Second Post from Stevens Point Contingency!

Here's our second letter/article from Sweden written by Anna Haines and Lynn Markham from the UW-Stevens Point Center for Land Use Education and Kelly Zagrzebski from Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.

Hospitality in Sweden is Green

We've seen many motels in Sweden that have been making changes to "do well by doing good." Their approaches include providing high quality services and accommodations. With this approach they decrease their fossil fuel use, save water, serve local and organic food, minimize waste and have switched to safe cleaning products. Tourism businesses in Wisconsin are also working to become more sustainable. You can learn more on the Travel Green website at www.travelgreenwisconsin.com

Through changing to sustainable practices, Sånga-Säby, a small conference center near Stockholm, has gone from the brink of financial collapse to a market position as one of the top 20 hotel conference centers in Sweden. www.sanga-saby.se <http://www.sanga-saby.se/> The center is owned by a group of farmers. They provide much of the food that is served at various meals. The staff is charged with and evaluates potential changes carefully and implements those with the best financial returns. For instance, Sånga-Säby decreased their utility bills by using solar hot water heating as well as a geothermal system where water is preheated in the winter and precooled in the summer by running it through underground pipes. Automated awnings swing out over the windows to provide shade during the heat of the day. When Sånga-Säby expanded their facility, they designed the new building to follow the contours of the underlying rock, and built large south facing windows and highly insulated walls. To maintain the beautiful woods around the new building, they included a $10,000 fine for each tree that was removed if it wasn't marked for removal in the building plans. When purchasing furniture and other supplies for the conference center, they have sought environmentally-friendly products and influenced their suppliers to provide these products.

Water conserving toilets where you choose a big flush or a little flush are common throughout Sweden. Another water-saving option we tried out was separating toilets. If you're curious about these, just ask and we'll be glad to fill you in on the details.

Many of the places that we have stayed served wonderful local and organic food - from warm bread baked in a stone oven to a fruit drink made with lingonberries that grow nearby to excellent moose and reindeer meat prepared on the grill. To minimize waste and disposal costs, motels have provided real dishes, composted food scraps, replaced packaged toiletries with the same products in easy-to-use dispensers, and provided recycling containers in each room. We have been treated to lunch cooked over an open fire and served on rectangular spruce plates that are then used later to fuel the cooking fire.

In our next letter from the road we'll describe the ingenious approaches the Swedes are using to decrease their use of gasoline and other fossil fuels.

First Post from Stevens Point Contingency

The following text was jointly written by Anna Haines and Lynn Markham from the UW-Stevens Point Center for Land Use Education and Kelly Zagrzebski from Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.

Greetings from Stockholm!!! Based on the little we have seen, Stockholm is a beautiful city. The metro area has about 2 million of Sweden's 9 million people. There are many old buildings yet new ones also. We visited the City Hall, which by European standards, is quite new as construction was completed in 1923. The building is made of hand-made brick, 8 million of them. It sits on the water and is the site of the Nobel Laureate luncheon.The drive from the airport was familiar. After many hours on airplanes and little sleep, I had to shake myself as we drove in a taxi down a highway looking at what appeared to be the Central Wisconsin landscape.

Karl-Henrik Robert, the founder of the Natural Step, spoke to the group this morning. An engaging and charming former cancer researcher and doctor turned sustainability activist spoke about competent leadership in The Natural Step process.
The four principles The Natural Step provides for moving toward sustainability are reducing your dependence on:
* heavy metals and fossil fuels that dissipate into the environment
* persistent unnatural compounds like bromine-organic antiflammables or persistent pesticides
* wood and food from ecologically maltreated land and materials that require long-distance transportation
* wasting resources.

After lunch there were two speakers from the city who spoke about Stockholm\'s environmental program. While not as engaging as Dr. Robert, these speakers brought to the forefront the political and organizational context within which they struggle to create a framework, process and actions to fruition. Although Dr. Robert brought us inspiration, passion and commitment to an ideal, the speakers from city hall brought us the challenging reality. One major accomplishment in Stockholm is that 53% of people take the bus or subway to work because they are quicker, more convenient and less expensive than driving a car.

