Living the Talk & Finding the Leverage

In planning my trip to COP15, I spent a lot of time researching the events, press meetings, side events and venues to get some idea of a game plan for the visit. When our full delegation is here on Tuesday we will have planning session to compare notes and ensure we cover as much territory as we can. Upon arrival, I found the atmosphere to be what I expected; from the airline pilot welcoming COP-15 visitors on the approach into Copenhagen, to the promotional booths and helpful guides directing sleep deprived travelers at the airport to the bustling streets the atmosphere is electric and carnival-like. What I wasn’t really prepared for was the experience of being immersed in one of the most sustainable urban environments that can be found.

As business travelers often do, I sit at the end of the day to catch up on email and other daily chores and start to acknowledge there is something different about this hotel stay at one of the Scandic hotels in Malmo, Sweden. Yes, linens are only replaced when necessary and lighting it controlled by your key card. Rehydrating after a long day, I sip tap water, yes tap water, out of a glass that is actually made from glass. I work on a small desk and wooden task chair (locally sourced), lit by a single, small compact fluorescent task light. Next to the desk on the oak flooring (recycle material) sits a waste management system, a wastebasket compartmentalized for organics, recyclables and other materials. The hotel’s brochure on sustainability lies nearby and I read the hotel chain is a Nordic Swan Award (sustainability) winner. It has developed its own water treatment capability that leaves important salts and minerals in the water and has eliminated the sale of 1.6 million liters of bottled water (3.5 million bottles) per year, in additional to 160 tons of carbon dioxide emission in transportation of that water to its hotels. Waste water streams are managed and treated separately. I even went on line to calculate the environmental impact of my stay. Seems they’ve taken this sustainability thing pretty far.

Dinner was taken tonight in the hotel restaurant and consisted of a menu of locally grown foods and fair trade coffee. In the hotel lobby, across from the restaurant, is a “small farmers market” of fruits along with locally made breads and cheeses (note to self: breakfast or at least "road food"). Typical of lone travelers, I read during dinner and learned that Malmo has been aggressively pursuing sustainable development since 2001. Its rehabilitated harbor front built since that time has been powered by renewable energy, employs green roofing, and reuses its storm runoff among other strategies.. Given the success of this effort, the entire city of Malmo is committed to be carbon neutral by 2017 and 100% powered by renewables by 2030.


Lessons learned from all this: 1) living a more sustainable lifestyle will be easier than we think and won’t require any noticeable sacrifices. 2) consumer behavior can change, if change is made easy. (it was easy to put the right trash into the right receptacle), and, 3) this experience supports my belief that there are two big leverage points for sustainable development: Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and urban development. I wasn't planning for this to occur, but it has been one of the most insightful discoveries on my visit here. 

In 2008, for the first time in human history, more people lived in urban environments than rural settings. This trend is projected to grow in coming years to almost 2/3rds . Copenhagen and Malmo are not Upopia in the Thomas Moore sense, but are rather living examples of what this future might look like.