Malmo in Sweden is, in my opinion, one of the best examples for the world to follow when it comes to sustainable city development (I wrote about the Western Harbour in Malmo earlier). In 2007, a conference was held in Malmo on Sustainable City development and Malmo invited experts from around the world to discuss issues such as sustainable architecture, renewable energy and sustainable education. The overall theme was “How do we make sustainability attractive”?

So what did they learn?

Conclusions from the conference?

There is an excellent summary of the conference, which I recommend you take a look at with ideas of how to succeed with sustainable city development. There are 3 main conclusions:

1. Multi-stakeholder involvement is crucial. We can’t all be experts.
2. Make it trendy, make it visible.
3. Transcend the political and bureaucratic barriers.

I could not agree more with these conclusions, as I talk about below.

1. Multi-stakeholder involvement is crucial

Malmo’s success has been down to the fact that the municipality, different businesses and people are willing and happy to work together to help make a better future for the city. In the Western Harbour, the municpality led the way and brought together house builders and the local energy company. They also involved people, asking them what they would want the Western Harbour to look like.

The result is a place great for the city, great for the businesses that took part and great for the people. A true city for people.

2. Make it trendy, make it visible.

Often, energy generation systems are hidden away from the public eye. Not in Malmo, as the picture below shows.

Visible Renewable Energy in the Western Harbour, Malmo

Solar thermal panels and solar photovoltaic cells are on buildings for all to see. Less than 2 kilometers away is a wind turbine that powers the city. The only hidden energy source is the heat pump, which takes energy from underground water.

I believe that this approach to proudly showing sustainability helps bring about a cultural change in the people. It certainly inspires me.

And so to the final conclusion…

3. Transcend the political and bureaucratic barriers

It can be so easy to find problems, so easy to dither and so easy for nothing to get done when trying to build Sustainable Cities. But, as Malmo suggest, I would recommend following the advice from Nike.

Just Do It.

Malmo did, Curitiba did, Bogota did. And so can you, if you want to.

One thing the Malmo conference missed?

Of course, when you summarize you leave out ideas. And Malmo had to leave out lessons in the summary of their suggestions. But there is one thing that Malmo that Malmo demonstrated, but didn’t say.

Be open to new ideas, and always try to improve.

The conference itself was about Malmo trying to learn from outside experiences while also trying to show others their ideas. And hats off to Malmo for doing this.

What do you think of these 3 conclusions? Do you agree of have other ideas of your own?