One amazing statistic for this city is that about 40% of the land area is parks and natural area. For a city of 771,000 and a density of over 1500 people per acre, this amount of open space creates places where people can recreate, play, skateboard, enjoy a sunset or quiet moment, and greenery for the eye. The Swedes also enjoy their many beautiful lakes by swimming in the harbors and eating lots of fish - even herring for breakfast!

Robertsfors (Umea)

This is one of the fourth generation eco-municipalities. Robertsfors was developed as a model of a community that created a five year plan – a more directed and fast process. We arrived in the mid morning after a long night …. Due to delays we missed the flight from Stockholm toUmea the night before so spend Thursday night in Stockholm. Friday we caught a flight from Stockholm to Umea – very weary.

Our first stop was the Green Zone in Umea, a sort of industrial park that was designed and build incorporating green building practices and systems. It included a car dealership, a McDonalds and a petrol/ethanol station. We heard from the former director of ESam, Michael Jalmby speaking about biofuels. Sweden as a country has set a goal of being fossil fuel free by 2020. His work is now focused on developing this industry.

The strategies are clear: Limiting driving, increasing motor efficiency and developing the production and use of biofuels. This speaks to analyzing our goals… are we seeking cost efficiency or creating a role model that provides a long term solution. Short vs. long term goals. As a society we have sought the quick fix at the best price.

We learned about the chain of factors feeding into the biofuel development:
Feedstock
Production
Vehicles & distribution of the fuels
Education
Rules & Regulations
Market Demand
All links of the chain must be in place for the system to work.

We then heard from Anders Nyquist – the architect who designed the Green Zone. He made a commitment early in his career to design only zero-emmision buildings. Features he brought into the Green Zone include green roofs (sedum on tile), ethanol pumping station, car wash with features using far less water, geo-thermal heating and cooling, cellulose fibers insulation plus much more. 99% of the materials used in the building can be reused or recycled when the time comes to take it down. I kept thinking about the newly proposed development in Bayfield and wishing our mayor was here to hear this!

“Ecological sustainability generates financial gains. For the time being the investment cost for the building of an ecologically adapted facility is higher than for traditional methods. However, the substantial savings in operating costs compensates a great part of the investment costs.”

As an architect, he is a visionary. His presentation, his values, his knowledge all were inspiring. In speaking with the community leaders, the Green Zone has become a highly popular tourist attraction.

After lunch we visited Umea Energi plant. This plant runs at about 99.5% efficiency, generating energy primarily from municipal solid waste. The tour of the plant was quite extensive, hard hats and all. Many of the villages and communities are heated as a district. That is the case here with the majority of homes and businesses tied into this system. Lots of technical info provided – but yet another example.
To dinner. More good food.

Helsingborg

We traveled south in the morning to Helsingborg –a city of over 121,000. They are also part of the 2nd generation of eco-municipalities. What struck me about this presentation was the organization of how they approach this effort – they have been at it some time and their governmental org. structure is built with sustainability in mind.
They also shared their environmental Indicators, specific goals in a number of different areas that are measurable. They are monitoring and reporting these results annually.
We later toured a waste recycling facility that uses trash to produce biofuel for the 62 biobuses in Helsingborg.

The beauty of this city is the ocean, proximity to Denmark (just across the bay). It was the first time we'd actually seen a municipality using indicators and discussing truly creating a plan to reach those indicators. Their city organization is clearly built around being an eco-municipality.

We visited a landfill where bio-gas (methane) is produced and recycled for heating and power. It is always a bit overwhelming visiting large landfills -- we get a true sense of how much stuff we throw away.

From Helsingborg, plane to Stockholm, only to find that our connecting plane had left without us. Off to a hotel near airport for early morning flight to Umea in the a.m.

