Category News

Today it was announced that Viable Cities has been commissioned by the government to support innovation in sustainable urban and community development in Norrbotten and Västerbotten.

- "It is a great honor to receive this assignment, and it fits very well with the processes we are already working on in the Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative," says Olga Kordas, Program Manager Viable Cities.

Viable Cities' Climate Neutral Cities 2030 initiative is growing. From October 1, 2021, more than 20 cities will join the initiative to accelerate the climate transition. The nine cities that have been part of the initiative since the start in 2019 are now sharing their most important experiences in a series of blog posts. First up is Växjö municipality, which has worked for 25 years to become a fossil fuel-free municipality and sees that Climate City Contract 2030 strengthens the work for a sustainable climate-neutral society.

At the premiere of the Frihamnsdagarna in Gothenburg, the city participated with a seminar series on the theme "Fair climate transition". Participants included civil servants and politicians from the City of Gothenburg as well as representatives from business, civil society and academia. They all agreed that we need to accelerate the pace of transitioning our society to climate neutrality.

When Umeå Municipality entered the Sharing Cities Sweden program four years ago, concepts such as the sharing economy were not part of their governing processes. Now that the initiative is rounded off in August 2021, Sharing City Umeå shares some of its reflections.

On the blog, Tove Lund from Sharing Cities Sweden writes about how the City of Gothenburg has coordinated the Sharing City Gothenburg test bed where they have tackled the sharing economy from a consumption perspective. Here we can read about the various services created to promote the sharing economy, ranging from the Toy Library to co-working concepts.

The Hammarby Sjöstad district in Stockholm aims to halve its climate impact by 2030 through a citizen-driven process developed by Sharing Cities Sweden in Stockholm, in collaboration with local stakeholders. But what do the citizens and entrepreneurs of Sjöstad have to do to realize this goal?

"Wow, what a journey it has been!" On the blog, project manager Juliet Leonette and her team talk about the work on the sharing economy in Sharing Cities Sweden's test bed in Sege park, Malmö. The goal? In Sege Park, it should be possible to live a good and healthy life with a minimal negative environmental and climate impact - at a reasonable cost.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions in cities come from transportation, of people and goods. Viable Cities and Drive Sweden are now joining forces to accelerate the transition to climate neutral mobility in our cities, we call the initiative Climate Smart Mobility 2030. Our first joint event, on June 4, offered international perspectives, panel discussions and inspiring examples.

Fill the climate gap, writes Örjan Svane, one of the researchers in Sharing Cities Sweden's test bed in Stockholm, who has followed ElectriCITY's work and the establishment of the Hammarby sjöstad district from the beginning. The district aims to become climate neutral by 2030 through a citizen-driven process developed in collaboration with local stakeholders.

Since Viable Cities started in 2017, Allan Larsson has been Chairman for the board. At the Annual General Meeting on April 15, 2021, he stepped down and he summarizes the results achieved and expectations for the future on our blog.

In Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, a unique sustainability initiative is underway. The goal is for the district to become climate neutral by 2030. The initiative is run by ElectriCITY Innovation together with citizens, housing associations, companies and academia. Lennart Backlund develops the ideas behind the project on our blog.

Green roofs offer a large profitable potential to strengthen and preserve ecosystem services, and the project One roof - five opportunities shows that there are many opportunities to realize this potential. Henrik Dahl, Future Position X, writes about it on our blog.

On December 17, the government presented the research and innovation bill that sets the direction of Sweden's research policy for the next four years. The next generation of strategic innovation programs are included.