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A sustainable city must also think about what it is putting out into the surrounding environment.
Sustainable cities want to reduce waste in addition to lowering pollution. This is especially
important in cities with limited processing capacity for things like waste, as such materials may be
pushed onto surrounding communities unless the city takes responsibility for them.
Some examples of things a sustainable city might implement include: green roofs, rooftop gardens,
solar panels, bike lanes, better public transit, water recycling, centralized recycling facilities, energy
efficient heating and cooling systems for large buildings, reuse of building materials, changes to the
workweek which reduce congestion,
tougher air quality controls, permeable pavement, wind
energy, and community service programs. These changes may not have immediate effects and they
can take years or decades to implement,
but over time, they can have a cumulative benefit. Just
installing green roofs in a sustainable city, for example, can radically reduce the rise in temperature
commonly associated with cities.
For instance, Swedish cities have taken climate change to task, drastically
helping to reduce the
country’s greenhouse gas emissions. There are some key initiatives of Swedish cities:
Sweden’s shift from oil to district heating in the early 1990’s is perhaps the single most important
factor in explaining the country’s reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, both in the housing
and service sector. Today, district heating accounts for more than 80 per
cent of the heat and hot
water provided to Sweden’s apartment blocks.
Back in 1996, Växjö became the first city in the world to set the goal of becoming fossil-fuel free
by 2030. Since then, the city has backed up words with actions and is often referred to as ‘Europe’s
greenest city’. The key to Växjö’s achievements in reducing CO2 emissions is that more than 90 per
cent of the energy used for heating in the city, and about half its electricity, comes from trees.
Waste from the local forest industry – branches, bark and sawdust – is burned to generate heat and
power.
In Umeå’s Ålidhem district some 400 residential apartments – built in the 1960s and 1970s – have
been refurbished with the goal of reducing their energy consumption by 50 per cent.
The geothermal system in place at Stockholm’s Central Station captures
body heat from over
250,000 daily commuters. The heat is sourced into water via a heat regulator and the heated water is
then pumped into the nearby Kungsbrohuset to provide heating. The cooling of the building is
provided by water from the nearby Klara Lake, making maximum
use of the surrounding
environment.
See more at:
https://sweden.se/nature/7-examples-of-sustainability-in-sweden/
