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Local sustainability strategies –

a case study in the Baltic Sea region

Lars RydénDirector

Baltic University ProgrammeUppsala University

SHARINGJurmala 11-14 May

2005

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Strategy tools may be used on many contexts/levels

• Resources

• Products

• Industries

• Local communities

• Nations

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Materials (resource) management strategies

• Materials management strategies for improved material flows• I. Reducing the flow - use less material for a service• 1. Use the material more efficiently. By raising the transmission voltage in a copper wire it is possible to reduce the amount of copper needed to transmit a certain

current.• 2. Increase the quality of the material. By increasing the strength of a metal, e.g. by using an alloy, less material can be used for the same purpose. It has been

estimated that the Eiffel tower in Paris today could be built with one seventh of the steel content it actually has.• 3. Miniaturization - use a smaller equipment. By making an equipment smaller less material is used. Computers, now based on miniaturized electronic components,

such as silicon chips, provides a dramatic example. A much smaller computer serves the same functions as a large machine earlier.• 4. Multi-functionality - Let the equipment serve several purposes. Multi-functional use of products offers another opportunity for reducing the need for materials for a

given function. For example, a roof-mounted solar collector can also function as roofing. • II. Slowing down the flow - make the material last longer• 5. Improve the quality to make the equipment last longer. By making the products last longer, for example by increased quality, the same amount of materials can

provide services for longer and therefore the amount of materials for a given service can be reduced.• 6. Protect the material in the equipment better. Materials can be protected from wear or corrosion. Modern cars last much longer than those from before due to a better

protection of the surface.• 7. Better maintenance. By regular maintenance and by using equipment that can be maintained properly the equipment or material can be used longer.• 8. Reparability - Make the equipment more easy to repair. Reparability, for example through a modular construction of equipment, will increase the longevity of the

materials used. • III. Closing the flow - use the material again• 9. Reuse the goods itself. Most goods or equipment are of course used more than once. In some instances a proper strategy is required to make this happen, as with

glass bottles that may be refilled.• 10. Recycle materials in production processes. Many different strategies are applicable in the industrial production process to reduced material intensity. This is part of

waste management strategies. Thus manufacturing waste can fed back into earlier material-processing steps, as when for example copper scrap in the manufacturing of copper wires is fed back into the process.

• 11. Recycle materials in consumer goods - true recycling. Materials in consumer goods may be recycled. This is particularly important for materials that is toxic, such as heavy metals, or materials that are expensive to produce, such as aluminium. Important cases are thus recycling of the metal in aluminium cans and the lead in lead-acid batteries. Recycling of the material to the same use once again is true recycling.

• 12. Cascading or down-cycling of materials. In many cases the there is an inevitable loss of quality in materials when it is used. However it may be apt for a different use requiring less quality. This is down-cycling or cascading. The typical example is paper where the fibres in the paper itself is going through a wearing process, which limits the use to about six cycles. The chain might start with high quality paper going over newspaper to cardboard paper. The chain or spiral ends when the material is used for energy production in combustion.

• IV. Substitute the flow - Use a different, less harmful, material • 13. Substitute a harmful material for a less harmful one. Transmaterilization means that one material is exchanged for another. An impor tant aspect is when a

hazardous material is exchanged for a less harmful one. The exchange of mercury in a number of applications, from barometers to teeth repair, belongs to this category as does the exchange of many solvents used for painting.

• 14. Substitute a scarce material for a less scarce one. Sometimes it is important to find a less scarce material for a particular use. When substituting cooper wires in telephone connections for fiberoptic cables this one example.

• 15. Substitute a non-renewable material for a renewable one. The non-renewable materials will in the end necessarily be exchanged for renewable one. Important example is when fossil fuels are exchanged for renewable fuels, such as biomass. An important case is the exchange of petrol in cars for alcohol from biomass.

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Development of Industrial production

• Cleaner Production technologies• Environmental auditing• EMS, IMS TQM etc• Estimation of economic viability follows

well known tools• Tools for estimating social viability is less

well developed

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Product development

• Calculation of total environmental impact follows from Life Cycle Assessment, LCA

• Estimation of economic viability follows well known tools

• Tools for estimayting social viability is less well developed

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Product developmentEcodesign strategy wheel

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P R O D U C T C O M P O N E N TL E V E L

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P R O D U C T S Y S T E M L E V E L

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7 . O p tim iz a t io n o fe n d -o f- li fe s y s te m

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4 . O p tim iz a t io n o f d i s t r ib u tio n s y s te m

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* N e w c o n c e p t d e v e lo p e m e n t h a sb e e n g iv e n th e s y m b o l ‘@ ’ b e c a u s e i t ism u c h m o re in n o v a tiv e th a t th e o th e rs e v e n s tra te g ie s .

N ote:

P r io r it i e s f o r th en e w p ro d u c t

E x is tin g p ro d u c t

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Product

Think Chair was developed by the company Steelcase Inc. in close collaboration between researchers, manufacturers and designers.

