Electric airplanes, heated streets and procurement for development - it's happening in Skellefteå!
The transition work in Skellefteå focuses on sustainable mobility, sustainable construction and sustainable industry. By mobilizing the whole community, they are working to increase biodiversity, promote sustainable transport, explore how public procurement can serve as a tool to reduce climate emissions, heat streets and buildings with waste heat and much more.
Skellefteå's focus areas are sustainable mobility, sustainable construction and sustainable industry. Investments in sustainable transport include the development of public transport, the expansion of cycle paths and pedestrian paths but also an exploration of behaviors, freight transport and drones, and the municipality is working on energy efficiency in both new and existing buildings, as well as procurement to promote sustainability and support the circular economy. Another important part of the transition work is also to engage citizens in the transition through dialogue and co-creation.
The core of the municipality's transition work is Sustainable Skellefteå - a group-wide platform for collaboration. The municipality collaborates with the whole community; business, civil society and the citizens, and the work takes place in the form of vision work, planning, portfolios and individual projects and activities.
In mobility, Skellefteå is investing in mobility hubs and public transport, but also more forward-looking initiatives linked to drones and sustainable aviation. The municipal companies recently built a 1 MWh charger for electric aircraft, which has led to the region taking a leading role in sustainable transport and innovation in the aviation industry.
The city is working with community groups, specifically sports clubs, to create environments that benefit local species and vegetation and increase biodiversity. In the city center, the municipality is working hard to redesign the city's traffic flows to promote sustainable transport and create a transport system that promotes sustainability and accessibility for all. And even waste heat is being recovered in Skellefteå, and used to heat streets and buildings. This reduces the need for new energy sources, promotes efficient resource use and creates long-term financial savings.
In the city's latest update, they talk about the work, the transition arena, the project portfolio and much more.
Gustaf Ulander, process manager for Climate Neutral Skellefteå 2030, gustaf.ulander@skelleftea.se
Karin Degerfeldt, process manager for Climate Neutral Skellefteå 2030, karin.degerfeldt@skelleftea.se
In Klockardalsparken, Skellefteå municipality has worked on five different nature-based solutions to improve health and well-being in the city. The park now acts as a brake for rainwater flows and part of the area, which is now a wetland meadow, also enhances biodiversity.
Skellefteå highlights further actions that they believe may be of particular interest to other municipalities to spy and apply. Contact the process leaders to spy and apply.
Skellefteå Kraft promotes biodiversity in power lines by creating environments that favor local species and vegetation. They collaborate with the community, where young people from sports teams take part in work activities that support this work, while receiving compensation for the team fund and learning about environmental work.
Skellefteå municipality is working intensively to reshape the city's traffic flows to promote sustainable transport. The work also includes investments in greener urban environments with tree plantings and electrically powered machines to reduce emissions.
Climate City Contract 2030 is a collective effort to achieve the climate transition that we need to implement in a short time to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. It is an agreement between municipalities, government agencies and Viable Cities where all parties undertake to make a concrete contribution to increasing the pace of climate change.
To achieve deep change, we need to move from fragmented projects to an ecosystem of efforts that all pull in the same direction. Cities are doing this together with Viable Cities, funders government agencies and other partners, in different constellations and with different objectives. It is about moving beyond dealing with symptoms and instead focusing on underlying problems in our social structure. Here you will find the initiatives and studies within the city that have been granted funding under Viable Cities.
City as a Platform is an innovation initiative that brings together 18 municipalities to explore, test, implement and collaborate on common IoT platforms...
In 2022, Viable Cities has been responsible for a government assignment "Support for innovation work in sustainable urban and community development in Norrbotten and...
Since 2023, Skellefteå is part of the Urban Transitions Mission's (UTM) cohort of cities working together to test and scale up innovative solutions for a holistic, human-centered climate transition.
