27 November 2025
Sundsvall has high ambitions in its transition work and has many good examples of initiatives. We face challenges with emissions from transport and industry, but at the same time we have great opportunities to contribute to the green transition through access to renewable energy and extensive expertise in digital transformation.
The focus now is on scaling up our efforts and doing more together, both within the municipal group and with the business community and citizens. We need to make it easier for companies, employees, and citizens to make sustainable and climate-smart choices.
The municipal council has decided that the Sundsvall municipal group shall be climate neutral by 2030, that greenhouse gas emissions in Sundsvall as a geographical area should be reduced by 63% by 2030 from 1990 levels, and that consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions in Sundsvall should be reduced to 5.6 tons/person by 2030. Sundsvall Municipality has also set a target that by 2040, walking, cycling, and public transport should account for 75% of all journeys.
In the city's latest update, they talk about the work, the transition arena, the project portfolio and much more.
Linda Johansson Bäck, process manager for Climate Neutral Sundsvall 2030, linda.johansson.back@sundsvall.se
The municipality of Sundsvall has distinguished itself through its inspiring and educational initiative on sustainable food choices, where Smaskoten Smaskis plays a central role. Smaskis acts as an ambassador for sustainability and engages children and students in the municipality's schools and preschools. In a fun and meaningful way, he makes them aware of making healthy choices in the cafeteria. Through the Svinnresan initiative, the municipality has successfully communicated practical strategies for reducing food waste, which not only benefits the environment but also the municipality's economy and leads to efficient use of resources. Thanks to this work, Sundsvall Municipality was named Sustainability Municipality of the Year 2024 by "Solutions for public organisations."
Like many other cities, Sundsvall is also actively working to promote walking and cycling and is developing applicable concepts for various target groups, such as large workplaces, schools, and associations, to encourage more people to travel more sustainably. One focus of this work is that every municipal employee should be a role model to inspire others to choose sustainable travel.
One factor contributing to Sundsvall's position at the top of Sweden's cycling cities is the work being done to change people's travel habits and inspire more people to cycle. An important part of this work is to continuously inform people about our goal of achieving 75% sustainable travel by 2040. Highlighting and raising awareness of how we travel to work, meetings, or events is an example of simple but effective activities to create awareness and motivation for changing travel habits. Examples of this include visualizing travel through the "thread journey" board or a travel habits game. Inspiring more people to cycle even in winter is done through the recurring winter cyclist campaign.
By working systematically with education for sustainable development, we equip our children and young people to take action themselves and inspire others to contribute to sustainable development and the transformation of society. Some concrete examples are projects in preschools to save bees and in mother tongue teaching.
The municipal housing company Mitthem AB has developed a game where you can learn how to save more energy and improve the climate. In the game, you help solve the climate puzzle by becoming better at not using electricity, water, and heat unnecessarily. So everyone can become a Climate Detective!
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.
Sundsvall is testing solutions and learning from others to move forward in the transition. Sundsvall is one of 48 Swedish municipalities joining forces to tackle the climate crisis and join forces in the next phase for climate-neutral and sustainable cities....
Gävle is part of the NetZeroCities 112 Mission Cities, selected since 2022 to pioneer the EU Cities Mission.
Copyright © 2024 Viable Cities | Website policy | Accessibility
