The imminent consequences of the deteriorating state of the socio-ecological systems pose significant challenges to the well-being of society and societal functioning. The financial sector, specifically banks, plays a crucial role in the transition toward sustainable development because they hold the financial resources and the power to allocate these resources. For banks to contribute to this transition, credit risk assessment (CRA) can serve as an impactful process for sustainability integration. However, as CRA is a well-incorporated process within banks, it is unclear if it is strategic enough to support a transition toward sustainability. This research, therefore, aims to analyse the key gaps, opportunities, and limitations for integrating sustainability considerations into the credit risk assessment process using a strategic sustainable development (SSD) lens. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was used as a conceptual framework to give a better understanding of the sustainability challenge and to analyse how credit risk assessment can contribute to sustainable development. Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with practitioners from Nordic banks who have relevant experience to explain how banks incorporate sustainability into their credit risk assessment practices within corporate lending and credit. A semi-systematic literature review was also done to determine the views and methods of integrating sustainability considerations into the credit risk assessment process according to academic literature. The findings were structured using the FSSD’s 5-Level Model (5LM) to identify the key gaps, limitations, and opportunities in literature and practice. The results suggest that the key gaps in integrating sustainability into the credit risk assessment process are sustainability data inadequacy, inaccessibility, incomparability, trustworthiness, and storage, and the qualitative manner of sustainability data. Further to these limitations is a competence gap where crucial skillsets needed include systems and sector-specific sustainability knowledge.

The need for renewable energy sources is evident. The worlds energy economy need to change rapidly to stopthe climatological changes. The ratio between renewables and fossil fuels, or an energy economy only based onrenewables, is based on political choices. The surface footprint of renewables is significantly larger thantraditional power plants. For a successful implementation social obstacles and sustainable impact need to beevaluated along with sufficient energy in the renewable source and the possibility to deliver the energy tocustomers. Grid stability, self-sufficiency and energy independence are major struggles for small countries withhigh population density, limited renewable sources and limited areas for harvesting the energy in thesesources. The future Dutch energy economy depends on wind and solar energy, along with hydrogen productionfor energy storage and grid stability.The focus of this study is the challenge to implement solar field without compromising other sustainabilitygoals or provoking social obstacles. The potential of integrating solar energy with road areas is explained. Theseareas could become large energy plants and the potential is the motive for this study. It is explained why roadsneed to be implemented in the energy economy as production zones and the reasoning is substantiated withdesk study and calculations.The desk study contains explanation of methods for harvesting energy with roads or roadside areas, followedby the explanation of possible electrolyzing techniques to store the solar energy. Solar calculations are madeand it is explained how the input data for these calculations are obtained, in particular how to calculate diffuseirradiation when this data is not available. The total efficiency of the hydrogen production and storage processis evaluated and insight is given of current energy demand for electrical driven vehicles (EV) and fuel cell drivenvehicles (FCEV).The paper is written with a strategic sustainable development perspective. The future objectives are analysed,current situation and the gap is determined, possible steps are considered and a strategic solution is delivered.The results of this study prove the possibility to create energy neutral roads with solar systems build over theroad and hydrogen generation with PEM electrolysers to store energy. The produced energy, harvested withthe road areas can supply enough energy to meet the energy demand of 50 000 vehicles that use the A6 everyday between Swifterband and Almere (Oostvaarders).

A significant portion of responsibility for the global socio-economic crisis referred by the authors as the "sustainability challenge" lies within the private sector. Hence to initiate a global transformation towards sustainability the participation of companies is essential. One way to engage the private sector to do that is through public policy. The European Union takes this approach with the European Green Deal and more specifically - the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) - which is the main focus of this research. The directive aims to enhance transparency, raise awareness and increase responsibility of the corporate societal and environmental impact. This thesis investigates the potency of CSRD to drive transformation. For this purpose this research employs a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) lens to evaluate the CSRD, identifying its strengths and weaknesses. The research is divided into two parts: the first assesses the frameworks' design using the SSD lens, while the second involves interviews to gain deeper insights and pinpoint design and implementation gaps. The study also presents an overview of the challenges encountered during the implementation of the CSRD and proposes potential solutions. The thesis concludes with recommendations and suggests directions for future research.

