Norway’s Green Region Vestland - Building an Ecosystem for Sustainable Transformation
Across Europe, regions are looking for practical social innovative ways to turn climate ambitions into real change. In Western Norway, Green Region Vestland (GRV) is thought to do exactly that. Led by Vestland County Council and Innovation Norway (a government organization that supports entrepreneurship), GRV brings together businesses, public authorities, researchers, and communities to accelerate local green transformation.
Social innovation is conceptualized by GRV as industrial symbiosis (NORCE and Eyde-klyngen, 2025). This means that it encourages companies to create new relationships within their value chains, turning waste, excess energy, materials, and expertise into valuable resources for others. The goal is to transform environmental challenges into new business opportunities while strengthening the region's competitiveness (UK Gov, 2025).
The core idea is to connect actors through a network of hubs spanning sectors such as maritime industries, energy production, tourism, food systems, and process industries. Together, these hubs represent hundreds of projects aimed at creating a more circular and sustainable economy. Each hub can be understood as a subsystem in which a coordinating organization brings together related companies. GRV, in turn, coordinates these hubs so that targeted development strategies can be designed and implemented. Over time, the intention is to create new links between companies from different hubs, forming broader and more interconnected networks.
The experience of GRV illustrates that a sustainable circular economy cannot be built through generic solutions alone. It requires an understanding of local resources, industries, skills, and social realities by how they can complement each other (Böhm and Alexander, 2024). Successful transformation therefore depends on combining local strengths with global sustainability goals while building on the advantages already present within a region. This awareness of contributions of actors within a territory, either directly or indirectly, is vital for recognizing how successful circularity within industries can be woven by the region's culture, history, and future aspirations.
Research has highlighted how a lack of a shared understanding of social sustainability can pose a challenge to circular economy initiatives (Zenteno Hopp et al., 2026). For some, diversity means accounting for the cultural backgrounds of workers, while for others it primarily concerns workers' skills and competencies. Similarly, inclusion may refer to engaging external stakeholders and addressing concerns about organizational impacts, or to listening to employees and responding to their needs and aspirations. Some organizations use diversity initiatives to strengthen their visibility and reputation in local markets, while others view them as a means of legitimizing their activities within local communities. None of these interpretations are inherently right or wrong; rather, they reflect different priorities shaped by organizational strategies, concerns, and the perspectives of leaders and workers involved in the initiatives. However, a common idea on diversity and inclusion would be advantageous for developing circular economy initiatives for the companies at an individual level but also regionally.
A clear focus on social sustainability helps identify challenges and opportunities that industries may overlook when acting independently. Engaging workers, local communities, public authorities, and other stakeholders, enables organizations to detect potential conflicts, bottlenecks, and economic, practical, or ethical concerns early, strengthening both the legitimacy and long-term viability of circular solutions (Civera et al., 2025; van der Wel et al., 2025). This proactive approach reduces risks, builds broader support, and provides valuable insights into societal needs and market trends. As a result, social sustainability enhances the resilience, inclusiveness, and long-term economic success of circular economy initiatives (Ceddia et al., 2024).
To better integrate social sustainability into industrial symbiosis, greater attention must be paid to the human dimension of green initiatives. Rather than treating social sustainability as a separate objective, it should be embedded in the ways industrial symbiosis networks are structured and operated (Sellitto et al., 2025). This involves creating opportunities for workers across different stages of the value chain to exchange practical experiences, knowledge, and concerns, thereby strengthening mutual understanding and collaboration. The development of industrial hubs should be guided not only by material and resource flows but also by how people communicate, what values they share, and which cultural characteristics facilitate cooperation. In addition, organizations should be encouraged to critically reflect on how they perceive and manage internal diversity, how they promote inclusion, and how they engage with local communities. By incorporating these social dimensions into the functioning of industrial symbiosis, initiatives can build stronger relationships, enhance trust among participants, and create more resilient and socially legitimate forms of circular collaboration.
Social sustainability is often misunderstood as simply including everyone in every process. In reality, it is about bringing the right people into the conversation at the right time and recognizing the unique value that different actors contribute to shaping change (Nkansah-Dwamena, 2024). True inclusion is not driven by numbers but by purpose. It requires openness to diverse perspectives while maintaining a clear direction for where the transition is heading. Workers play a particularly important role in this process. Listening to these perspectives helps identify where responsibility lies, what barriers exist, and what motivations are needed to create meaningful and lasting change. Thus, social sustainability cannot be treated as an afterthought. It requires deliberate strategies designed and implemented by professionals with expertise to translate principles into action. It is a process that should begin in educational institutions, where future workers and leaders develop the skills and values needed to navigate change, and continue through companies and regional policies. Only through a coordinated and strategic effort can social sustainability become more than an aspiration and instead serve as a driving force behind successful green and digital transitions.
Taking into consideration these ideas and the goals of the DeCrises project, our focus in studying GRV is to advance understanding of how industrial symbiosis can contribute to sustainable transformation in Western Norway by identifying how successful practices can be scaled up, replicated, and shared across other regions and countries, while also critically examining the barriers that may limit their broader adoption. In doing so, we seek to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms through which industrial symbiosis creates meaningful and lasting impacts, including the skills required to support these processes, the key actors involved in producing and disseminating knowledge, and the institutions which should help shape and guide the transition. Furthermore, our aim to explore how trust, shared learning, and common visions can be developed across industrial networks, generating not only economic value and prosperity for industries but also well-being for the workers, communities, and other stakeholders whose participation is essential for achieving long-term and inclusive sustainability transitions.
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