By Ulrikke Moustgaard
They were excited to hear what people would say. When a “consumer meeting” on climate friendly households was arranged in
Southern Jutland in Denmark in the spring of 2011, the scene was set for a new experiment: ask people in general to present
good ideas on how we can save energy in our homes – and then let developers and companies take the ideas out into real life.
The experiment was carried out by the joint Nordic team behind the project "Transnational Nordic Smart City Living Lab Pilot", the aim of which is to create consumer driven innovative solutions to meet the global climate challenge. The pattern is the same in the whole of the Nordic region: first, user meetings are arranged for the development of ideas. Then, the best ideas from these are selected for further development, and professionals step in to develop the technology that matches the ideas. And finally, the process results in the prototype, for example, of a device which can control the amount of electricity consumed in a household.
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| Teenagers can be the cause of large electricity bills when, for example, they take long, hot baths. That is something their mothers wish to change. Illustrationphoto: Colourbox |
The user meeting in Southern Jutland proved to be a success. One of the winning ideas was presented by the female participants of the meeting: a campaign aimed at showing children and young people how they can contribute to making the world more climate friendly.
“The women were very concerned with finding ways to change attitudes among children and young people. Several of them were mothers of teenagers who can be the cause of large electricity bills when, for example, they take long, hot baths," says Annie Joan Olesen, who is the director of A9 Consulting and the Danish project manager of the Transnational Nordic Smart City Living Lab Pilot.
The project team has sought to involve both men and women in the process of getting consumers to think up innovative climate solutions.
“We’ve been very concerned that there should a reasonable gender balance at our consumer meetings. But also a balance in respect of other parameters – age, for example. Different people have different needs and ways of thinking, and it’s important to involve the ideas of everybody, in order to achieve something innovative,” says Annie Joan Olesen.
Gender equality can generate growth
The joint Nordic project is a good example of how gender can be concretely included in future climate initiatives. And the gender perspective is to be included in Nordic projects also.
This is a promise which was given by a number of Nordic organisations, enterprises and authorities two years ago in Copenhagen at a Nordic Summit on equality, gender and climate change. The conference, which was one of the outcomes of the focus of the Nordic Council of Minsters and the Nordic Ministers for Gender Equality on gender equality and climate change, concluded that gender and sustainable growth are interdependent.
Just as the Nordic economy grew by 40 per cent in the 1970s, when women seriously entered the labour market, the green economy will be dependent on the contribution of both sexes. This, however, is not how it is at the moment.
A concrete problem is that there are not enough wise heads to develop the kinds of new thoughts that society needs in order for us to live in a more climate friendly way.
“One third of the Danish clean-tech companies have experienced problems with recruiting qualified employees,” the Danish Minister for Climate and Gender Equality, Lykke Friis pointed out when the global forum for the development of clean energy technology, Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), held its first meeting in Washington in 2010.
One of the reasons for this is that women are strongly under-represented in the natural sciences and technological subjects, which are crucial in kick-starting the green revolution.
“If we don’t put together all the wise heads, those of both men and women, we risk facing difficulties in carrying out the great changeover from fossil fuels to clean energy, which is the ultimate goal,” said Lykke Friis.
Girls to have green careers
Therefore Denmark, Norway and a number of other countries have launched the C-3E initiative (Clean Energy Education & Empowerment), which is to ensure that more young women seek education and make themselves a career within sustainable energy and green technology.
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| If we don’t put together all the wise heads, those of both men and women, we risk facing difficulties in carrying out the great changeover from fossil fuels to clean energy, says the Danish Minister for Climate and Gender Equality, Lykke Friis. Illustrationphoto: Colourbox |
This is to be realised by aiming various initiatives particularly at girls. Denmark, for example, has recently started a project where 8th grade girls are invited to take work placements in companies where the employees have an education within the natural sciences and technology. The objective of the project is to show girls what they can do with such an education.
“We know that many girls make their educational choices based on a wish to make a difference for other people. Few of them are aware of the fact that girls with a science or technology education can create products and solutions that have a positive impact on the lives of others. This we want to remedy,” said Frida Frost, chair of the Danish Society of Engineers, IDA, when the project was launched in June.
Nevertheless, if the concept of ‘innovation’ is to be taken seriously in climate initiatives, it is not enough just to include gender in the context of natural sciences or technology. This is just old wine in new bottles, as a research project has demonstrated.
Innovation with gender
Malin Lindberg, Ph.D., working at the Division of Gender and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, has studied government innovation policies in the Nordic countries, and has discerned a general pattern in what the Nordic states in practice understand innovation to be. She found out that it is the same few classic areas which benefit from innovation funding: industry, natural resources and IT.
“These are areas which are traditionally male dominated, and thus innovation is associated with masculinity – or with what men do, rather than with what women do,” Malin Lindberg explains.
She finds these priorities problematic. Instead of shaking things up, thinking in new and different ways and investing in non-traditional and other unusual sectors, the focus continues to be on traditional industries.
“This seems paradoxical, when one wishes to achieve renewal. One sticks to the traditional rather than opening up into wider spheres, more variety and diversity – all things that otherwise characterise 'innovation’,” she says.
If the Nordic region is to be part of the green wave which is gradually forming, we must start thinking outside of the box. Many enterprises and organisations have already included gender mainstreaming in competing for the best heads and creating innovative green solutions. What is further needed, however, is that government innovation politicians also have a gender awareness – and are able to recognise their own blind spots.
“Which industries are seen as self-evident when formulating innovation policies? And what is equally important: which do we NOT see? Who have we forgotten? What is the gender distribution within various industries? If we want diversity, we must apply a perspective of diversity on the area under development,” says Malin Lindberg.
