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Tag archives for sustainability

Sweden’s most urban farm

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urban-farm

Hästa gård would be a nice farm no matter where it would have been situated. But what makes it so special that it’s a very urban farm. It’s even been called one of the worlds largest city farms, situated on a field between the Stockholm suburbs of Husby and Akalla. On 185 hectares you can find cows, pigs, hens and sheep as well as potatoes, tomatoes, butter beans and wheat.

Recently I went there for a coffee in their nice little garden café. It’s a very special feeling to get off the metro in Tensta, walk through the centre, under the highway and after a few minutes in a beautiful landscape you are on a farm!

And not just any farm. When Oloph Fritzén and Jenny Olofsson, two young farmers from the South of Sweden, took over Hästa gård they decided to make it organic.
“Our goal with this farm is to let you eat food which hasn#t been treated with pesticides and doesn’t have unnecessary additives. We make sure the animals are scratched on the back, have plenty of space and eat organic food. Respect!” they write at the farm’s website (in Swedish)

There is quite a lot of permaculture thinking at Hästa gård. One of the ideas behind permaculture (which I personally must say I sympathize a lot with) is to let nature work for you. One example of that are the “eggmobiles” that Jenny and Oloph have made for the hens and that could be moved around the farm. In this way the hens can for example be placed in the cow’s field to eat larvae that would otherwise become flies and harm the cows – while feeding themselves at the same time (see the picture below). The cows, in their turn, keep the landscape open for the 60 000 persons living around the farm.

And Hästa gård certainly seems to have a good interaction with the surrounding housing areas. From supermarkets and restaurants nearby the pigs get leftovers that they happily eat. The farm also gets help from its neighbours.
- The inhabitants of the suburbs around us come from all parts of the world, and many of them are born and raised in the countryside. So we have people coming here to help us in our work. I’m delighted when I get to sleep a little later in the morning once in a while, says Oloph Fritzén in an interview with the Swedish tv.

Hasta-Gard

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 3, 2011

Yes, thank me for cycling!

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Gift-time for cyclists at Slussen in central Stockholm. The text on the yellow waistcoat says "Thankyou for cycling!" Photo: Sara Jeswani.

Often when it comes to the question of how to make people act in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way, the ideas that come up are rather on the “stick” than the “carrot” side. Raise taxes on petrol, make it more expensive to emit CO2, block cars from certain areas and so on.

I wouldn’t say those are bad ideas. But once in a while it’s good with an encouraging pat on the back for those who actually make an effort. That’s why I’m almost childishly happy every year when the city of Stockholm and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation hand out gifts to those cycle to work, school or wherever they happen to be heading.

Being handed a plastic bag this morning, containing a cycle map, bike lights and a reflective ribbon to make my pedalling safer in the Swedish autumn darkness by someone who says “Thankyou for cycling!” maybe isn’t enough to make convinced car drivers change their habits, but it sure feels good that somene recognizes what I do.

And I’m not alone on the cycle tracks. There are about 150.000 cycle journeys made in Stockholm every day. Maybe next years present will have to be broader cycle tracks..?

Lennart

One of my happy fellow bikers on the street this morning was Lennart, a retired journalist taking the bike to babysit. Sounds like a good day to me. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 30, 2011

Getting to school without a car

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School-yard

Children and cars – not a good mix. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

The traffic situation outside a lot of Swedish schools is a matter of complaints among many parents. There are too many cars, the drivers don’t respect speed limits and the air quality is bad. But according to a survey made among school headmasters, what causes most of these problems is actually the parents themselves! Another study, made by the Swedish Transport Administration, proves the headmasters right: according to it 80 percent of the traffic around an ordinary Swedish school consists of mums and dads leaving and picking up their children.

This easily becomes a vicious circle: You can’t let your kid walk to school, since there are so many cars. And you driving your kid to the very same school makes it even more difficult for others to walk.

In Umeå in the North of Sweden [map] things have been done to break this circle. Last year 2000 pupils, parents and teachers in the city were asked about their habits. At Grisbacka school, for example, 60 percent of the pupils were driven to school by car, even if they lived less than one km away.

