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NORDIC RE:TURNS

Generating returns from an efficient use of resources

About the project

Economic growth depends on production and productivity. And productivity depends on how efficiently we use the resources available—labour, capital, materials, and knowledge. In recent years, the Nordic economies have seen a slowdown in productivity growth. At the same time, the pressure to use resources more efficiently—due to global competition, rising costs, and environmental constraints—is increasing.

This project addresses a core economic question: How can the Nordics generate more economic value with the same or fewer resources?

‍There are many strategies for boosting growth. But the most proven and scalable is innovation—better technologies, smarter processes, and new ways of creating value. Capital and labour are limited. But the supply of ideas is not.

‍Nordic Re:turns explores how resource efficiency can be used as a tool for growth. Not by extracting more, but by managing what we already have—better. The project focuses on how companies and investors can improve the use of materials, products, and production systems to reduce risk and improve long-term performance. The goal is to help shift the conversation from cost-cutting to value creation—using efficiency as a competitive advantage and a driver of future growth.

About the report

Publication date: Q4 2025

This report presents an economic analysis of how the Nordic region can address slowing productivity through more efficient use of resources. It introduces the Re:turns Framework—a practical tool for identifying where value is lost in material, capital, and knowledge flows, and how better resource management can restore growth. The report uses recent Nordic trends to show how traditional drivers of growth—capital accumulation and labour expansion—are reaching limits, and argues that future gains will depend on improving how existing resources are used. It connects firm-level practices to macroeconomic outcomes, showing how production efficiency can translate into higher resilience, competitiveness, and long-term returns. The analysis reframes efficiency not as a cost-saving tactic, but as a core economic strategy. The result is not a policy agenda or prediction, but a lens: a way to understand how resource use shapes growth, and how the Nordics can act before slow productivity becomes structural decline.