Sustainable investments as driving force towards circular economy and smart city developments: Green financial instruments to accelerate responsible business strategies in sustainability discourses

The overall objective is to enable decision-makers in cities, municipalities and academic institutions in the Nordic countries to receive a comprehensive picture of opportunities and risks to utilize responsible and sustainable financial instruments, to correspond increasingly to the challenges of waste management, achieving circularity and low-carbon economies.

Cities and municipalities take sustainability challenges on the agenda. Numerous projects and even more project ideas cover these thematic areas, but what many “innovators” neglect is the issue of financing and consequently realizing the approaches to achieve eventually real impact. This initiative intends to fill this blank spot and showcase the current situation of financing opportunities to strive towards sustainability goals and derive solutions for funding, particularly from the international financial markets (private sector).

Sustainable investments and the specific green financial instruments in this respect offer pathways to diversify financing solutions for circular economy ventures. Green Bonds, a notable green financial instrument, are debt securities comparable to traditional loans. These are also similar to conventional bonds with the essential distinction that the raised capital has to be used for a “sustainability purpose”.

Funded by The Foundation for Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto)