Sustainability coordination within forerunning Nordic municipalities – Exploring structural challenges across departmental silos and hierarchies

Due to changes in status and role of sustainability efforts in municipalities over time there is an increased pressure to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability. Research has especially emphasised the broad perspective on the cooperative challenge, while less emphasis has been put directly on the specific intra-organisational challenge of nurturing cross-departmental cooperation. The article aims to provide explorative empirical insight into sustainability coordinators’ internal efforts to organise and support innovative forms of sustainability cooperation. The study sheds light on two different approaches to sustainability coordination based on two separate research studies of forerunning Scandinavian municipalities. It shows how five structural factors: capacity, scope, willingness, mandates and resources, are enacted differently in the centralised approach of Växjö (Sweden) and the decentralised approach of Aarhus (Denmark). The conclusion highlights the delicate work needed to create engagement with sustainability across differences in departmental scopings and hierarchical distribution of mandates and resources. Finally, it points to how the two approaches could be complementary, as coordination in Aarhus established a robust commitment to narrow action points, while Växjö delegated more vague action points broadly throughout the entire organisation.