This research investigates how capacity-building interventions might be designed and implemented to enhance strategic sustainability work in municipal contexts and address institutional capacity deficits hindering effective sustainability transitions. Drawing from a blend of secondary and primary data sources, including semi-structured interviews and surveys, our study employs a conceptual framework to identify considerations crucial for effective, responsive, and transformative capacity-building efforts. Results reveal the significance of fostering a robust capacity-building culture, understanding context-specific engagement styles (learner archetypes), and utilizing a combination of approaches tailored to context-specific needs. This study also suggests the interdependence of goals and values across the four levels of strategic sustainability action and transformation (individual, organizational, network and systems level), emphasizing the importance of accounting for all four levels in the cultivation of a supportive capacity building culture and promoting a strategic approach to capacity building planning and implementation, balancing short-term objectives with the pursuit of long-term transformative outcomes. Findings contribute valuable insights for capacity-building planners and interveners involved in the design and implementation of continuous capacity building efforts aimed at enhancing strategic work of diverse actors engaged in sustainability efforts.

We are living in the “Anthropocene” the era in which human activities are responsible for severe damage to the resilience of the ecological and social systems, undermining the Earth’s autopoetic mechanism, integrity and ability to function as a healthy complex adaptive systems. The prevailing societal paradigm for business practices has yet to realise the reality of our current global unsustainable state – and the shift necessary to move us forward collectively. Startup companies have a unique opportunity to gain and leverage competitiveness and attractiveness for funding and customers through sustainability driven business strategies, models and value propositions. This research analyses literature, document and interview data to explore if and how current practices in the Lean Startup contribute to a sustainable society – and how a Strategic Sustainable Development approach might be introduced to enhance the resilience of Lean Startups. Therefore, our key recommendations for Lean Startups that want to introduce an SSD approach are: to raise awareness about the sustainability challenges and opportunities; utilise backcasting towards a vision framed by the Sustainability Principles; focus on fulfilling fundamental basic Human Needs; utilize strategic prioritization questions when pivoting and combine the FSSD ABCD process with the Lean BML cycle. Ultimately, this thesis proposes the use of Strategic Sustainable Trigger Questions to (re)design sustainable business models and value-propositions. We conclude that “asking the right questions - rather than giving answers up front” might spark conversations and innovations in Lean Startups, beneficial for the sustainability of both the individual startup the larger socio-ecological systems.

There is an intersection of challenges where society’s social and ecological problems coincide with the industrial firm’s challenge to maintain profitability in a globalizing world. Products connect these challenges. The development of these products together with services (product-service systems) therefore provides a critical intervention point to address these challenges. This includes e.g. defining what the products and services are, how they will deliver value to users, and the business models that enable them to be realized, as well as how these can contribute to sustainable development of society. The overarching goal of this research is to contribute to sustainable development of society by better understanding how a strategic sustainable development perspective based on backcasting from basic principles for a sustainable society can be brought into and guide product-service system innovation. Interviews with industry professionals, workshops with both manufacturing companies and within student projects, and industrial cases studies, together with a review of literature and theoretical considerations, provide the methodological basis for this work. This thesis contributes to clarifying theoretical and practical possibilities and limitations for a strategic sustainable development perspective to guide product-service system innovation and provides a basis for the integration of these concepts. The findings indicate that the co-innovation of products and services in product-service systems can contribute to sustainable development of society both by supporting reduced material and energy use and by supporting improved life cycle management of materials. Further, a strategic sustainable development perspective can contribute to the refinement of existing tools and methods in product-service system innovation by providing an operational definition of sustainability articulated in the form of first-order principles that describe the boundary conditions for a sustainable society, and by providing guidelines for how to approach a vision of success inside those boundaries in a strategic way. In order to identify solutions that meet society’s pressing challenges, new solution spaces may need to be identified, and this can be enabled by a shift from product development with service as “add-ons” to their co-innovation in product-service systems. An initial approach for how this could be enabled through bringing together set-based approaches to design product-service systems with a strategic sustainable development perspective is presented.