Falkenbeg

This day provided a connect-the-dots experience. Falkenberg is a 2nd generation eco-municipality, having been working at this since the mid 1990’s. Throughout the day we were connected with a wide network of different partners, both private and public, that are tied into this eco-municipality. Without exception each person brought energy, and a sincere belief in the concepts of sustainability. And they all smile a lot!

Falkenberg is a municipality of approximately 40,000. Their economy is broad based, with some emphasis on IT, Trade and Commerce, Tourism, and healthcare. Over the course of time of working toward an eco-municipality, their land uses shifted. Since 1966….
~ Large scale farming to small scale farming
~ Maximum output to Optimum output
~ Food is produced for consumption – but also for energy and tourism (agri-tourism)

Specific examples of some of the things they have done…
Eco buses – green vans touring to schools and other functions with educational messages – “mobile lab”
Development of strong networks between the cities within their eco-municipality
Development of Wind parks
Their goal – by 2010 their energy sources will be 100% renewable.
They have within their city staff a Director of Sustainability” who works with all the committees, councils and other staff to ensure consistency in practices and philosophy
They have developed certification programs for schools, churches, etc.

We later toured their energy plant, Falkenberg Energy. Their goals:
~ By 2010 – fossil fuel free
~ Vehicles are 75% renewable energy
~ Use of rapeseed & biogas in district heating

Their efforts have been designed at the same time they are ensuring protecting the River Antran and the salmon. We heard from their naturalist and viewed the components of their systems in place.

We then heard from Berte Qvarn, active entrepreneur and miller – also runs an “Eco-Museum” – he shared a story of his decision of the need to stop using methyl bromide to ride his flours of insects. Over time, he developed a system to heat the grain He tells this story in a wonderfully animated and excited fashion. His eco-museum is filled with antiques and pieces that tell the stories of the many people before us who saw a problem and created tools to address that problem – he feels we need to capture that spirit of problem solving today as we all collectively address the many environmental and social issues we face.

This concept of eco-museums is wonderful - a living museum tied to the environment and culture. The Chequamegon Bay is filled with eco-museum opportuntiies!

And, again, a wonderful dinner of sushi on the shore – ah, more food!

The hostel we stayed in for these past two nights is also considered a part of their eco-museum network. An old farmstead that has been added onto and converted to a hostel. The addition is a berm built house with wonderful features. Much of the food served is grown by the owners. The separation toilets were a wonderful example of making good use of waste!

Jarna

Travel to Jarna – a small eco community. The closest concept I can come up with is communal living. They are creating a self-supporting community that includes housing, school, hospital,etc.

We heard from Kristoffer Luthi, Vice Managing Director of Ekobanken. The general concept behind this bank is that it is set up as a community bank – banking for sustainability. They started in 1998 – totay have total balance of $32 Million USD. They practice ethical banking/ social financing. Their members are not seeking interest income, but make deposits in support of financing sustainable projects.

“In the centre of our work are cultural, social and ecological initiatives from people who wish to contribute to a positive development of our society. “

They work transparently and openly disclose who they have financed, making it possible for savers to see who they are supporting. They have strongly supported projects around education and care of the elderly, cultural projects and the environment.

We shared lunch in what appears to be a cafeteria enjoying a biodynamic vegetarian buffet. The food through this whole trip continues to be outstanding, with each place working hard to provide wonderful fresh and locally produced items. Since we are at the start of summer here, few fresh vegetables are available unless hot-house grown. Lots of potatoes.

We learned a bit more about the bio-dynamic gardening – very similar to organic growing techniques, with the specific difference of addition of “preparates”, specific plants that provide a balancing nature to the compost. The system appears to be even more in tuned with working with nature in growing.

A train from Sodertalje to Gothenburg, and then Gothernburg to Falkenberg – arriving in Falkenberg at about 9:00 (still very light out!) --- bus to the hostel: Kulturgaden Bjorkenkullen in Bratadal. This hostel is located on a historic farmsted – a couple having converted the space to a green operation. That may be a separate post!

