Annual Report: better risk and conflict management in the green transition
Green transition projects often involve local tensions and potential for conflict. In Finland, Akordi is working with our extensive network of partners to develop conflict management capacity and proactive conflict management methods for green transition.
Conflicts show that there are values at stake that are so important that people are prepared to fight for them, writes CEO Jonna Kangasoja in the foreword to our annual report. More systematic local acceptance measures are needed to secure green transition investments. Otherwise, there is a risk that individual projects and the transition as a whole will be delayed.
Akordi proposes an establishment of a national resource centre in Finland, where municipalities, civil society actors and businesses could receive concrete help and support for early project interaction, building a shared knowledge base and risk assessment. We gave our statement to the Room for Growth project working group at the end of the year.
In 2024, we continued our earlier development work on anticipating and resolving conflicts in the green transition with the support of the TAH Foundation. We sparred project developers and authorities in green transition projects across Finland. We published a Playbook for project developers, which guides them step by step on how to anticipate conflicts and work successfully with stakeholders.
“Could this also be made available to international investors in English?”
Markku Kivistö, Business Finland’s Head of Industry, Cleantech, Invest in, at the launch of our Playbook on 7.11.2024
We organised the Green Transition Acceptability event together with TAH Foundation, Confederation of Finnish Industries, Climate Leadership Coalition, Greenpeace, the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, and Kari & Pantsar in November.
At the end of the year, we received funding to launch strategic stakeholder engagement trainings for green transition project developers during 2025.
Cooperation with leading international actors in the field
In the US, experts Steve Greenwood and Kristen Wright from the Oregon National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC), part of our network, visited our open events in August 2024.
“It has been a wonderful partnership with Akordi over the past nine years.”
Steve Greenwood, National Policy Consensus Center expert at our event on 20 August 2024
In Europe, our closest partner is WesselinkVanZijst in the Netherlands, which hosted our June excursion with the steering group of our TAH Foundation funded project. In November, Hans van Zijst gave a keynote speech at a seminar on our project in Finland.
A social mission
Akordi is a forerunner in Finland offering and developing the professional role of a neutral party in environmental collaboration, conflict resolution, and public policy mediation. Our goal is to promote and develop collaborative, multi-sectoral approach in Finnish policymaking and decision-making and while doing it, create a wiser and more sustainable society. Our work has a strong research base.
In difficult situations, such as the Gulf of Bothnia nature conservation disputes, we mediate multiparty negotiations.
”Det handlar om mer än etablerande av naturskyddsområdet. Det handlar också om konfliktlösning och bearbetande av myndighetsförakt.”
John Erickson, Ordförande för Världsarvsdelegationen för Kvarkens världsarv.
In 2024, we were involved in fifteen planning, policy and decision-making processes on natural resources and environmental change and published seven freely available publications.
We are a social enterprise. This means that we use our business to solve societal problems. We are a non-profit organisation. Akordi has the Social Enterprise label of the Finnish Work Association.
Read more about our last year: Akordi’s Annual Report (in Finnish).
