Climate-neutral cities in 2030 were the focus of Viable Cities' participation during Almedalen Week 2019. A theme that was very topical. During the week, 3,700 events were held, bringing together 42,000 participants from a wide range of interest areas in society. Sustainability was the topic that most events dealt with, followed by digitalization and environment/climate.
During Almedalen Week 2019, Viable Cities participated with its own events, as a co-organizer in others and in some cases as a speaker. On Monday, July 1, Viable Cities organized the seminar "How can Swedish cities become climate neutral by 2030? How can we achieve a good life in the city for everyone?". Participants included Allan Larsson and Olga Kordas, Chairman and Program Manager for Viable Cities respectively, as well as Darja Isaksson, Director General of Vinnova, Robert Andrén, Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, Ingrid Pettersson, Director General of Formas, and politicians from three of the cities involved in Viable Cities: Axel Darvik, City of Gothenburg, Hans Lindberg, Umeå Municipality, Rickard Malmström, Uppsala Municipality and Katarina Luhr, City of Stockholm. Watch the filmed interviews with Robert Andrén, Hans Lindberg and Rickard Malmström below.
On Tuesday, Viable Cities arranged the seminar "How can cities collaborate on digitalization to contribute to a good life for all inhabitants?". together with RISE. The seminar was based on the projects City as a Platform and Urban Digg Infra to provide different perspectives on the opportunities and challenges that exist: from an individual municipality, nationally and internationally. The panel included Ulrika K Jansson, Director of Public Works, Örebro Municipality, Mikael Anneroth, Ericsson and Peter Haglund, SKL. The seminar attracted great interest and many actors are strongly committed to building the digital infrastructure of cities together. Among other things, the work within City as a Platform brings together 18 municipalities.
Thursday, July 4, began with the breakfast seminar "What key issues in the transition to sustainable cities have dominated the week?" in collaboration with Sustainable Innovation, Botkyrkabyggen, Future Position X, Smart Housing Småland, Internet of Things Sweden, Visual Sweden and IQ Samhällsbyggnad. It summarized, together with the participants, insights from the week's seminars relevant to sustainable cities and what were the most important lessons learned. Insights from the seminar can be read in a separate post at this link.
On Thursday afternoon, Viable Cities organized the seminar "Citizen engagement for climate neutral cities - how can we ease the climate pressure?". together with Coompanion Sweden and Social Venture Network. See the video from the seminar at the bottom of the article. At the seminar, we followed up on the campaign Klimatlätt Almedalen - where Almedalen visitors, among other things with the app Svalna, could get a grip on their climate footprint and explore and come up with ideas on what can facilitate more climate-smart everyday practices. At the seminar, experts and visitors who acted as test pilots reflected on how it went and looked at opportunities for the future about how Almedalen Week as an event could be designed to make it easier for visitors and organizers to lighten the climate footprint. The Klimatlätt Almedalen campaign was carried out in collaboration with Klimatlätt, which is a project within Viable Cities where Uppsala Municipality, together with a number of actors, creates commitment to climate and sustainability and to help more people make sustainable choices in their everyday lives. some of the insights from the seminar concerned the importance of a more unified approach to sustainability during Almedalen Week (as an overall sustainability manager) and many practical tips and ideas on how participants and organizers can contribute to reducing the climate footprint on everything from travel to accommodation and simpler forms of remote participation.
Throughout the week, Viable Cities also acted as co-organizer for Mind//Shift Almedalen, where a number of events were arranged during the week. Among other things, Olga Kordas participated in a seminar on the theme Urban development and mental health. Mind//Shift is a movement that aims to engage everyone from business and public organisations, to academia and civil society, to focus on our mental well-being. Mental health is Sweden's most important asset for sustainable social development. This asset, our mental wellbeing, is affected by everything from digitalization and diet to the urban environment and culture. However, we have been talking about and acting on mental health for a long time. The purpose of Mind//Shift is to drive a mental shift, from reactive action to preventive work to strengthen mental health. This can be influenced by how we build and develop our cities. See video below from the seminar "How can sustainable urban development contribute to our mental health?", where Olga Kordas participated, and a summary of all Mind//Shift's activities during the week at the bottom of the article.
Many thanks to everyone we had the opportunity to interact with during Almedalen Week 2019!
Interviews from the seminar 'How can Swedish cities become climate neutral by 2030? How can we ensure a good life in the city for everyone?"
Robert Andrén, Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency
Hans Lindberg, Municipal Councillor, Umeå Municipality
Rickard Malmström, Local Councilor Uppsala Municipality
More videos from Almedalen where Viable Cities participated.
Seminar "Citizen engagement for climate neutral cities - how can we ease the climate pressure?".
Seminar 'How can sustainable urban development contribute to our mental health?
Summary of all Mind//Shift's activities during Almedalen.