Local communities encounter various problems related to the global economic system. Socio-economic challenges arise in these communities due to the disappearance of jobs and the leakage of money, this results in a diminishing of social resilience which in turn means that these communities are hampered in their move towards strategic sustainable development. According to scientific literature, a local currency could be an instrument to overcome this diminishing of social resilience. However, the role of these currencies in strategic sustainable development remains unclear. This study aims to bridge this gap in scientific knowledge. In order to do so, three different case studies of local currencies were conducted by means of semi-structured interviews. This data was compared with the theory on local currencies and assessed through the lens of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. Using this specific framework allows for a unique systems perspective on sustainable development. It becomes clear that local currencies raise awareness around sustainability challenges and incentivise social interactions; however this remains a marginal contribution towards strategic sustainable development. This research leads to the recommendation to explore enhancements to local currencies in order to address these sustainability challenges more adequately.

Although they lead to several potential sustainability benefits, product-service systems are not intrinsically sustainable. Therefore, this thesis investigates the factors designers should consider in order to ensure sustainable results. A systematic literature review on product-service system and sustainability is combined with three interviews with product-service system providers. The results are analysed through the application of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. The results of the systematic literature review show that there is no unified definition of sustainable product-service system and multiple approaches to address sustainability in product-service system design. By adopting the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, a definition of sustainable product-service system and a list of design criteria are developed. This thesis suggests which overarching aspects product-service system designers should consider to integrate a strategic sustainability perspective. The outcome of this thesis supports designers in understanding what a sustainable product-service system could be and what elements it should embed. By combining the definition and the list of criteria, designers can apply a systematic and strategic approach to integrate sustainability in product-service system offerings.

Mining-induced resettlements, and local impacts from mining activities, are often associated with a variety of negative outcomes. At the same time, there is a notable growth of ethical guidelines for businesses and an increasing incorporation of international best practices within corporate operations. A resettlement of displaced villages within the Kalumbila area in Zambia was carried out by a multinational mining corporation, which reportedly invested heavily into the creation of an ethically sound resettlement procedure. Yet, a number of issues connected to this resettlement have been continuously reported after its implementation. This study has aimed to investigate two main themes relating to the  resettlement in Kalumbila. First, a comparative examination was done in order to explore differences and similarities in terms of social sustainability between two different resettlement communities in the area. Second, the current status of social sustainability was explored within the two resettlements by applying an analytical framework for strategic social sustainability. The methods consisted mainly of primary research through interviews in the studied area, but was also complemented with qualitative text analysis when suitable. The findings indicated both similarities and differences between the two resettlements in terms of social sustainability-related issues, which were identified through the application of universal social sustainability principles. Policy recommendations were also derived by conducting a backcasting procedure in the analysis of the findings. The study found that there is a presence of the mining company in almost every issue identified within this study. This presence has both positive and negative characteristics. It was concluded that future studies should keep this nuanced view in mind, as well as the complex interrelations in the studied system. As such, it was argued that policy implementors ought to investigate targeted issues with suitable analytical tools before taking any action in order to not create new problems elsewhere within the social system.

Deciding between sustainability or prosperity may be a false choice when the phenomena are appropriately defined and considered together (Stiglitz et al. 2009). With reference to existing indicator systems and frameworks, including the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF), this research developed three novel indices (SMSI, SMSI+, and CCFI) using a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) approach to measure and analyze the correlation between sustainability (SMSI, SMSI+) and prosperity (CCFI) in Swedish municipalities. The spearman rank-order coefficient values were 0.259 and 0.588 for SMSI and CFFI and SMSI+ and CCFI, respectively. Both were significantly correlated with a p-value of 0.05, where SMSI+ and CCFI were 0.329 more correlated than SMSI and CCFI. This showed that an index that more comprehensively considers an SSD approach correlates more with CCFI. Furthermore, only six out of 234 Swedish municipalities ranked in the top 10 percent of both SMSI+ and CCFI, showing that it is difficult to successfully pursue sustainability and prosperity together in practice. Importantly, this research also demonstrates that it is possible to create indices using an SSD approach while outlining the methods for how to do so.