The initiative “Shool for sustainable travel” has changed this quite a lot. Now the school encourages pupils and parents to walk or cycle instead of taking the car.
Their recipes? Here are some of the ideas:

- Smaller children who shouldn’t walk alone can be picked up by a “walking school bus”.

- “Cycling school buses” for older children.

- Training in how to travel by bus and orientation training in order to find the way to some landmarks in the city by themselves.

- Cycler’s licence. Traffic security days, with information about what different traffic signs mean and a “driving test”, where the children get to show that they know what it takes to go to school on their own.

- The children report how far they have walked or cycled and the distance is visualised on a four meter long map of Europe.

And it seems to work pretty well. In just one year Grisbackaskolan managed to half the percentage of children who are brought to school by car, from 60 to 30.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 28, 2011

Swedish fruit for everyone!

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apples

Apples, apples, everywhere... Photo: Sara Jeswani.

A walk through one of Sweden’s residential areas at this time of the year can be a tough experience for anyone who doesn’t like seeing food go to waste. Fruit trees are common and often very productive, but not everyone has the time and interest to make use of all the fruit. Often the lawns are dotted with apples, pears, plums and other fruits that just go to waste.

Not that humans are the only ones who can benifit from the fruit (I know, it’s a bit off topic, but I have to grab the chance to link to an article about the now world-famous moose that got a bit tipsy by eating fermented apples in a garden in Särö [map] – and ended up stuck in the apple tree! Watch the photos)

Anyway: there are still a lot of fruit rotting in gardens allover Sweden. Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s garden to pick all the apples I could carry. But now there’s also a good solution for all those who don’t know a fruit tree owner. Victoria Qvarnström got fed up with seing apples rotting in the gardens and started the Facebook group Fruktförmedlingen (The Fruit Agency ), where people who have more fruit than they can eat write a line and those who are in need can get in touch.

In a few weeks time Fruktförmedlingen has become a huge success, with more than 3000 members and plenty of fruit being picked and eaten, allover Sweden. In her own blog (in Swedish) Victoria explains that she’s actually not very interested in making jam or lemonade herself. For her it’s rather about that “Sharing is caring”, she says.

 

PS. For anyone wondering how things went with the poor moose: The neighbours, who found her dangling in the tree, managed to saw off a few branches and get her down. She stayed for another day in the garden, walking around and staring at the apples, probably full, and with a bit of a hangover, according to the man who found her.

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 26, 2011

Fighting spilled oil on the Swedish West coast

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oil-clearing

The rocks of the island Tjörn. Photo: The Swedish Coast Guard.

Last week the biggest oil spill that the Swedish West coast has seen in about 20 years reached the island of Tjörn in the Bohuslän archipelago.

Of course this is one of the things that people of coastal areas fear most, whether you live in Louisiana or Skärhamn  [map]. Now a frantic activity has started to gather the oil, save wildlife and nature.

In the beginning of this week more than 200.000 litres of oil had been removed (update: during the weekend, after one week of work, more than 460.000 litres of oil had been removed), but there can still be a lot left in the waters, and the experts working on the case say the clearing might have to go on until the end of this year. Oiled birds have been taken to the bird central in Gothenburg and other bird centrals are prepared in case of a rush.

At this point it’s not known where the oil spill comes from, but it’s believed it has to do with a collision between two boats outside the Danish coast about 10 days ago.

One slightly comforting detail of this terrible event is that it didn’t happen during springtime. In an article in the Gothenburg newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (article in Swedish), Sverker Evans at the brand new Swedish public authority for our waters and seas says that this oil would have been much worse for the sea would it have come when fish, birds and plants are in a growing phase.
Another factor is the water temperature. When the water is colder it takes longer for the oil to decompose naturally. Now the sea is at least a bit warmer after the summer.

It can nevertheless take years before all traces of the spill are gone. But it will eventually happen, says Sverker Evans. Eight years ago, there was a large oil spill outside the kust of Skåne in the South of Sweden. 40 km of the Swedish coast were affected and there were fears about long-term environmental consequences.
– Now you can’t see any of it, says Evans.

