stakeholders and nordic representatives and aimed to address issues of social sustainability, inclusivity and equality in social housing areas.
With financial support from Nordic innovation’s Nordic Sustainable Cities programme – a program that aims to strengthen the Nordic brand abroad – a selected group of Nordic experts were invited to take part in a comprehensive Nordic-Canadian capacity building programme on localizing SDGs and sustainable urban development. Through a co-productive process, Canadian officials and local stakeholders engaged with their Nordic peers in order to tackle challenges of affordable and sustainable housing.
To accommodate new economic, environmental and social needs, cities across the world are faced with sustainability challenges associated with the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial age. Challenges are interconnected and complex. Therefore, governments, business and civil society need to work together on innovative solutions. Global Utmaning and the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) have pioneered the concept of Urban Labs wherein a cross-sectorial constellation of leaders from governmental, business and civil society organization co-create sustainable solutions to the most pressing needs of cities. Urban Labs are enabling sustainable innovation across the world. This concept was the basis for the first phase of the event in Hamilton where businesses, cities, public authorities and organisations from the Nordic region and Canada together explored, learnt, analysed and developed ideas to challenges regarding affordable and sustainable housing in Hamilton.
Following the first phase the, Quercus Group, Climate Kic, Solved – the cleantech company LTD, the Danish and Swedish Trade Council together with the city of Hamilton hosted a public event where the Nordic business solutions and best practices from cities where presented and debated with representatives from private and public sector in Hamilton.
Contact Person,
Joel Ahlgren, Project manager Global Utmaning
