Open for the Climate

This is an introductory course on the history, social, economic, and ecological aspects of food production in the Baltic Sea Region. The course  also focuses on future challenges, such as food security and climate change. The course consists of four parts. -The history of agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region -Ecological, economic and social aspects of food systems -The challenges of sustainable food systems - now and tomorrow -Examples from the region Upon completion of the course, students can request a digital certificate by contacting pontus.ambros@balticuniv.uu.se

This course is taught in Swedish. Get started with measuring and running a systematic sustainability program! This course is mainly aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises. Using concrete tools such as the Green Performance Map (GPM) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), you will be supported in identifying relevant sustainability goals and translating them into metrics. The course shows how to integrate sustainability work into daily improvement work, how to create anchoring in the organization, and how psychological security, leadership and culture are key factors for long-term change. You will also gain insight into how metrics affect motivation, behavior and management - and how to balance between controlling and leading metrics.

Climate transition is one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. This course explores a range of key topics and practical tools for mitigating climate change in a sustainable way. It emphasizes the importance of solutions that do not lead to higher energy consumption or increased extraction of natural resources from the Earth. The course begins by introducing the basic components of the Earth system and how they behave across continents and oceans, with a focus on historical climate changes. Climate change is then examined within a broader context, alongside other planetary boundaries—many of which have already been crossed and have direct or indirect impacts on the climate. The course also covers the fundamentals of climate change and explores methods used to study the evolution of greenhouse gases. Various strategies for removing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide are discussed, along with the challenges and limitations of each approach. A key focus is placed on circular economy practices, such as remanufacturing old products and producing energy and biofertilizers, which are presented as effective technologies for directly mitigating climate change. Finally, the course addresses the crucial role of climate communication and politics in raising public awareness and driving collective action to tackle this global issue. Content Planetary components and behavior Changes in the continents and in the oceans Planetary Boundaries Climate Change fundamentals Monitoring green house gases Carbon dioxide removal Circular economy and biogas solutions Climate communication and politics Course Structure The course is fully digital with pre-recorded lectures. You can participate in the course at your own pace. You will learn By the end of the course, you will have gained a deeper understanding of key concepts related to climate change and learned how to approach its mitigation in a sustainable way. You will explore various technologies and strategies, along with their real-world limitations and challenges. In addition, you’ll learn about the vital role that climate communication and politics play in shaping public awareness and driving the behavioral and policy changes needed to address this global issue. Who is this course for? This course is designed for anyone interested in climate change and the transition toward a more sustainable future. As an introductory course, it provides essential knowledge to help participants understand the basics of climate change and explore practical tools for mitigating its impacts. The focus is on applying sustainable practices, technologies, and behaviors that reduce environmental harm—especially by avoiding increased energy consumption and the extraction of new natural resources. Open to all, the course welcomes a diverse audience from various backgrounds. Whether you're a student, professional, or simply a concerned citizen, you’ll find value in the engaging lectures, which feature scientific insights primarily developed at Linköping University.

The Course Sustainable Tourism in the Baltic Sea Region aims to provide a basic but comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the origins, applications, analyses and examples of Sustainable Tourism with a specific regional focus on the Baltic Sea. The course has both an interdisciplinary and interregional focus and is designed to give the learner a broad but still focused introduction to the topic with socio-political, economic and environmental viewpoints. The topics that will be covered in this course include the introduction of sustainable tourism, its stakeholders, challenges and theories. Numerous examples will be given, including cases and specific aspects of the topic. The course is a regional cooperation between many researchers across the Baltic Sea Region, including those from Sweden, Finland, Ukraine and Poland.  The course consists of four modules: -An introduction to Sustainable Tourism -Aspects of sustainable tourism -Sustainable spatial planning of tourism destinations -Examples from the field Upon completion of the course, students can request a digital certificate by contacting pontus.ambros@balticuniv.uu.se

The course introduces you to the basics of the Baltic Sea, with its fragile and unique environment. Taking the course will help to better understand how human impacts are changing its marine ecosystems, but also how one can best reverse the negative trends of its destruction. Whether you take this course in your own pace, or within your university, we invite you to take part of the different lectures, and do the assignments for each topic. We hope you will learn something new about our beautiful semi-enclosed sea in Northern Europe. The course is built up with five chapters, each covering a new theme in several sections. Evolution, physical description and climateLife in the Baltic SeaPressures and challengesEnvironmental managementExamples from the region and future outlook The course takes approximately 50 hours to complete and if fully completed, students can request a digital certificate upon completing the course.