Kungsor

A visit to small community of Kungsor, hearing their story of a failing economy in the 70’s-80’s – leading to a decision to begin to approach their community differently. An initiative called “Kungsor Opens the Door" was created to recognize internally among their citizens and politicians of the assets of their own place. This must occur before they are able to put together appropriate plans for future growth. This concept is one that we have frequently been told as humans – we need to take care of and understand ourselves in order to be effective taking care of others around us. Communities are the same – we must understand and take care of the community as citizens before we can begin to plan how we want/need to grow. Basically they worked to address that they maintained and created a good place to live and work, with an attachment to nature.

They spoke of the attempt to coordinate more extensive education of the youth relative to environment and sustainability. As well as education of the general public.

We toured a nature reserve – a beautiful area that has been restored – a part of the “Cultural Landscape of Kungosr. Our guide was a wonderful naturalist, artist and writer providing a heartfelt messages of how they approached this restoration. 300 and 400 year old trees were explored. Clearly this was one of the ways this community found to connect to itself and its history. The people we visited with were clearly attached to this land and its natural & cultural history.

We then toured an entrepreneurial company, Ecoil – we met Mikkel Selder & Bo Bjorkman, two wonderful men who are producing rapeseed oil for energy use. The rapeseed (canola) is grown in this region, brought to this plant for cold pressing. It is anticipated that they will be able to provide the oil necessary for heating the entire community. The remaining seed hulls are provided for farmers as feed for cows. The business is young, but they clearly have a vision and the expertise to pull it together.

Some facts:
~ 1 acre of rapeseed produces 31,000 kwh energy
~ 3 tons of rapeseed will produce 1 ton oil + 2 tons feed (also seen as fuel)
~ Rapeseed can be grown on the same land only once every seven years, forcing the need for crop rotation. The majority of growers they are working with are growing a variety of crops and are not large scale farmers.

When asked why they chose to come to Kungsor to establish this business, they told us the existing building was the most important factor, but also that the community leaders were poised to make the permit and start up process move along quickly. The community didn’t provide any direct financial backing. They clearly feel that the community has welcomed them – very important for their desire to stay and grow the company.


Some of their comments worth pondering:

“We don’t make garbage, We make money. It’s much better.”
“It’s better to work 100% for new technology rather than 5% for old technology.”
We finished the day with yet another great meal – ah, the food we’ve been provided with. Wonderful.

Eskiltuna

Children’s Exhibit – Eskiltuna

An experiencial exhibit for grade school children that provides opportunity for understanding of effects of climate change – both in terms of what causes it and what the effects in our life might be. The organizers are a community children’s performing group. This exhibit providing a series of creative and handson exercises and adventures for children that frames the concepts of climate change …. Causes and effects.

A time capsule takes us into the future to see first hand some of the implications ranging from more illness, unrest, water shortages, glacial melts leading to flooding, etc. Play acting and problem identification are used.

Cause and effect was shown on a board with many messages, a peg on each one. Four different groups were asked to take long strings to connect the pegs, going from a situation (i.e. gloabal warming) to numerous sequential effects.



I found this inspiring and was certainly able to visualize the kids getting into it. Steve had some concerns from an educator’s perspective that he can share – however this continues to provide a critically needed component – that recognition that we must start teaching these things at young ages. The truth is, it is simple cause and effect, and children do understand this very clearly.

Waste Treatment Plant – Eskiltuna- This is the largest wetland in Sweden built in order to reduce the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus going into the Eskiltuna River, Lake Maleren and the Baltic Sea. It is also obviously a tremendous natural environs.

Eskilstuna & Kungsor

A very full day today traveling by bus to two eco-communities: Eskilstuna and Kungsor. A wonderful Climate Change exhibition for young children, tour of a Waste Water Treatment plant, presentations from mayor & leaders of small eco-community of Kungsor along with tour of their nature preserve, capped off by a tour of a plant that cold presses rapeseed for the oil used for energy.....

but it is late. We will add significant to this tomorrow.

