Department of Strategic Sustainable Development
Page Contents
Page Contents
The Department of Strategic Sustainable Development works with leadership and innovation for sustainable development. We conduct research, education, and collaboration with a focus on methodological support for companies, municipalities, and other organisations that want to work strategically with sustainable development—that is, that want to contribute to society’s overall transition to sustainability in a way that also strengthens their own organisation. Our activities attract partners and students from all over the world and make a strong contribution to BTH’s vision of being a globally attractive knowledge community within applied IT and innovation for sustainable growth.
Below, you can read about all the exciting work we do in education, research, and collaboration.
Research
We develop methods and tools to help business leaders, product developers, business developers, and other decision-makers and societal change agents to develop better products and services, better energy and transport systems, and, in general, to make better decisions—all from a strategic sustainability perspective.
Our research has received many excellent reviews from both the academic community and from industry and society. The most recent recognition came through an independent external review of all research at BTH, in which the sustainability group was classified as excellent and internationally leading. Aspects that were assessed included publications, level of external funding, networks and collaboration within academia, networks and collaboration with industry and society, international presence and visibility, and the research environment. Among other things, the review panel wrote:
"BTH has gained an excellent international recognition for its support to strategic sustainable development... has an excellent, uniquely large, incomparable and extraordinary well-established national and international network ...
Overall, this is an excellent research group performing excellent results"
An example of our success is our participation in 2017 in a special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production focusing on leadership for sustainability.
We also had the honour of leading the development of a special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production with a focus on leadership towards sustainability, and when it was completed in 2017, the Editor-in-Chief and founder of the journal, Professor Donald Huisingh, described it as:
“…the most outstanding special volume ever published in the journal.”
Our new and unique doctoral programme in Strategic Sustainable Development has also gained international attention, with almost daily enquiries from interested individuals around the world. Graduates with a doctoral degree in this field have the ability to integrate sustainability science with innovation methodology and, based on this foundation, to coordinate collaboration across different disciplines (such as engineering, economics, natural sciences, and social sciences) and across different sectors of society (such as industry, energy, transport, health, education, and public administration). Graduates may also themselves represent a combination of this foundation in sustainability-integrated innovation methodology and a specialist discipline.
You can read more about our projects and find links, for example, to SPIRIT, a centre for sustainable product and service innovation, and to the international alliance for strategic sustainable development, in which our research group plays important roles.
Education
We believe in education as a central part of sustainable development and offer programmes, courses, and tailored corporate training based on cutting-edge research in education for sustainable development. Our educational offerings are built on our world-class research, and our education has received many excellent reviews from both the academic community and from industry and society, for example:
“The year that changed my life. Words do not describe the power & impact of this Master´s program. People often ask me how I ended up working with what I do, and I always respond by saying that it was MSLS that provided me the clarity of the path ahead and the tools, skills and systems lens to take forward my talents into the world.”
Sarah Forrester-Wilson, MSLS 2016
“I wish we had a program similar to MSLS here at MIT.”
Otto Scharmer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“I am completely blown away by how much I am learning, the commitment and passion from everyone and how well structured everything is.”
Victoria Karlsson, hållbarhetskonsult, Sverige
Our master’s programme in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) has achieved the greatest international impact of all programmes at BTH (and probably of all programmes in Sweden). Each year it recruits students from 20–30 countries, and since the programme started in 2004, more than 800 students from over 90 countries and all continents have studied here.
We also offer a wide range of both campus-based and online courses at bachelor’s and master’s level, as well as tailored education for companies and other organisations (so-called contract education). In this work, we specialise in the application of strategic sustainable development and leadership in complexity to support organisations in developing the competence needed to navigate today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
Contact us for more information
