Introduction

Municipalities today are navigating a tangle of new realities—environmental urgency, demographic shifts, stretched public services, and a rising call for transparency and trust. These aren’t isolated issues. They’re deeply interconnected, and that makes them harder to pin down with conventional approaches. At Reframing Studio, we believe that change begins with shifting perspective. The reframing mindset is about imagining alternative futures and uncovering new opportunities—especially the ones that today’s systems and narratives overlook. Our collaboration with Norsk Bærekraftsenter (NBS) is about making this mindset more accessible to civic organizations—and we’re using AI to help.

Spreading the Reframing Mindset

Over the past year, we've worked with NBS on the SustainLink project, a collaboration that pairs our design approach with AI tools that help municipalities recognize opportunities for change. The core of the initiative is simple: support public servants in identifying new ways of understanding the data they already have, and that NBS helps track and organize in meaningful ways.  Through a combination of workshops and the development of the SustainLink Guide—an AI-powered tool—we’re helping municipalities spot patterns, pose better questions, and begin the work of reframing their challenges from within. The tool doesn't replace what we do. It's not here to give answers. It's designed to help spread the reframing mindset, to help people access the first steps of reframing in their own language, at their own pace.

Why new perspectives matter

It’s easy to default to familiar solutions. A housing shortage? Build more houses. But reframing invites a different take. What if the issue isn’t the number of homes, but access, ownership models, or how space is distributed across different levels? Reframing lets us zoom out, see the structure behind the symptoms, and then zoom back in with a clearer sense of where change can happen to spot and realise future co-benefits across sectors and organisational silos. That’s a core value of the method, and it’s what we’re making easier to access through this partnership.

The Role of AI

We’re especially excited about what this ongoing collaboration with NBS makes possible. Having worked together in different capacities over the years, we’ve developed a strong connection and a shared ambition: to bring the reframing mindset into the everyday practice of civic design. AI has a reputation for replacing human input. But in this context, it does something else: it expands and augments it. The SustainLink Guide is not a shortcut or a replacement for deep design work. It's a way to spread the reframing mindset, to get more people started, and to bring new energy into conversations that often feel stuck. What it offers is structure, language, and a little momentum—helping municipalities begin their own reframing journey, and preparing them for deeper collaboration when the time is right.

Balancing ESGs, SDGs, and the role of investment

Many municipalities today find themselves navigating both regulatory expectations and visionary ambitions. On one hand, they must align with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards, which often drive private investment and institutional accountability. On the other, they work toward the broader societal goals embedded in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rather than treating these frameworks as competing demands, a reframing mindset helps municipalities explore where they intersect—and how public and private investment can be directed in ways that generate shared value. While the SustainLink Guide is still evolving, we see potential in its role as a thinking companion: not yet a decision-making engine, but a way to represent and explore emerging priorities and make space for long-term, systems-based strategies to surface.

What’s Next

Looking ahead, we’re eager to keep learning and building with NBS. This partnership continues to open up new possibilities, for how AI can support public organizations, for how design can meet data, and for how reframing might be used globally as a way to unlock long-term, inclusive futures. This is just one part of a larger movement: a shift toward governance that is more imaginative, more systems-aware, and better equipped to deal with complexity.

If you're part of a civic organization and this sounds familiar, we invite you to get in touch. Whether it’s through the AI-Guide, a workshop, or a new collaboration—let’s explore how a reframing mindset can support the future you’re working toward. Looking ahead, we’re eager to keep learning and building with NBS and SustainBridge Solutions AS.