Toxic substances in recycled products, “forever chemicals” in batteries, unknown health effects of rare earth elements are all examples of potential risks arising from the development of climate-friendly solutions. The urgency of climate change requests for new solutions at a very fast pace, with the danger of dismissing other threats that can become equally impactful. This reminds of the industrial revolution where thousands of new products were invented in a short time but at high costs for human health and the environment. Integrating today’s knowledge on chemical safety into the green transition can prevent the reiteration of such mistakes. This course examines the health and environmental impacts of chemical toxicants in the environment that have emerged from technological advancements, focusing on both historical and recently developed chemicals. Students will explore the origins, actions, and regulatory frameworks for known toxicants, alongside emerging risks of new chemicals. In parallel, students will be presented with real-life success stories showing how innovative approaches to technology development can address chemical pollution challenges and contribute to building a healthier green transition. Topics Historical perspective on environmental contaminants and their health effects New toxicological challenges emerging from recently developed chemicals  Mechanisms of action of specific classes of environmental contaminants Regulatory frameworks and agencies addressing chemical contamination Databases related to detrimental effects, safety, and use of chemicals Good examples of safe transitioning, showing consideration of toxicological aspects in the product development stage Course structure This course is fully digital with pre-recorded lectures. You can take part in the course in your own pace.   You will learn By the end of the course, you will be able to: identify major classes of environmental contaminants, describe diseases that are known to be produced by environmental contaminants, formulate questions about chemical safety in relation to chemicals with unknown effects, access and understand information related to health effects of environmental toxicants, broadly describe of regulatory frameworks and agencies related to chemical safety. Who is the course for? This course is designed for any person involved in the development of new technologies, products, or industrial processes, for example engineers from different areas, R&D scientists, or entrepreneurs.

With concerns about climate and global environmental changes, extreme events, and increases in social, economic, and political shocks, the concept of resilience is proving popular across a range of sectors as a way to understand and respond to our surprise-riddled world. This concept is now presented in a course led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transitions and includes the latest research and practice on resilience. Resilience thinking includes the ability to persist in the face of challenges, adapt to new realities, or transform to fundamentally new paths for development. Resilience thinking is more than a theory, more than a set of tools. It is a way of seeing the world, offering a new perspective of how change in the world happens. Resilience thinking provides a new approach for building understanding and taking action in a complex world that is deeply interconnected and ever-changing. A world where controlled, planned approaches, existing knowledge and current solutions are not enough to effectively respond to the challenges in a highly dynamic and uncertain future. Addressing poverty, injustice, and inequality, and advancing human well-being remains a major ambition and challenge for the 21st century, and it now needs to consider that development will happen in a context radically different from the past. This course includes case studies and examples from practitioners who are working with resilience concepts in diverse contexts around the world. It is supported by strong scientific evidence and committed to being a platform to bring together and spark collaboration between individuals and organizations from around the world who are driven to transform development. This course is for: Development practitioners, policymakers and managers within development agencies around the world, as well as those working in the field with an interest in resilience thinking as it relates to development policy and practice.Students who are interested in the intersection of resilience, sustainability and development, and with a general interest in both local and global sustainability challengesAnyone with an interest in development, resilience thinking, and sustainability

This open online course offers you useful insights as to how cities can speed up the change. It looks at how something as simple as the physical layout of cities can impact their ecological footprint. It shows the city’s crucial role in support of renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as how urban planning and transport planning can provide benefits that go well beyond just the environment. The course has a focus on the science, methods and tools needed to reach the 1.5°C goal and it taps into WWF’s expertise from over a decade of supporting urban climate action through the One Planet City Challenge. The course exposes you to examples of ambitious urban climate action and helps highlight which actions can be relevant in your city. This course is produced by WWF in partnership with Lund University. Learning materials include best cases which come from the cities across the globe that partake in WWF’s global initiative the One Planet City Challenge, a written assignment, quizzes and a course compendium. The course content is structured as follows: Module 1: Cities & Climate Change / 1.5°C alignment in citiesModule 2: Urban Planning & Policy: Getting this right for climate & people            Module 3: Renewable Energy in cities - Renewable Energy Solutions are crucial for cities to meet the 1.5°C targetModule 4: Energy Efficiency in cities  

How can we work with nature to design and build our cities? This course explores urban nature and nature-based solutions in cities in Europe and around the world. We connect together the key themes of cities, nature, sustainability and innovation. We discuss how to assess what nature-based solutions can achieve in cities. We examine how innovation is taking place in cities in relation to nature. And we analyse the potential of nature-based solutions to help respond to climate change and sustainability challenges. This course was launched in January 2020, and it was updated in September 2021 with new podcasts, films and publications. The course is produced by Lund University in cooperation with partners from Naturvation – a collaborative project on finding synergies between cities, nature, sustainability and innovation. The course features researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs from a range organisations.   

