Building Sustainable Cities: Scandinavia Show the Way

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Building Sustainable Cities
Scandinavia’s “Eco-Municipalities” Show the Way
by Miranda Spencer

Sustainable development is a popular environmental catchphrase, but it’s not always clear what sustainability looks like beyond demonstration projects such as recycling centers or the occasional “green” building. Now North Americans are starting to look at Sweden for both models and methods of sustainability.

Since 1997, Esam, a self-described “human ecological corporation” based in Umeå, and the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based nonprofit Alliance for Sustainability have been co-sponsoring annual Sustainable Sweden Tours to some of the country’s 70 “eco-municipalities.” These places have voluntarily committed to integrating sustainability principles as official, across-the-board policy. From rural villages to the urban capital of Stockholm, the communities arrived at decisions and crafted innovative green solutions using a holistic, democratic planning process called the Natural Step framework (TNS). (....)

Will the eco-municipality concept work on a wider scale in American communities not already on that path? Local governments in Sweden enjoy considerably more power than their U.S. counterparts, and the movement enjoys support at the federal level. But Terry Gips, who speaks widely on the topic, maintains “it will work better here in the U.S. because people are more entrepreneurial.” He adds that the TNS process “reduces bureaucracy, and saves businesses money and time, but it also provides a carrot to do the right thing.”

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