Find Swedish best practice

The Helsingborg international city expo in 2022, and the work leading up to it, is a major investment aiming to explore and lead the way to a smarter and more sustainable urban planning and city life. Our goal is to be one of Europe’s most innovative cities in 2022. Welcome to join our journey!

By unlocking traditional business models within the waste sector, Verapark creates a triple-helix model of innovation between private owned and public owned companies together with the academic world.

Drottninghög, a neighborhood in Helsingborg, is in the process of developing both a physical and socially sustainable area. Together with the residents, real estate companies and the city of Helsingborg we transform a worn down residential area into an attractive and included part of the city.

A rock chamber of 50,000 cubic meter was created in central Stockholm in 2010 for the storage of cold water, with the aim to reduce the peak load on energy production. The plant has helped to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 30,000 tonnes per year.

Green areas in cities are fundamental for people to live and thrive. By implementing green areas, the temperature in cities is lowered, the risk of flooding is minimized and noise decreased. Green areas do not only increase the well-being of humans, but also help increase biodiversity and provides several other beneficial ecosystem services.

Geofencing is a virtual geographical perimeter, which enables cities to create green zones where vehicles are restricted, digitally, and forced to switch to electric drive for instance. Within this zone smart vehicles can be limited or controlled to some extent.

BIOGAS XPOSE demonstrates how a region with a high demand for biomethane (BM) can increase the production of BM as a renewable vehicle fuel in an economically and environmentally viable fashion by maximizing regional waste as the resource. The project is reducing the total emissions of carbon dioxide with 334 600 tonnes by sustainable production of BM that replaces fossil fuels in the transportation sector. The project ended in 2018.

In Kristianstad, Sweden, the area of a former dry-cleaning site was once one of the most polluted areas in the south of Sweden. As a part of the Swedish objective of reaching a Toxin-free Environment, toxins have now been reduced by 99,9 % in the area.

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.

Virtual meetings are sometimes a necessity, and sometimes the prefered option. Meetings online can save both time and money, at the same time as it reduces the environmental impact by limiting travels. In the project REMM, a step-by-step guide has been developed to make virtual meetings easier and smoother.

The new residential area Oceanhamnen (The Ocean Harbour) in Helsingborg, is connected to three separate wastewater pipes; one vacuum pipe for toilets, one for food waste and a third pipe for the remaining greywater (showers, dishwashing and sinks). The separation of wastewater at the source enables recovery of resources from wastewater at Sweden’s first recovery plant; Reco lab. Reco which will be commissioned in 2021.

Älvstaden is the Nordic region’s largest urban development project. Central Gothenburg will double in size and the sustainability ambitions of the project are high. By strengthening the core, and joining Frihamnen with the rest of the city, an inclusive, green and dynamic inner-city is created. Within the City of Gothenburg, work is underway to reduce the differences in living conditions for the inhabitants. According to the governance document for social sustainability, Program for an Equal City 2018-2026, the city’s physical environments should create conditions for socio-economic integration, security and cohesion.