Find Swedish best practice

By unlocking traditional business models within waste management, Verapark is an innovation platform in which the business sector, the public sector and universities collaborate to develop new ideas for recycling and upcycling waste.

In the Drottninghög neighbourhood of Helsingborg in southern Sweden a transformation is underway, from a run-down district to an attractive, sustainable part of the city. This change is based on close dialogue between residents, real-estate companies and the City of Helsingborg.

The BiodiverCity project in Malmö demonstrates the benefits of green roofs and other green areas in urban environments. Not only do they promote wellbeing, but they also help increase biodiversity and other important ecosystem services.

Geofencing is a virtual geographical perimeter that helps create green zones where vehicles have their speed limited digitally and automatically switch to electric drive where appropriate. This technology is being trialled in Gothenburg as part of a more sustainable transport system.

In Kristianstad, one of the most polluted areas in southern Sweden has been decontaminated as part of a project to achieve a toxin-free environment. Toxins were reduced by 99.9% and the area is now the development site for a new residential district.

Extended Producer responsibility (EPR) is a governmental policy and a Swedish law that aims to better waste management and collection. The Swedish system shifts the waste management cost or physical collection fully from local governments to producers. The policy applies to different goods such as packaging, newsprint, electronic products, batteries, tires, end-of-life vehicles, pharmaceutical waste, stray radioactive products and radioactive sources.

The new city district of Oceanhamnen in Helsingborg has created a solution for separating and recovering different kinds of waste water and food waste at source. This leads to sustainable reuse of resources through Sweden’s first recovery plant, Reco Lab.

Linero, a district of Lund in southern Sweden, is a successful smart city upgrade project focused on improving around 800 apartments built in the 1970s to create more energy-efficient, eco-friendly housing.

The Augustenborg district in Malmö was ambitiously rebuilt to manage flooding problems and socioeconomic challenges. As a result of solutions based on ecosystem services, the area is now an attractive neighbourhood and an example of a successful sustainable makeover of an urban district.

The municipality of Växjö is a prime example of Swedish timber construction, with at least 50% of new buildings being built from wood as of 2020. Visit Växjö to see how and why wood is the way to increased sustainability.

Sweden’s National Geodata Strategy is based around five societal challenges that geodata – geographic data and information – will help to solve. Key elements of the strategy are: increasing collaboration; harmonising geodata standards; and making them open and available for both the public and private sectors.

The Fossil-Free Energy District (FED) in Johanneberg Science Park in Gothenburg is a unique project that demonstrates how to create a local digital marketplace for electricity, heating and cooling and help reduce the use of fossil energy.