Sweden's reputation as a global leader in decarbonisation is well known: it's the first country in the world to introduce carbon pricing, and currently boasts the highest carbon price—both factors that have contributed to its relatively low-emissions society. [35] Still deeply entrenched in linear practices, however, its consumption footprint remains high: standing at 257.5 million tonnes, Swedish residents consume 24.8 tonnes of materials each on an annual basis. This is a strong driving force behind the Metric of 3.4%, which sits well below the global average; indeed, the Metric is even more affected by a country's material footprint than its secondary material consumption. Sweden's Metric can't grow until its consumption drops: but trends are not progressing in their favour. While the country's consumption is lower than other major Nordic economies—like Norway and Finland—it still remains high. The impact of this is significant as material use is closely tied to emissions: the carbon footprint of Swedish consumption measures up to 84.2 million tonnes—about 63% larger than its territorial emissions, which stand at 54.2 million tonnes. In essence: the country is importing embodied carbon.

Imports from Russia (8.7%), China (7.3%), Germany (4.8%) and other Asian (5.4%) and Middle Eastern (3.8%) countries embody the greatest proportion of emissions. These emissions can be largely attributed to five clusters: the built environment—including residential and non-residential construction—is the most emissions-intensive by far, contributing 36%, followed by vehicles and machinery manufacturing at 5%, food manufacturing and services at 4.1%, chemicals at 4% and forestry at 3%.

Sweden could continue to slash its emissions—as well as material—footprint by favouring domestic production, or prioritising the import of secondary over virgin materials. This is characteristic of most Shift countries: as an importer of materials, Sweden is an exporter of impacts. [36]