Connections

This afternoon we had the opportunity to hear from each member of the group and learn about who they are and how they made the decision to come to Sweden on this incredible journey. What an impressive group! The passion and commitment to sustainability that is evident among this group gives me real hope for the future of our planet! City planners, a city engineer, an organic farmer, city council and county board members, a city Mayor and many others! All are involved in a variety of local environmental causes/issues. Torbjorn Lahti talks about the need for "firesouls" in each community that can "champion the cause". These people are truly "firesouls!

Sanga-Saby

Sanga-Saby, a lovely conference center is located on Faringso Island, about35 km northwest of Stockholm. This center is owned by the Swedish Farmers Association (an association of approximately 90% of Sweden’s Farmers). The center has 134 rooms and 28 conference rooms. The center has set itself apart with a strong environmental philosophy.

We found the information provided on their program informative and impressive – ranging from energy management to waste management to food selection and more. They clearly take a comprehensive approach to this within the management of the center. The exciting thing is looking at their income / profitability once getting beyond the initial few years of high cash layout for creation of the center. Their location close to a major metropolitan area clearly feeds into this success.

Two great examples….

Their water system: Sitting on Lake Malaren, they take their water from the lake, treat it, put the used water thru their own treatment system, returning the water to the lake as clean as it was when taken out. A closed loop system.
The buildings are heated with a heat pump system (geo-thermal), again taking advantage of the lake. The system is also tied into their refrigeration/freezers.

The Natural Step Philosophy was an important part of the develoment of the property.

This floor in their new building was installed to the contour of the land. While difficult to see here, it gradually rises and falls.

A day of inspiration and new questions

What a wonderful nght's sleep! Of course after being up for nearly a day and a half without sleeping a probable could have slept well on the floor!

Breakfast brought bacl memories of my Swedish grandparents and the "hardtack" and cheese for breakfast. Oh, and the wonserful breads,too. Although the coffee was really awful.

We traveled to our morning meeting by subway. Over half of the people in Stockholm travel to work using mass transit and an additional 30% either walk or use the bike. Can you imagine how much oil we would save n the U.S. if we Americans utilized mass trans on our o leg power instead oof driving to work by ourselves in SUV's! We wouldn't need to be "protecting" our Middle East oil interests!



Listening to Torbjorn Lahti and Karl-Henrik Robert discuss the Natural Step was very informative and inspirational. Although I am relatively famaliar with the Natural Step and the 4 System Conditions it was very helpful to hear about it from the developer and implementor of this program.


















It was also interesting to listen to the presentation from Jon Moeller, Agenda 21 Coordinator in Stockton and hear about the politicaland bureaucatical problems that he faces. As different as Sweden's political system might be we still share many of the same problems when trying to implemwnt public policy. He brought his two choldren with him to emphasize his reason for being involved in this work....his chldren's future.

From Nancy: I was quite inspired by Karl-Henrick Robert. He does a beautiful job of communicating the need to place strong science behind the arguement for sustainability and the ability to help those who might not be on board to feel less threatened and amenable to the "conversation." Their are consistent questions from many in the group on getting a better handle on how we move the process of educating people in a non-threatening and understandable way. We are eager to visit more of these municipalities and gather specific suggestions based on their experience.

This is such a beautiful city - and the people are incredibly gracious. It feels good to be here.
,

Arrival in Stockholm

Travels were trouble free - can't say painless, as sitting for that long does become an issue. As Ros posted in an earlier post, we are now getting our knees unglued from our chins. :-)

First impressions as we drove from airport. VERY few SUVs -- but folks in European countries do drive much faster. Their transportation system is clearly in transition from traditional freeway chaos to mass transit.

The full group arrived in bits and pieces to the hostel where we had a brief time to rest, shower and prepare to go to the Stockholm City Hall. A beautfiul building where one of the 8 mayors (!) of the city officially greeted the delegation.

More detail on this tomorrow, as the bodies are caving in!