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It was on a recent trip to Sweden that I met a very colourful gentleman called the Swedish Chef. On discussing how to design a true sustainable building he replied “Don’t worry if you have to design a sustainable building, just use the VE!”

Sweden as a country has a great reputation in sustainability and energy efficiency and has recently been selected as the European Green Capital for 2010.

During my trip there I spent a number of days in Stockholm and learnt that it was the city council’s holistic vision that has lead the way for Stockholm becoming one of Europe’s most sustainable cities. It combines both growth and sustainable development. The city council has an ambitious target of becoming fossil fuel free by 2050 and many design teams are using BREEAM Europe to ensure buildings are playing there part in achieving the 2050 goal.

Overall Stockholm can be depicted as a city with very strong green programmes and effective measures across the board. Innovative ideas such as vegetated roofs have been put into practice. The city has an excellent structure of green and blue areas and, in fact 95% of the population lives only 300m away from green areas, thus catering for better well being, recreation, swimming, boating, water purification, noise reduction, enhancement of biodiversity and ecology.

The local transport system has taken several positive steps towards sustainability over the last ten years. A very broad and extensive range of measures have been adopted, including a successful and pioneering congestion charging system with good documented results in terms of reduced car use, and an increase in public transport share, included cycling. More than 75% of fuel stations in Stockholm now offer ethanol or biogas and all petrol solid in the region contains 5% ethanol.

As far as CO2 emissions are concerned, there has been a 25% reduction per capita in Stockholm emissions since 1990 which I believe can act as a bench mark for the rest of Europe.

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Tags:BREEAM, Building, cycling, free, reduce, Sustainability, Sweden

From goats to green roofs and organic composting to affordable green housing, cities across the states are working on creative ways to save the planet.   People are used to recycling programs and the promotion of public transportation, but some cities are going above and beyond those steps to ensure that our planet fights global warning.

These cities are rated in the Natural Resource Defense Council’s top 10 smart cities.  The ranks were defined by a number of different categories including alternative energy, affordable housing, energy efficiency, and public transportation.  Topping this list was Seattle, Washington who has begun using goats instead of pesticides to clear away unwanted shrubbery. 

Austin Texas made the list at number 6 for their energy saving insulation and sealing.  The city of Austin, provides free installation for the energy conserving upgrades for low and moderate income homes.  They are also running a program that allows residents to sell excess energy from their solar panels back to the city.

My home city of Boston ranks as number 8 on the list of smart cities for their implementation of one of the largest public transportation systems.  Boston is adding to their bicycle structure adding new bike lanes and more racks.

To find out more, or see how your city ranks, please see the Natural Resource Defense Council’s website, http://www.nrdc.org/about/ or http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/249/top-10-u-s-cities-of-the-future.html

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Tags:Boston, cycling, free, recycle, recycling, Sustainability, Texas, USA