Potentials for Sustainable Development by Amalgamating Social and Environmental Aspects: Experiences from Refurbishment Projects in Sweden

Paper in proceeding, 2005

The Swedish Government has assigned SEK 6.2 billion for Local Investment Programmes (LIP) for the period 1998-2005. The funding programme intends to facilitate for municipalities, in cooperation with business com-panies and non-governmental organizations, to achieve environmental improvements. The programme encouraged the inclusion of social aspects in the municipal packages of measures. More than two hundred programmes have received subsidies; about eighty have had a multidimensional character – i.e. encom-passing a number of environmental aspects and social aspects. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has commissioned an evaluation of these programmes in order to understand more about the advantages of multidimensional efforts. The question is: What is the potential for sustainable development, if amalgamating social and environmental aspects? The evaluation is carried through as a case study of ten refurbishment programmes having a multidimensional character. Data about the environ-mental effects is gained from a special LIP-database and official documents. Quantitative and qualitative information about the social aspects is collected by studying mass media articles and statistics of the area and by carrying out interviews with project leaders and involved inhabitants. The analysis of the empirical material is conducted with help from theories on sustainable development, the so-called MAINtetra which supports the discussion on the relationship between environmental aspects and social aspects in local processes aiming at sustainable development.