Saving white winters: Sports, business and science unite for climate action

Stockholm Resilience Centre partnered with Swedish Ski Association and the Alpine World Cup in Åre on March 7-8, for the first-ever Nordic Sustainability Arena. The event gathered key actors from business, policy, science and the world of winter sports to discuss and promote solutions within the Planetary Boundaries.

“It’s a matter of survival for our sport. I can feel frustrated that there´s a lot of talk, I ask you all to act now,” said Pernilla Bonde, Secretary General of the Swedish Ski Association in her opening remark.

Per Olsson, deputy science director for Stockholm Resilience Centre, underlined that snow, winter and sports can add an emotional connection to scientific insights.

“To save our white winters and live within the planetary boundaries, we have to achieve large scale, rapid, just and deep transformations. Skiing can bring people together to address these issues together," he said.

Sports can lead the way

Georgina Grenon, Sustainability Director for the Paris 2024 Olympics, shared best practice examples of taking action from their event, reducing emissions by half compared to the previous Olympic games.

“We aligned all our work with the goals in the Paris agreement, and we used symbols to show the world how we can make a difference, even the Olympic fire was made up of water and light, nothing burned."

Susanna Sieff, Sustainability Director for the International Skiing Association FIS shared their ambition and work to understand their climate and nature impact and take action.

“The skiing sports have the power, passion and voice to walk the talk. I can see a change in the national skiing federations to have sustainability leads. We need to speed this work up,” she said.

Riika Rakic, Sustainability Director for International Biathlon Union, said sustainability sits at the centre of their vision, mission and goals of the organization.

“If we do not have snow, we have a problem. We have the opportunity of reaching fans and raising awareness – every gram of CO2 matters,” she said.

Stewards of the planet

Beatrice Crona, Science Director for Stockholm Resilience Centre, shared insights from a new report on how businesses, investors and other actors can understand their full impact on climate and environment impacts related to the Planetary Boundaries framework.

“To ensure white winters, every bit of impact counts. Companies and other organisations need to analyze and report on what is in fact impacting the whole planet,” she said.

Anna Berntorp, partner at law firm DLA Piper, provided insights into regulatory landscape can impact sustainability work.

“Sustainability frameworks can spur business to be more effective, a catalyst for innovation. Turning risks into an opportunity.”

Lisen Schultz, deputy director from Stockholm Resilience Center, shared her learnings from training top executives in the private and public sectors on climate and nature, to become stewards of the planet – understanding that our societies and economies are dependent on a functioning biosphere.

“It´s important to start by identifying the barriers of climate leadership – but also remembering that the actions we take here matters, now and for future generations. We need to move from exploiting to regenerating,” she said.
Rickard Åström from Handöl’s Sámi Village, addressed the need to remember we all are a part of nature, and need to act on that knowledge together.

“I have been a reindeer keeper for 30 years and have seen climate change is ways we could never imagine. We all need to take better care of nature. We need to talk to each other – and help Mother earth get well from her fever," he said.

Stronger political will needed

Åsa Persson, head of the Swedish Climate Policy Council, talked about the important of long-term planning horizon.

“The world is not doing enough, but the Paris agreement is working. It´s helping us to lower emissions, but the political will is lacking,” she said.

Matthias Goldman at the 2030 secretariat address the importance of transforming transportations, one of the major sources of emissions, not least related to travelling to winter competition venues and holiday destinations.

“Skiing slopes are melting, and the Swedish government are missing their climate targets. But there’s great opportunities for change,” he said.

Fanny Sjödin, sustainability director at SkiStar, said that their skiing operations have a relatively small climate impact, but transportations to and from destinations are a big source of emissions.

“We need to form more and stronger collaborations to reduce emissions from transportations," she said.

Vattenfall, one of Europe's largest producers of electricity, talked about the importance of looking at the obstacles that are preventing us from addressing sustainability challenges. That has proved a successful method of reducing emissions dramatically.

“The competitiveness for us lies in sustainable business models, that’s the driving force. We all need to set bold targets, collaborate and inspire for action – jointly we can be a force for the good,” said Annika Ramsköld sustainability director at Vattenfall.

Snowtopia

True to alpine skiing, Nordic Sustainability Arena concluded with an “after ski” event: “Snowtopia”. Elite skiers, artists, scientists, and sustainability professionals took the stage to share their love for snowy winters, voice their concerns about climate change, and explore ways to take action. The event took inspiration from Greentopia, held annualy for and with the Swedish music community.

“Conflicting goals, endless growth, melting glaciers, and the impact of travel… there are many tough challenges ahead, but there’s no time to waste," said Louise Lindén, president of LiveGreen who hosted event.

The events were moderated by Olympic gold medalist and athlete Carolina Klüft, engaged in sustainability actions, including being mentor to Sweden’s first citizen assembly hosted by Stockholm Resilience Centre’s programme Fairtrans.