معرفی
Sara Gustafsson is Professor of Industrial Environmental Technology and Environmental Management at Linköping University. She serves as Director of the Center for Municipal Strategic Studies (CKS) and is recognized as LiU's first female professor in her field. Her academic home is within the Department of Economic and Industrial Development (IEI), specifically in the Industrial Environmental Technology department.
Her research focuses on municipal sustainability work and the role of municipalities in sustainable development from governance and management perspectives. Since 1999, she has examined how municipalities organize internal environmental work and how they collaborate with other local actors for sustainable development. Her work increasingly centers on Agenda 2030 implementation, studying how municipalities integrate global goals internally and collaborate externally. She emphasizes the importance of moving from vision to action through existing municipal control systems rather than short-term projects.
Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on municipal approaches to climate transition, water management in corporate forms, and mobility governance. The research shows municipalities deliberately creating intermediation structures and balancing internal governance with external collaboration. Her work demonstrates that successful sustainability implementation requires integration into regular municipal operations rather than isolated initiatives.
Sara Gustafsson teaches Sustainable Urban Development and Environmental Management courses for civil engineering students, along with doctoral courses on collaboration as research competence, research methodology, and strategic environmental management. She actively involves municipalities in teaching through guest lectures and practical course projects.
She leads multiple research projects including studies on municipal capacity for sustainable transition, the city as a resilient energy system, and Agenda 2030 implementation in municipalities like Finspång and Åtvidaberg. Her close collaboration with municipalities across Sweden, built over two decades, forms the foundation of both her research and teaching practice.
