The Mayor of Stockholm, Sten Nordin, will deliver a keynote address at the world's property market MIPIM on Wednesday, 17 March. He will share his vision of a 'holistic approach' for sustainable urban development and explain the importance of identifying the synergies between urban functions and the best-adapted technical solutions.
The city of Stockholm is a pioneer in sustainable urban (re)development as it was one of the first municipalities worldwide to build the Hammarby Sjöstad eco-district with a fully-integrated infrastructure in the early 90s.
Given the success of Hammarby Sjöstad, another eco-district is now under construction in Stockholm. This second new eco-quarter in western Liljeholmen, in the south west of the city, will set new challenges. As Kristina Alvendal, Stockholm's deputy mayor responsible for city planning and real estate, explains: "Some say it is easy to put up a framework when the land is publicly owned but, in western Liljeholmen, the land is privately owned. We see this proposed eco-quarter as a collaboration with the property owners. It will test how we can achieve a framework for high-energy efficiency standards when land and property is entirely in private ownership." Ms. Alvendal is confident: "We have good collaboration with a lot of investors and developers. Our city is environmentally friendly, which is attractive to a lot of investors."
Building on its success in sustainable urban development, the Swedish model is now exporting itself: SymbioCity is a network of Swedish companies and organisations, founded on the initiative of the Swedish government and Swedish industry. The concept is based on combining existing urban systems and benefitting from the synergies. It takes into consideration as varied aspects as: urban technology resource efficiency, emphasis on renewable resources and resource management that minimise waste and optimise recovery and reuse. It encourages the development of new and better system solutions as well as the most efficient use of natural resources. The SymbioCity concept will be presented at MIPIM on the stand of the Swedish Trade Council.
Swedish companies don't have a monopoly on sustainable development. At MIPIM, Ralph DiNola, Principal of the U.S. Green Building Services company, will deliver a keynote speech on 'Living Buildings and Living Communities: the Needed Quantum Leap for a Sustainable Built Environment.' According to Mr. DiNola, "We must make a quantum shift in our approach to and maintenance of the built environment to head off the looming environmental crisis." In his speech, Ralph DiNola will discuss possible new angles and approaches for the international real estate community to take the next step in realising a sustainable built environment.
Another panel in the program of conferences, 'Sustainability sans frontières,' will examine the importance of establishing consistent international standards and criteria for green buildings. Investors and end-users need to know what they are getting when they acquire a so-called 'green' building, but there is currently little harmonization between the different 'green building' labels that exist throughout the world. (LEED, BREEAM, HQE, DGNB, VALIDEO, etc.).
Source: Reed MIDEM
