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Hidden Competences

International skills and competences, developed through international experiences during study or practical training, are an asset on the labour market. Or so we assume. But do we know this? In 2012–13, the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) and the think tank Demos Helsinki examined how employers rated the skills and…


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Gatekeepers of Sustainable Innovation

While current efforts towards the smarter use of natural resources exist, raising the prospect of promising economic growth, as of today little attention is paid to the market opportunities beyond them. This paper presents a fresh approach for linking the smart use of resources with business.


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Successful sustainability strategies in mid-size Finnish companies

Compared to large companies, substantially less attention has been paid to mid-size companies as forerunners of strategic sustainability practices. However, there are various reasons to assume that the best examples of strategic sustainability might be found amongst mid-size companies.


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From Global Champions to Local Loops: Sustainable Lifestyles in Europe 2050

Imagining how life would look like in a sustainable world where ‘one planet living’ has been attained might be difficult. That’s why we created four potential future scenarios to describe what sustainable lifestyles in Europe might look like in 2050 and to identify the pathways towards reaching it. Our scenarios are not predictions or forecasts but instead seek to
explore the most extreme yet sustainable possibilities, in order to help e.g. policy makers and designers think of the currently “unthinkable”.


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From Local Loops to Global Champions: Scenarios for Sustainable Lifestyles 2050

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of more sustainable products, services, and experimental bottom-up initiatives. They have signaled new hope that more sustainable ways of living are achievable for all, while celebrating diversity, in post-industrial societies.
Despite these developments, existing promising sustainable living practices are not enough as they remain dwarfed by the unsustainable impacts of the average European’s current lifestyles.


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iFuture – The diversity of sustainable lifestyles

It is a common misconception that material scarcity – be it climate change or the peak production of natural resources from oil to phosphor – would lead into a similar linear development in our lives that the increased wealth and expansion of the middle classes did, except with a downward trajectory. This paper presents an alternative view; a view that takes a look at the actual material footprints of people from several European countries and the lives behind the footprints.


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