More than 75 people gathered to summarize Almedalen Week's discussions on sustainable cities at Teaterskeppet. The organizers were Sustainable Innovation, Viable Cities and IQ Samhällsbyggnad together with Riksbyggen, SABO, ÅF and White Arkitekter. The interest was great and the queue outside Teaterskeppet was long.
The seven experts, who were also table hosts, began by giving their reflections on what they had heard during the week. Thomas Sundén from Sustainable Innovation highlighted that sustainable cities are now placed in a context where several different aspects are discussed simultaneously, such as energy, life cycle perspectives and not least social sustainability. Eva Schelin from IQ Samhällsbyggnad's reconnaissance included the fact that the concept of sustainability requires a deeper understanding and that we must define what we mean and link it to the goals of Agenda 2030. Olga Kordas from Viable Cities offered three perspectives that are discussed at several seminars: Digitalization / technology as an enabler, citizen engagement and linking behaviors with technology.Other tensions that came up were that digitalization is the new "sustainability", sustainability is now part of the business and the need for collaboration and to include young people in the discussion on sustainable cities.During lunch, each table discussed their tensions and many different perspectives came up, including the water issue, social sustainability, AI, the lack of a social housing policy and digitalization. Finally, the table hosts summarized what was said during the lunch discussion.
Olga Kordas concluded with the call to take the opportunity to use Almedalen 2019 as a living lab for smart sustainable cities and social innovation:
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Therese Berg, Head of Sustainability, Riksbyggen
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Olga Kordas, Program Manager, Viable Cities
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Eva Schelin, CEO, IQ Samhällsbyggnad
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Anders Nordstrand, CEO, SABO
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Thomas Sundén, CEO, Sustainable Innovation
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Helena Paulsson, head of urban development, ÅF
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Niklas Svensson, market focus and development manager for sustainable urban planning, White arkitekter.
Text: Helena Gibson-Ek, IQ Samhällsbyggnad.
