A brave conservative

Stockholm this evening, while walking from the parliament to the subway

Tonight I attended a meeting of RIFO (Swedish Society for Members of Parliament and Scientists) that was held in the Swedish Riksdag, the parliament buildings. The theme was "from global intransigence to national solutions" ("Från globala låsningar till nationella lösningar"). It was an excellent program, but tonight I just want to applaud an idea that was voiced by one of the panel members, Johan Hultberg, of the Moderat party (sort of right-of-center, roughly equivalent to the UK's Conservatives). In a discussion of how climate and environment should and could be mainstreamed, he suggested that the ministries of environment and finance could be merged, as a way of making a meaningful move towards a serious transformation in the way that we deal with valuing our world and all it provides us with. Several politicians from other parties, as well as other participants, even said that the idea had possibilities. Why not? they said. Yes, why not? What are we waiting for and waiting for and waiting for . . .

Vertical horizons: parking matrix

Where's your car?

As we all know, cities are more and more becoming the home for increasing numbers of people around the world. We are heading towards an extremely urbanized future. Everything that we humans like to do needs to take place surrounded by growing congestion. It's getting crowded. More cars, more "housing units," more stores, more roads, more pollution, fewer green areas, fewer parking spots, everything more expensive by the square-meter. Here in Sweden, as I've been reporting, one avenue of adaptation is the switch to electric cars, as just one area that could ease some of the pressure.

Big department store chains like Coop Forum and IKEA are beginning to add charging stations for electric vehicles, but the cars themselves are often still missing. IKEA, though, has also developed a partnership with a Göteborg-based renter of electric vehicles, Move About, to provide easy rentals for its own customers. The incredibly popular MAX hamburger chain is also adding charging stations. Since hamburgers will probably be with us for some time, it is heartening to see how much effort MAX is putting into its overall climate change and environment policy. They claim that even their newest restaurants are entirely recyclable! (It's their claim.) When I was reading about their policy, I saw that they have been developing it with help from a foundation called The Natural Step, which is on my list of good causes to promote here. So I'll do it here, now!

One of those involved in starting up The Natural Step was Kaj Embren. Nowadays, he has an informative and provocative blog, dedicated to all aspects of sustainable development. He has also continued his work on sustainability via his company, Respect, which focuses on developing sustainability-conscious businesses. It's worth following, too! See you there! And I'll be writing more about The Natural Step in a later blog. Stay tuned . . .

Vertical horizons: farming matrix

The iconic "Toronto Sky Farm" (design and image copyright, Gordon Graff).

Today on Swedish Radio's science program, "Vetandets värld," you could hear about a Swedish company's efforts to develop urban farming systems. The company, Plantagon, is not only developing innovative designs for vertical agriculture, but it is doing so in partnership with the native American Onandoga Nation. This is worth learning more about. The company was a partner in organizing the recent conference, Urban Agriculture Summit, held at the end of January, 2013, in Linköping, Sweden. You can read about Gordon Graff's iconic design and study for his Toronto Sky Farm, as well as lots, lots more about urban farming, on the Treehugger website. (Let's hope that Swedish Radio's interest lasts longer than one day).

Do you have a company and do you feel moved to develop a climate change consciousness? Read Sarah Cornell's blog on the website, Hagainitiativet (The Haga Initiative), which promotes active, responsible corporate behavior in relation to climate change. (Does this mean that even Coca-Cola has realized that it's hard to have market dominance when you don't have a planet?)

Stay tuned for more vertical thinking from a horizontal position!

"Danes like ecology more than money"

"Danes like ecology more than money, and other short stories." Is this for real? It stands proudly, larger-than-life, in one of the concourses at Copenhagen's international airport, Kastrup. Walking by, I simply stopped in awe. What was this telling me? Ecology is an alternative to money? The commercialization of ecology? More greenwash? Well, that would be OK, I guess, if it actually made one want to ride a bicycle instead of a taxi. Preferring to have money is of course always a nice idea. It does help when buying that next titanium-framed two-wheeled dream machine that I've been lusting after. Or does it mean that "the Danish" don't like money, or taxis? Well, I guess it's a "successful" ad, right? I mean, here we are talking about it . . . What's your version?

Symbiotic cities

As everybody knows, the human race is going urban. In every single country in the world, more than 50% of the population lives in cities. That is expected to increase to more than 70% in the next 30-40 years. What we do with our cities has a lot to do with climate change, both how we respond to it and how we affect it. Thinking of cities as dynamic ecosystems is not new, but it is increasingly promising, and relevant. A new Swedish national initiative, "SymbioCity: Sustainability by Sweden," was launched at the beginning of 2013. It is a collaboration between the Swedish Government, Business Sweden and the international affiliate of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SKL International. The idea is to create and nurture symbiosis in the design and running of cities, all around the world. Their impressive website is a gold mine of resources, ideas, tool kits, contacts and, above all, inspiration. They are doing things. They are open, inclusive and sharing. Go there and explore the possibilities.

Ambiguity in real life

Here it is again! Can you believe it? The sign stands at the entrances to the parking lots at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre. Ingvar Kamprad's initials are the first two letters in the name of a certain country store called I K_ _, which had its origins in "the deep dark forests of Småland," in southern Sweden. Anyway, the IK Design Centre is on the campus of LTH (Lunds Tekniska Högskola), the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University. The Design Centre is one of the sites of some of the most original thinking on campus, and has the seeds of a lot of intelligent climate change response. But, this sign intrigues me, since it is so marvelously, and maddeningly, ambiguous. It literally reads, "Honk if you like climate change." Well, that's what it "means," but what does that mean? Maybe we can get to the bottom of this enigma. "The truth is out there," sort of.

What does it all mean?

Do you have any theories about what the meaning of this sign might be? The literal translation of the Swedish is quite obvious, of course (OK, I'm just teasing all you non-Swedish speakers), but what does it really mean? Stay tuned to this station for more clues . . . And, by the way, the dark quality of the photo just reflects the light level on a typical winter overcast mid-morning at southern Swedish latitudes. It's good we have other things to think about, right?

Brilliant waste

(All images in this blog post have been borrowed with kind permission from www.logiwaste.se and www.envacgroup.com, where you can find many more. They are brilliant, like everything else on their sites!)

Anything that can help our cities run more smoothly, use less energy, create less pollution, leave more green space and be more pleasant to live in is also good as a response to climate change. Good responses to climate change are also good contributions to sustainability. That's why I got so excited this week when I heard about the work of two Swedish companies. What I read literally made me stop reading and start thinking (not too bad in our current age of information overload). The companies are Envac and Logiwaste. They build and install central vacuum waste collection systems for entire building and housing districts, among others. Yes, you read correctly, the word was "vacuum!" The main idea is that "the garbage truck" and everything that goes with that old-fashioned, but common, way of collecting garbage is eliminated from the first stage of a community waste collection system. That means that there's no need for an access road, and none of the noise, engine exhaust, fuel, labor and cost of running a vehicle-dependent system. You have to go to their excellent websites to learn more about them, since they have too many interesting aspects to report here. It's not just science fiction, either; many systems have already been installed. Believe me, I have no economic interest in these companies (but I wish I did!), but it would be great if they became extremely well-known and successful. Bravo!