 

Update: Sweden’s first marine national park, Kosterhavet, might be threatened by the oil (Article in Miljöaktuellt. In Swedish, but can be translated through this page.)

oiled-bird

A bird caught by the oil spill. Photo: The Swedish Coast Guard.

oil-clearing

Clearing the oil. Photo: The Swedish Coast Guard.

 

 

[map][map]

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 22, 2011

Will Swedish women take care of the climate?

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woman-with-bikeGreen Swedish Woman? Photo: Barbro Björnemalm (CC: BY-NC-SA)

Every second Swede is worried, or even very worried, about climate change. That’s the answer that 1010 persons gave when a big insurance company asked them recently, anyway.
What’s interesting with this survey is that when it comes to doing something about this concern, it’s mainly the women who seem to be willing to act.

63 percent of the women in the survey said that they have reduced their consumption of electricity, water and heat at home. Only 49 percent of the men did the same things. Women were also more willing to buy organic and local products and sort out their household waste.
Research has also shown that men generally use more energy than women (here is a report about that with an English summary), and that women are more affected by climate change than men. So maybe that’s why women do more about it?

The newspaper Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish) has spoken about this with the sociologist Anna-Lisa Lindén, who has done research on consumption and climate change. She says that the differences are slowly evening itself out, but still points out the men as the biggest environmental crooks. One big reason for that is the way we still distribute work at home.
– In many households it’s the women who have the biggest responsability for planning purchases of food, children’s clothes, textiles and so on.

According to Anna-Lisa Lindén says that Swedes in general have a pretty high awareness about the environment. The problem is just that people – and in this case especially men – don’t use their knowledge.
– But there are exceptions. When a young family has its first child, the awareness increases, she says.

So, let’s all have babies! Or..?

 

More environmental news (in Swedish, but can be translated here):
Big oil spill outside Sweden’s West coast Göteborgs-Posten

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 19, 2011

Should public transport be free?

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stockholm-undergroundStockholm underground trains between Slussen and Gamla Stan. Photo: Jan E Svensson/KanalSL (CC: BY-NC)

Recently the ticket prices for public transportation in Stockholm were raised with more than 10 percent,which gave new fuel to an ever-present discussion.
Is public transport (in general, and Stockholm’s in particular) too expensive? (A monthly card is now at 790 kronor, about 88 Euro.) Is it really more expensive than in other places, if one takes into account the large area that the Stockholm public transport system covers? What’s most important, the price or the efficiency? And so on.

Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, which runs the public transports in Stockholm, argues that Stockholm with its surroundings already has 2 million inhabitants. In order to serve them and the 35 000 new persons that move here every year we will need to extend the public transport system, and that will cost quite a lot -  33 billion kronor (about 3,7 billion Euro) to be exact. Half of that money will come from the raised fares.

Passengers’ associations, environmental organisations and public transport activists, on the other hand, argue that raising the fares will make less people use buses and metro – which will have a negative impact on the environment.
The network Planka, propagating for free public transports, even argues that all those who make less then 40 000 kronor per month (about 4500 Euro) would benefit by letting a tax raise finance the public transportation entirely.

Anyway, there’s no lack of creativity in how to oppose this price increase.  One example is the Facebook page (in Swedish)where more than 8000 persons have joined the idea of organising a “citizens’ busline” through Stockholm for one day during the coming Sunday.
Two buses will bring anyone who wants, free of charge, from the outskirts of the city into the center, where there will be speakers and discussions about public transport.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 15, 2011

“O-ho, loppis, selling our sh** in the street” or How to renew good ideas

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Flea market 2.0 in Aspudden. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

Although every new generation may like to think of itself as inventive and pioneering, I have to admit that many of the “new” green things that people do now were pretty well-known already among our grannies. What is often new and inventive, however, is  the way to do these things – and how to present them.

One example is a simple thing like growing vegetables for your own consumption. People have been doing that for thousands of years, but I don’t know if it’s ever been such a social activity as this time around.

