JSR

Drawing from literature across various disciplines, this article aims to provide a fuller picture than what is typically outlined by ‘environmental historians’ regarding the important and consolidating decade of Swedish environmental policy and legislation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, anddemonstrates how it in line with expressed needs in the current climate policy debate involved green business and knowledge-based policy implementation. Given the urgency of the interaction between humans and the environment today, it is valuable to revisit previous policy-making practices, knowledge developments, technological solutions, and businesses seeking to reform this interaction. This is particularly justified for countries regarded as environmental forerunners, such as Sweden.The expanded perspective on environmental concern in Sweden during the late 1960s and early 1970s teaches us that policy action primarily focused on reducing industrial pollution emissions into water and air. Additionally, it prompts us to reconsider environmental concern as something that could grow within business, industry, and government authorities in parallel (and sometimes prior) to public opinion and advocacy by environmental opinion makers. Several Swedish government institutions, along with the industry/government co-fundedpioneering environmental research institute IVL, demonstrated significant readiness to discover, understand, and address the growing environmental challenges. During this nascent period of environmental concern, addressing environmental issues often involved targeting low-hanging fruit—relatively straightforward and cost-effective solutions, such as developing measurement standards and devices that significantly benefited various industry sectors.

state/industry consensus; green business; knowledge-based policy; environmental concern; Sweden; 1960s/1970s