Kursperiod: sept - nov 2025 I den pågående gröna omställningen spelar vätgas en allt viktigare roll som en hållbar energibärare. För att producera grön vätgas är vindkraft en avgörande faktor. Genom att integrera vätgasproduktion direkt i vindparker kan man på ett kostnadseffektivt sätt dra nytta av volatila elpriser, samtidigt som man bidrar till att balansera det alltmer förnybara elsystemet. Detta möjliggör både flexibel produktion av vätgas och energilagring i form av vätgas, vilket skapar ett robust, långsiktigt hållbart och konkurrenskraftigt energisystem. Kursen behandlar konceptet med ett integrerat vind/vätgas-system, där tekniska, ekonomiska och systemmässiga aspekter av att kombinera vindkraft och vätgasproduktion utforskas. Innehåll Introduktion till utveckling av vindenergi Vindkraftsteknik, vindenergi och anslutning till elnätet Introduktion till vätgas: egenskaper och användningsområden Metoder för vätgasproduktion Lagring av vätgas Vindkraft onshore/offshore – system för vätgasproduktion Tekniska, ekonomiska och regulatoriska möjligheter och utmaningar för integrerade vind-/vätgassystem Kursens upplägg Denna helt digitala kurs inkluderar förinspelade föreläsningar, interaktiva webbinarier, diskussionsforum och uppgifter. Deltagarna kan ta del av materialet i sin egen takt, vilket möjliggör flexibel inlärning. Specifika moment som live-frågestunder eller seminarier kommer att schemaläggas för att främja interaktion och fördjupad förståelse. Du kommer få kunskap om Efter kursen kommer deltagarna att förstå hur vindkraft och vätgas kan integreras i ett sammanhängande energisystem. De får insikt i hur tekniska, ekonomiska och regulatoriska faktorer påverkar möjligheterna att kombinera vindkraft med vätgasproduktion. Deltagarna utvecklar även en ökad förståelse för energilagring, elsystemets flexibilitet samt hur dessa faktorer bidrar till den gröna omställningen. Vem vänder sig kursen till Kursen riktar sig till yrkesverksamma inom energi- och miljösektorn, såsom beslutsfattare, projektledare, ingenjörer och tekniska konsulter med intresse för förnybar energi, vätgas och hållbara energisystem. Även politiker, tjänstemän och strateger som ansvarar för hållbarhetsfrågor och energiplanering har nytta av kursens innehåll. Dessutom kan kursen vara värdefull för forskare, utvecklare av digitala verktyg och mjukvaruingenjörer med fokus på gröna lösningar. Ingen fördjupad teknisk förkunskap krävs, men en grundläggande förståelse för energisystem och hållbarhet är fördelaktig. Detta är en introducerande kurs som visar en väg mot livslångt lärande. Deltagarna kan efter avslutad kurs fördjupa sig i specifika områden för att ytterligare öka sin expertis inom vindkraft, vätgas och integrerade energisystem.

FÖR VEM Vindkraftskurs.se riktar sig till handläggare i kommuner och länsstyrelser samt till alla som vill lära mer om vindkraft. VAD OCH VARFÖR Syftet med kursen är att öka kunskapen om vindkraft och specifikt om frågeställningar som är aktuella vid tillståndsärenden. NÄR OCH HUR Du väljer själv när samt i vilken takt du vill genomföra momenten. Samtliga delar av kursen är avgiftsfria.   Vindkraftskurs.se är uppbyggd av fyra moduler: 1. Vindkraftens förutsättningar 2. Miljöpåverkan 3. Prövning och tillsyn 4. Idébank & lokal nytta Inne i modulerna finns både sökfunktion och kursöversikt, så att du lätt kan orientera dig genom kursens innehåll. Att gå igenom hela kursen tar ca 3–5 dagar beroende på hur intensivt/extensivt du läser. Du kan även välja att läsa delar av kursen.

Opens in May 2025. The Swedish version of the course, namely ”Varför välja trä vid nästa byggprojekt?” is already open. For more iformation contact course coordinator dimitris.athanassiadis@slu.seCourse DescriptionDifferent types of biomaterials (e.g., wood) are crucial in the challenge of decarbonizing the built environment and reducing the carbon footprint of buildings and infrastructure by replacing materials like steel and cement, which have high carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, we must not forget that it is important to preserve biodiversity and the social values of our forests. The 13 modules of the course cover many forestry related subjects, including harvesting methods, biodiversity, forest management, logistics, the role of forests in the climate transition, carbon storage, environmental benefits of multi-story buildings with wood, and more. The goal is that participants will gain a shared understanding of Swedish forestry so that they can make well-informed decisions about material choices for their next construction project. Course PeriodThe course will be active for 3 years. Content Forest history: The utilization of forests in Sweden throughout the past years Forestry methods and forest management Forest regeneration Wood properties Forest mensuration Forest tree breeding The forest's carbon balance Business models and market development: Focus on wood high rises Nature conservation and biodiversity in the forest Course StructureThe course is fully digital with pre-recorded lectures. You can participate in the course at your own pace. Modules conclude with quizzes where you can test how much you have learned. You will learn aboutUpon completion of the course, you will have learned more about various forest-related concepts, acquired knowledge of forest utilization in Sweden throughout the past years, increased your understanding of forest management and how different management methods affect biodiversity in the forest, and learned about the forestry cycle—from regeneration to final harvesting, etc. Who is this course for?This course is designed for professionals such as architects, municipal employees working with urban planning and construction, individuals in the construction and civil engineering sector, and those in other related fields. This is an introductory course and will contribute to upskilling of the entire construction sector, thereby increasing the industry's international competitiveness while also providing important prerequisites for the development of future sustainable, beautiful, and inclusive cities. Since the course is open to everyone, we hope that more groups, such as students, doctoral candidates, forest owners, and others with an interest in forestry, will take the course and engage with inspiring lectures where scientific knowledge primarily produced within SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) is presented.