Health as a leverage point - system management for climate and social sustainability

Creating change during a period of major shifts and complex challenges requires systems thinking and new ways of working where the ability of municipalities to work on issues in parallel is central. The project addresses climate neutrality and social sustainability from an equity perspective.

Conditions for climate adaptation vary depending on social factors, such as where you live, income level, gender and ethnicity. Socio-economically vulnerable groups are at higher risk of bad health and negative impacts of climate change.

Through social planning with an understanding of different conditions, health benefits and increased social sustainability can be achieved while increasing contributions to environmental goals.

Karlstad Municipality needs to strengthen its work on social sustainability without losing momentum in the work towards climate neutrality. One challenge is that administrations work in different directions that can sub-optimize or counteract each other.

However, health creates great commitment, so linking the issues creates the opportunity to explore models for collaboration. The project aims to develop the municipality´s capacity for systemic change while developing concrete solutions.

The focus is on how health as a catalyst and a design driven approach can catalyze system leadership and bring units and actors closer.

The learning is based on a practical case and will test new behavioral solutions in a living lab during the car-free SM-week in 2026.