Mid Sweden University

Europe is undergoing a green transition, while large industrial parks are simultaneously being established. Large industry parks are important contributions to regional development, especially in rural regions. In Asia, large industrial parks have emerged quickly during the past 20 years, but it is only now that a similar development is occurring in rural Europe. Many of the industrial parks are placed in rural areas, where there is access to cheap land and green energy. It is often about the rural region needing economic growth and jobs. The aim is to explore what challenges and opportunities that industrial parks in rural Europe have experienced concerning competence supply. The study was designed as a casestudy where five rural areas in Europe was chosen. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews, secondary data and observations. The results shows that competence supply presents a significant challenge. Many companies highlight that offering a good workplace leads to positive word-of-mouth, attracting more individuals to work for them. This has proven particularly successful for establishments where English has been the primary language used. The municipality must think strategically aboutcompetence building. Not only in terms of acquiring the right skills for the industry but for retaining the local population. In rural municipalities, especially young women, move away from the area, mainly during their university studies. If there are no attractive job opportunities in the municipality, so that the young people who have moved away choose to return, they are usually gone for good.

This is a study of industrial parks in Europe and their impact on the places where they are established. The European Union's strategy, the Green Deal, is pushing the green transition in Europe, and large-scale industrial parks are being established in territorial regions in the name of this transition. The aim of this chapter is to explore the challenges and opportunities with industrial parks from the perspective of sustainable territorial development. The study was conducted as a case study where five territorial areas in Europe (located in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Italy) were studied. Data collection was conducted with semi-structured interviews, internet sources, and on-site observations. The results show the importance of communication and interaction between the stakeholders. Another result is that culture and language play a significant role in this process. Moreover, when building sustainable communities, well-functioning infrastructure and good services are essential. This study contributes to knowledge about challenges and opportunities when establishing industrial parks. Both managers and officials from municipalities can benefit from this study.

Large-scale industrial parks play a vital role in regional development in rural areas. Currently, there is a significant trend of industry parks. Highly qualified staff is needed, leading to an inflow of employees often from abroad. A major challenge for these industrial parks is finding qualified personnel. Part of the solution is to collaborate with existing educational systems at various levels within the region to create long-term solutions for workforce development. The purpose is to examine how rural regions are working with educational institutions to address the need for skilled labor in a sustainable and long-term manner. Five geographical areas with established industry parks were identified, in rural areas in Europe. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with municipal officials and representatives from large-scale industries. The results show that collaboration should begin as early as preschool. As children grow older, these partnerships should deepen to foster interest in the industrial park’s activities from a young age. Preschools organize field trips so they can participate in activities to spark interest in engineering. Deeper collaborations occur at the high school, vocational college and university levels. High school programs make schedule adjustments during breaks to accommodate peak work periods. Vocational colleges design programs tailored to the region’s needs. Additionally, schools have adapted their language to accommodate children whose parents work at the industrial park, enabling families to relocate. Finally, there are partnerships like internship opportunities within university programs. There are also strategic initiatives to bring expertise from universities to the industrial parks for collaborations.

Within the tourism industry, there is a considerable focus on sustainable tourism and tourism service providers should be sustainable. One way for tourism service providers to address these issues and communicate their sustainability work is for instance through annual reports, sustainability reports and home pages. The aim with this study was therefore to explore and compare what kind of information concerning sustainability that Swedish tourism service providers’ present to stakeholders.  Sustainability report is one way for tourism companies to be more legitimate and accountable toward their stakeholders. Data was collected from 60 tourism service providers (eg. 20 hotels, 20 restaurants and 20 activity companies) in Sweden from their annual reports and sustainability reports as well as their home pages. They are large-sized tourism service providers with a yearly turnover between 5-50 million euros. The result shows that very few companies make sustainability reports. There is also difference between how and where they present their sustainability work. The companies often present more of their sustainability work on their homepage compared to in annual and sustainability reports. The conclusion is that hotels are more focused on environmental sustainability, restaurants focused more on social sustainability and the activity companies have little information about their sustainability work.