Abstract

Increased awareness of sustainable development in the construction industry and current housing shortages have contributed to market opportunities for wooden multi-storey construction (WMC) in the Nordic countries. However, the market development has been slow despite access to forest products and a political ambition to transform to a low carbon society. The aim of this study is to explain enabling factors for municipalities in Sweden to create institutional conditions that stimulate local market development of WMC. A comparative case study of municipal efforts to establish WMC norms has been conducted pointing to the importance of relationships, in so-called public private partnerships (PPP). These partnerships serve as long-lasting relations in which development processes can manage challenges relating to, for example, lack of professional experience in WMC and dated material understandings of wood as a construction material. In the Sustainable Development Goals, PPP represent enabling conditions for sustainable system transformations.