Young musicians playing hits from the Star Wars. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

Another example is the noble act of reusing. During the shiny 1980:s I remember flea markets like something that people didn’t really brag about, whether they were going there to sell their stuff or buy from others. After last weekend’s now annual “2 km flea market” in Aspudden in the South of Stockholm, I’m prepared to say that things have changed. Just look at this official anthem for the event (video below), where JP de Pedro raps about how he cannot make more space for all the weird things he gathered during the years (like his Kill-Bill trousers or shoes that are one size too small). But now he’s got a great new idea: To make a loppis (flea market).

I just love it. And others seemed to do too, as you can see on the photos above. Two kilometers of pavement packed with people selling what they don’t need anymore – and others doing bargains.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 12, 2011

Is the Swedish freedom to roam too generous?

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Ecotourism1

Photo: Foto: Staffan Widstrand/Ekoturismföreningen.

As I’ve written here before, one of the Swedish things I’m most proud over is allemansrätten, or the Right of Public Access, which makes nature areas accessible to everyone. It gives you the right to take a walk, put up a tent to sleep one or two nights or pick berries and mushrooms on someone else’s land. This right to roam freely is not actually a law but an old and very beloved custom.

But recently there’s been a lot of discussions about how far allemansrätten should extend. Should commercial activities, such as tourist tours or large scale berrypicking have the right to roam as freely as private people, and without paying the land owner?
The Federation of Swedish Farmers has proposed that commercial operators will be excluded from the right to roam freely. That wouldn’t make any difference for “ordinary” people roaming around, they say. But both tour operators and non-profit organisations encouraging people to spend more time in nature are worried. The risk, they argue, is that it will be more difficult for everyone to enter these areas.

The Swedish Association for Eco Tourism points out that it’s not always the tour operators that cause the land-owners most problems. According to a survey, about a third of the forest-owners said that they have problems with public visitors, like city dwellers who aren’t used to being in nature and for example make fires carelessly or leave their waste behind. Tourism isn’t targeted as a big problem in that same survey.

So, should the Right to Public Access be restricted? Or would it maybe be enough to educate people better about how to act once you’ve left the concrete?The Swedish Environment Protection Agency is right now working on an inquiry about how to deal with allemansrätten in the future. Their thoughts will be presented later this year.

 

 

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 8, 2011

A very longed-for brown bag

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compost-bag

Yes! The bags have arrived! Photo: Sara Jeswani.

Finally! I could have cried out when I put the brown paper bag under my kitchen sink a few weeks ago. Now I din’t, since after all I’m a rather sober-minded Swede. But nevertheless it’s great to – at last – be able to leave my organic waste for composting and biogas-production.

Since I moved to Stockholm in 2004 I have been suffering a little bit every time I’ve had to throw vetegable peelings or half-mouldy leftovers from last week’s dinner (that I have kept in the fridge, hoping the day would come to eat them…) in the waste bin. Burning organic materials, knowing that it would make excellent new soil, is just a big shame.

In many Swedish cities it’s a matter of course that the inhabitants sort out their organic waste and leave it in separate bins. But not in all cities. Yet.
One of the Swedish national environment objectives for 2010 was to recycle 35 percent of the organic waste from households, restaurants, institutional kitchens and shops. But when last year had passed, only 20 percent of our food waste was taken care of biologically. Now a new objective has been proposed: to reach 40 percent by 2015. In that case we have a lot to do.

When I moved to my own flat after years of living in other people’s apartments, I realised I ought to do something about my bad organic waste-throwing conscience. But things don’t always go fast… After trying to make my building society interested in starting a food compost behind our laundry room (which didn’t awake the euphoric reactions I had hoped for. More like “What about the smell? And will there be rats?”) someone kindly tipped me that the city of Stockholm could do the work for me.

And – tada – suddenly we’ve got the city’s containers for organic waste, being emptied every week.  The waste becomes bio fertilizer for the farms around Stockholm, or biogas that runs garbage trucks, buses or ordinary cars. One tonne of food waste equals 67 litres of petrol.

compost-food
Not causing me bad conscience anymore. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

 

 

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

September 5, 2011