Sustainable Rural Development in West Iceland

Meeting 3Borgarnes, Iceland, 21-22 Sept 2011

Stefán GíslasonMSc Environmental Management and PolicyOwner and Managing DirectorEnvironice, Borgarneshttp://www.environice.is / stefan@environice.is

Contents1. About Environice

2. Problems and challenges in West Iceland

3. A few solutions

4. How can RIBS contribute?

5. Opportunities

6. What if we do not act?

7. General observations

What is ?Environmental Consulting Iceland = UMÍS ehf. Environice:

A consultancy, serving companies, organisations and public authorities in the fields of environment, management and sustainable development

Established in 2000

Today: 2-4 employees

Tasks e.g.:

1. Sustainable tourism, (for local governments, companies and organisations (mainly related to Earth Check))

2. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

3. Education for sust.dev., course material, courses, presentations, etc.

4. Project management for The Nordic Council of Ministers

5. Environmental management (e.g. Ecoalabelling, ISO 14001 etc.)

6. Evaluations, reviews, etc.

7. Green economy

Environice:

Emphasises the human part rather than the technical

www.environice.is (and on Facebook)

West Iceland

Hard-hit by the economic downturn/crisis Dependent on construction industries

Lack of education ??? Guess so, but haven’t seen recent data......

Lack of pioneers ??? Success of a community/region may rely on one individual!

If you don’t believe me, think of Apple and Steve Jobs!

Main problems and challenges

And this is the only problem without an easy-to-design solution

Basically we don’t have any problems! Or at least:

”There is no problem without a solution associated to it”!

Promising ways out of crisis: Small-scale solutions (SME’s leading the way)

Cultural heritage (sagas included)

Natural heritage

Local production (food etc.)

Organic production (food etc.)

Sustainable, innovative tourism, such as.....:

Geological tourism

Bike tourism

Extreme sports

Sustainability certification (for reliability)

We can be the first (competive andvantage)

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them”

A few solutions

RIBS = Rural Innovation and Business Systems!

How can RIBS contribute?

By creating tools?

Tools are necessary

But they all have one thing in common:

They do not do the job by themselves!

A lot of tools EMS

ISO 14001

EMAS

EMS-light Nordic

Ecolabels

Type I (third party) (Nordic Swan, EU-label, Bra Miljöval, TCO, ....)

Type II (first party) (Producer’s claim)

Type III (EPD (Environmental Product Declarations))

Standards, guidelines, Codes of Conduct, …….

Policies, strategies, action plans, .......

EMS-light Nordic One of the tools mentioned above

A specific Excel-worksheet created during a Nordic project(Iceland, Åland, The Faroe Islands)

Companies paid up to 1000 EUR for being a part of the development team

Some 15 companies in Iceland

Turned out to be a useful tool for those few who ever used it

Several just paid, and then didn’t even have time to accept free guidance on how to use the tool

Would they have paid 1000 EUR for education/consulting?

Do we believe in tools as quick-fixes? www. ems-light.net

A simple fact

Systems make it possible,

People make it happen!

What is a real success?

To have a strategy in place?

Or having implemented it?

“Jeg HAR lagt en plan, men jeg husker ikke hvor jeg lagt den”

It’s not enough to lay down a strategy (policy or plan) if you don’t remember WHERE it is laying!

Is a key translator missing -

to translate rhetoric into action?

Assist in THE translation

Identify the needs and the differeneces, there is no “one size fit all”!

Tailor made solution instead of ready-to-go packages

Identify/contact the “ambassadors” of change (Pioneers?)

Understand their situation

Not easy to be the “ambassador” of change within a company

Understand the inherit resistance to change

Sort of a defense mechanism!

How can RIBS contribute?

Exchange knowledge and experiences

Co-

How can RIBS contribute?

nfidence

mpetence

operation

ordination

{ I guess it’s not mainly about tools, it’s about…..:

It’s about education ……for sustainable development

Building the capacity to ACT

Fostering diversity

Teaching critical thinking

Creating the courage to saynot only “YES” but also “NO”

The opportunities do not lie in the situation today,but in tomorrow’s demand

What will „tomorrow“ be like?

Hard to predict, especially about the future, but anyway: Number of tourists will be increasing

Growing demand for cultural tourism

Longer stay at each destination

More emphasis on local products and services

Growing demand for quality and unique experiences

Growing knowledge/awareness about the dark sidesof food production

More questions about content

More demand on tracability (knowing the origin)

Growing demand for organic food

Opportunities*

What if we don’t?

Those companies which lack the energy or the commitment to meet the demands of sustainable development will lose …

Their customers

Their reputations

Their investors

Their best employees

to better performers, not in any particular order, but all at the same time.

Bob Pickard, Shell Canada (sometime in the 90’s)

The following slides contain a list of things that came to my mind during the day

But: I haven’t seen the original project description / application for RIBS

So, I’m an alien in this respect

General observations/comments

You have done a very interesting inventory However, comparison between countries may be tricky

The assessment being done is really a valuable base!!

RIBS is about systems, not about individual companies But I assume the companies have limited interest in systems

But IF you need/decide to address individual companies You could provide them with tools, guidelines, etc.

But face-to-face communication is still the most effective way

Keep in mind that some of the companies found it hard even to “fill in the form” (Oulu)

“SMEs need consulting/education + advice on how to make use of (EU-)funds”. (Oulu)

General observations/comments

Can tool-making easily be financed through EU-funds, but consulting/competence building/awareness raising/education not?

General observations/comments (cont…)

My company (Environice) has been participating in a similar survey annually for a few years (University of Reykjavík) Benchmarking is what has turned out be valuable for me

Benchmarking may be a good “selling argument” when addressing the companies

Thanks and good luck!