Communication of the collaborative act : How Swedish climate councils engage in collaboration-based sustainability

Abstract: Contemporary times, characterized by global and complex challenges, call for innovative and comprehensive answers. Climate change and environmental issues are the protagonists of institutions’ agendas, who consequently are looking for new and effective ways of replying to these challenges. Collaborations among actors coming from different sectors, belonging both to the private and the public sector, represent a strong tool to reply to today’s challenges, where centrifugal and centripetal forces need to be managed. This study highlights the importance of collaborative efforts toward sustainable development, and particularly, it aims at emphasizing the importance of the communication aspect, which is often underestimated in collaboration-based models. To highlight the communication aspect in collaboration, three examples are analyzed: Jönköping Climate Council, Västra Götaland Climate Council and Jämtland Climate Council. Climate Councils represent a unique and effective Swedish institution that, through a joint effort between all the actors involved in a Region, put in place different activities to reach their climate goals. Semi-structured interviews with Climate Council’s representatives unfolded different aspects behind the Climate Council phenomenon. Moreover, the critical discourse analysis of three reports issued by the institutions gives results that are compared with what emerges from the interviews. The findings of the study aim at highlighting the key role of communication within collaborations, which in the Climate Council institutions play a vital role for the Climate Council to exist.