About fifty early morning Almedalen visitors gathered for Thursday breakfast at Teaterskeppet to summarize the week's discussions on the transition to sustainable cities. The organizers were Sustainable Innovation, Viable Cities, Future Position X, Botkyrkabyggen, IoT Sweden, Smart Housing Småland, Visual Sweden and IQ Samhällsbyggnad.
The expert panelists, who were also table hosts, began the breakfast by giving their reflections on which key issues in the transition to sustainable cities have dominated Almedalen Week. Anna Fjällström, Future Position X, began by noting that the number of seminars dealing with sustainability is increasing year after year - this year, 22% of the seminars in the Almedalen calendar were tagged with the term Sustainability. She called for a discussion on systemic change.
Sustainability and the 2030 Agenda as a common thread throughout Almedalen week
Olga Kordas, Viable Cities, raised the perspective that health and sustainability are interconnected and pointed out that we must work together towards the goal of "healthy people on a healthy planet". Anders Carlsson from Visual Sweden focused on digital twins and noted that he had expected to see and hear more about this during Almedalen Week. He broadened the concept and said that we can talk about the municipalities' digital parenting for the "twins" and that since there will be several digital twins of the same city, maybe we should also talk about digital siblings.
Chris Österlund, Botkyrkabyggen, addressed the breadth of sustainability issues. Many different actors discuss sustainability in Almedalen - from their different perspectives. She also highlighted that social sustainability is increasingly discussed. The approach when sustainability issues are discussed has also changed - more and more often the question is now asked: What are you doing to increase sustainability? Jin Moen from IoT Sweden emphasized that the global goals have now had an effect, that sustainability is high on the agenda and that Agenda 2030 has given us a common language to discuss sustainability issues. AI, robots and automation are means to achieve the SDGs.
Collaboration remains in focus
Anita Aspegren, IQ Samhällsbyggnad, gave a presentation characterized by "both and". One pair of opposites that she highlighted was "everyone and I", and elaborated that we need collaboration while the individual and the organization have their own responsibility for the development of society. Another pair of opposites is "cross-border and deeper", which symbolizes that we need to work together across borders, which are increasingly blurred, while at the same time we need expert knowledge.
Mikael Ludvigsson from Smart Housing Småland called for municipal cooperation in creating sustainable and attractive "cities". The Almedalen discussions are mostly about larger cities, but small and medium-sized cities also need to learn from each other, he said.
Around the breakfast tables in the Theatre Ship's small dining room, participants shared their own observations. The discussion ran high, with many different insights and perspectives emerging. One table called for a discussion on economic sustainability, while another table felt that the word collaboration had become inflationary and launched the concept of interaction instead. A third table raised the question of what will be discussed in Almedalen when sustainability has become a matter of course. Finally, the table hosts summarized what was said at each breakfast table.
Thomas Sundén, Sustainable Innovation, thanked all participants and summarized the Almedalen talks and discussions.
- Sustainability is now part of everything we do and discuss. There is a "sense of urgency" about the climate issue and now more "action" is needed. With the strong focus on the Agenda 2030 goals, we are now linking ecological, economic and social sustainability in a natural way.
The expert panelists were:
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Thomas Sundén, CEO, Sustainable Innovation
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Olga Kordas, Program Manager, Viable Cities
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Anna Fjällström, CEO, Future Position X
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Chris Österlund, CEO, Botkyrkabyggen
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Jin Moen, Program Manager, IoT Sweden
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Mikael Ludvigsson, Process Manager, Smart Housing Småland
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Anders Carlsson, Process Manager, Visual Sweden
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Anita Aspegren, CEO, IQ Samhällsbyggnad
Text: Helena Gibson-Ek, IQ Samhällsbyggnad.
