The "greenest" place on Earth?

Welcome to Hammarby Sjöstad, a part of the Stockholm municipality and a region that was, until recently, heavily industrialised. In the old industrial harbour area of Stockholm, a new neighbourhood for 30,000 people would be built, with 200 hectares of land, 9,000 new apartments, 400,000 sqm of new floor area for businesses, new canals and quays, a water-lock, several bridges and a tramway. Hammarby is known for being green, and famous for its transition from brown to green. Billed as a residential waterside area in Stockholm, it claims to have, as a badge of honour, a number of innovative sustainable solutions.

Nothing exemplifies better the interaction between man and environment than in how we build our cities.

Hammarby became sort of the crown jewel in the city's attempt to bring the Olympic Games to Sweden. During the early part of the 90s, by some sort of fate or design, municipal structures came together to decide that the area of Hammarby should be an environmental role model. A role model and shining example of how we can, collectively, build better sustainable cities. Cities that don't leave us sick. Cities that breathe. And cities that function like the way the body does — to efficiently remove waste products and keep you feeling renewed.

That area of the city went to great lengths to halve water consumption and reuse all garbage, sometimes in a clever way that produced energy, and made sure that residents produce at least half of the power they need. As simple as all that sounds it probably wasn't as easy as all that. Hammarby imposed tough environmental requirements on buildings, engineering installations, and traffic within this new ecosystem they were building. At its heart it was its bold ambition to be greener than the rest that set it apart.

Indeed, now Hammarby is the poster child for all things green. It was a totally integrated approach. Every aspect was taken into account and had to conform to certain green standards. Heating, transport and waste collection systems — all were placed alongside each other to work together, so that they would intentionally work alongside one another. Thereafter dubbed the "Hammarby Model," it served as an example for others striving to be just as green. The model is an experiment in motion, one that some other towns and cities across the globe have taken and emulated. So even though the initial 2004 Olympic Games bid came and went, Hammarby lives on.

However, this story of Hammarby serves as an example for both sides of a common story — the great and the ugly of science communication. It serves as a teachable moment for the way we communicate and talk about environmental issues. And it all starts with an environmental researcher from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology — Josefin Wangel. As a researcher in all things sustainable and urban development, complex issues are part and parcel. Her PhD thesis was the moderately titled "Making Futures: On Targets, Measures and Governance in Backcasting and Planning for Sustainability".

With all forms of science communication the complex issues are distilled, or rather simplified, down to dichromatic issues, particularly when scientists and science topics engage with the general media. So you can imagine the reaction that occurred when Josefin Wangel claimed (article in Swedish) that Hammarby Sjöstad did not comply with the energy consumption requirements for sustainable living that have been established by a UN climate panel. For a part of a city that prides itself on being beyond reproach, comments like these were definitely out of the ordinary.

"A media furore" was how it was described. And with all media furores, heated debates can usually lead to heated comments. In an interview she did with her university's campus newspaper, she describes perhaps the feeling a lot of researchers get when they interact with the media. The interview is certainly worth the read. She comments on being labelled an "environmental taliban" as well as her past on being an environmental activist.

"You can't cover the whole environmental perspective in one newspaper article". In the end it's a tale that serves as an example for wider scientific public engagement."

In the end, the larger point was lost somewhere in the furore... just how green is Hammarby? Certainly, this criticisim of Hammarby not being as green as it claims isn't at all new. And many of these criticisms should probably be taken as an opportunity to improve. What does green mean? And as we move further and further into the anthropocene, perhaps "green" isn't enough. More and more we will start to hear the terms that go beyond green — sustainability, transformations, and resilience. The challenge, for researchers like Josefin, will be not only to come up with these bold new concepts on ecological living, but also to communicate in a way that we all benefit from them.

References

Image Credit: Tommy (via Flickr)

Anonymous, "Researchers message survives media frenzy." Campi: news for staff at KTH. May 21, 2013