By Adele Peters

On October 29, I had a chance to explore two internationally leading examples of sustainable urban neighborhoods in Malmo, Sweden, on a tour led by city official Trevor Graham. The tour was part of the Sustainable Innovation ‘08 conference. Graham guided us through the newly built Western Harbor as well as a 1950s tenement district that was transformed in the 1990s.

As Graham said at one point, the most important thing isn’t that Malmo is using cutting-edge technologies, but rather that the city has invested in demonstrating that successful sustainable neighborhoods are possible. What they’ve done is a good model for cities around the world.

Below you’ll find photos of interesting points along the tour, including a look at the latest project, yet to be developed.

(Editor’s note: Worldchanging’s Alex Steffen spoke at the Sustainable Innovation conference in Malmo. See video clips here)

On the roof in Malmo, Sweden, at the International Green Roof Institute. Faced with a rundown 1950s housing development, the city decided to make it an eco-neighborhood in the 1990s, and built several green roofs, among other improvements. City officials traveled to Germany and Switzerland to learn about green roofs at the time, but couldn’t see anything, because the roofs were inaccessible; this was the inspiration for the Green Roof Institute, a research center.

Trevor Graham, Head of Sustainable Development for the City of Malmo, explains features of the green roofs to a group of designers and others from the ‘Sustainable Innovation 08′ conference.

From parking lot to park.

Solar panels serve a dual purpose here, providing energy and shading office windows from excess heat. The artificial stream below helps collect water in an area prone to flooding.

Pebble-shaped bumps in this ditch help direct water most efficiently. After the area experienced severe flooding, a local resident began studying water flow patterns and helped the city design several water management devices.

In the city’s Western Harbor, a former landfill was cleaned up and developed as a sustainable neighborhood. The buildings nearest the sea were designed to be high enough to block the strong winds from the rest of the neighborhood.

The area is primarily car-free inside, with ample space for biking and walking.

“Salt & Brygga,” an organic, slow-food restaurant in the area. It runs on renewable energy and uses local food sources.

Inside the neighborhood, a variety of architecture. The area is run on 100% locally-produced renewable energy. The houses are designed to be energy-efficient, and some use passive heat.

These sustainable buildings echo the traditional architecture of this part of Sweden.

Parks were added throughout the neighborhood to support biodiversity.

A large greenhouse provides a good spot to sit and watch the sea in cold and windy weather.

Because the view of the sea is blocked by the first row of buildings, waterways were added throughout the neighborhood.

The newest project: a large, rundown warehouse district is set to be remodeled as a sustainable space for artists, designers, businesses, neighborhood kids, and others to work together on projects for the environment.

Inside an old bus depot, the team from Able Global Solutions (www.worldwideable.com) talks about their plans to use the space. The city initially planned to sell the area to developers, but is allowing for three years to plan the potential sustainability incubator instead.

Adele Peters is currently earning her Master’s in Sustainability at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Photos by author.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Columns at 3:15 PM)

Simple ideas can save water and energy.

Like many folks these days, I’m really in no financial position to be adding to my list of home projects. Still, it’s hard for me not to daydream a little bit — especially about gadgets that would save water, energy, and space in the home.

do exist, even in the US, but they’re far more common in boats and RVs than in people’s homes.

Combining two major appliances into one saves manufacturing energy, and is a perfect space-saving solution for apartments and smaller homes. But for some of these combos, the coolest feature is a super-fast spin cycle that extracts most of the water from wet clothes through centrifugal force, not heat. The super-spin is a great idea: clothes dryers use more electricity in US homes than any other appliance except for fridges; and converting electricity into heat is ridiculously inefficient. (Yuck.) It’s much better to squeeze your clothes dry than to heat them.

Of course, if I wanted to go super-duper efficient, I’d take another idea from RVs and boats — the hand-cranked washer and counter-top spin-dryer. I’ve never seen them in action, but they sound nifty — the washer in particular uses water and detergent so sparingly that it’s marketed to folks with low-capacity septic systems. The only drawback is that you can only do a bit of laundry at a time, so it may not be the most convenient solution for a big family. Still, if you’re looking to cut back on your water and power bills, this combo is hard to beat.

this video at the Popular Mechanics website, the Caroma toilet uses 17 percent less water than a dual flush toilet with a separate handbasin, and 70 percent less than a standard toilet + handbasin. But as with the combo washer-dryer, perhaps the biggest potential benefit is that it saves space and installation costs — allowing new homes to be a bit smaller and for a bit less money, without losing an iota of modern convenience.

The real point of all this meandering is this: there are TONS of off the shelf products that can save families money, water and energy. They’re not exotic, they’re not complicated, they’re not that expensive. They’re just uncommon…so far, at least.

Just as importantly, there are plenty of super-efficient product ideas that are just over the horizon, and wouldn’t be that hard to implement. (Take, for example, this concept for a recycling washer-dryer combo that uses rinse water from one load to wash the next.)

There’s simply no reason we can’t make these sorts of appliances the norm, rather than the exceptions. And now that both money and energy are at a premium, there’s no reason to dawdle, either.

This article originally appeared on The Sightline Institute’s blog, The Daily Score.

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(Posted by Clark Williams-Derry in Energy at 1:21 PM)

The smart-growth sustainability set is abuzz with excitement today over a new potential relationship in the Obama administration: Bruce Katz, vice president and founding director of the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, has examined the Obama administration’s plan for cities and metropolitan areas and endorsed it, calling it “the real deal.”

Speaking to crowds in Connecticut last week, Katz commented that Obama, who comes from Chicago, brings an urban perspective to the nation’s highest office that we have not seen from Democratic presidents in recent decades. The Obama campaign, and now the transition team, has been forthcoming with its plans for urban policies, and made headlines earlier this week when transition co-chair Valerie Jarrett confirmed Obama’s plant to establish an Office of Urban Policy. Many believe Katz is a likely pick to head the office, though Katz himself has declined to comment.

Urban policy and growth management, like so many other issues, tie sustainable development planning to economic recovery and other key agenda items. Recently quoted in the Stamford Advocate, Katz proclaimed:

The question is, can you build a 21st-century economy without vital cities? My attitude is you can’t.”

Katz said investment in cities is particularly in a weak economic climate. For state governments such as Connecticut’s, that means focusing dwindling resources on metropolitan areas and urban cores.

Photo credit: flickr/wallyg, Creative Commons license.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Politics at 11:18 AM)