The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of Think Chair, created according to ISO 14025 LCA, accounts for resource depletion, waste, global warming potential,

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What about a city?

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How to design a sustainable city ?

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Sustainable Development of Local communities

• Policy instruments

• EMS, IMS, TQM etc

• Estimation of economic viability follows well known tools

• Tools for estimating social viability is less well developed

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Baltic University Urban Forum

The Baltic University Urban Forum is a cooperation between cities/towns and

universities in the Baltic Sea region to develop strategies for sustainable development for

cities and towns.

www.Balticuniv.uu.se/buuf 

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Baltic University Urban Forum 40 Project partners, 20 teams

• 2 networks, Baltic University Programme and Union of Baltic Cities (BUP 183 universities; UBC 104 cities)

• 20 cities (municipalities) in 9 countries

• 15 universities working with the cities

• 3 NGOs

• The 40 partners form 20 teams, one for each city

• Business partners, may be invited by hosts for the conferences

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Partner cities/towns

• Uppsala, Sweden• Enköping, Sweden• Örebro, Sweden• Hällefors, Sweden• Norrtälje, Sweden• Nacka, Sweden• Hågaby, Sweden• Turku, Finland• Hamburg, Germany• Tartu, Estonia

• Jelgava, Latvia• Livani, Latvia• Tukums, Latvia• Kaunas, Lithuania• Sopot, Poland• Kosakowo, Poland• Lodz, Poland• Kaliningrad, Russia• Novgorod, Russia, • Minsk, Belarus

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The SUPERBS reports

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Best Practice Conferences 2003-041. Water management, Enköping, Sw Sept 7-8, 2003

2. Urban green structures, Kaunas, Lt Oct 10-12, 2003,

3. Urban-Rural Cooperation, Jelgava, Lv Mar 3-5, 2004

4. Socio-economic development, Livani, Lv Mar 5-7, 2004

5. Energy management, Uppsala, Sw Apr 21-23, 2004

6. Education and information, Nacka, Sw Apr 23-25, 2004

7. Rebuilding the city and restoration of brownfields, Hamburg, De June 4-6, 2004

8. Traffic and transportation, Örebro, Sw, Sept 1-3, 2004

9. Integration of management of the sustainble city, Hågaby, Sw, Sept 3-5, 2004

10. Waste management, Åbo/Turku, Fi Oct 28-30, 2004

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BUUF Conferences spring 2005The second round of best practice conferences more workshop character -

presentations and implementation discussion,

1. Tartu and Tukums 6-9 April 2005Integration of Water-Energy-Waste flowsWater-Energy-Waste management

Jurmala conference 11-14 May 2005Integration of sustainability strategies, Sharing experiencesOne BUUF workshop/parallel session on indicators

2. Lodz 5-8 June 2005Integration of Traffic-Rebuilding-Green structuresTraffic-Rebuilding-Green structures management

3. Norrtälje-Hällefors 31 August- 4 September 2005Integration of Socio-economic development(education & urban-rural cooperation)

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Three sectors of urban management

Urban flows1. Energy management 2. Water management3. Waste management

Urban planning4. Traffic and transport 5. Urban Green structures and culture 6. Rebuilding the city, brown fields

Urban development7. Socio-Economic development 8. Urban rural cooperation 9. Information and education

Integration of urban management

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Topics of urban management

StructureInfrastructuresOrganisation

ProcessFlowsMaterials

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Urban flows Water-Energy-Waste

• Water is connected to material flows and resulting in waste, such as BOD, N, P and sludge

• Energy is connected to material flows, and resulting in waste, such as carbon dioxide, ash etc

• Waste as carrier of energy and material

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The metabolism of the city is like that of us.

Energy, water and mattergoes in; Waste goes out. Energy is carried by matter.

It is one system.

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The apple contains energy, matter and water;It generates waste

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The systems approach

- energy content in waste water

- energy content in soil waste

- energy content in air from ventilation

- the waste in water flows (e.g. nitrogen

and phophorus)

- the waste in air flows (e.g. sulphur)

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Urban flows strategies observed in the BUUF project

ReductionUsing less energyUsing less water

ReplacingUsing renewables, fossil free municipalitiesUsing less toxic, e.g. outphasing Hg

Rescaling – downscaling and upscalingUpscaling heating – district heating Downscaling heating – heat pumps, individual boilersUpscaling water flows – sewage, WWTP

RecyclingRecycling waste flows (product reuse, material recycle, incinerate) Recycle nutrient flows (compost, production of biogas, nutrients to fields)

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Strategies of local sustainability

Strategy Reduce Replace Rescale Recycle

Urban

flows

Resource efficiency

Resource choice

Household/ municipality

Integrate flows

Urban

planning

Urban healing/densification

New uses One family/ multifamily apartments

Multifunctional neigh-boorhoods

Urban deve- lopment

Reduced consumption

Different

consumption

Local production

Local markets

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A special case of recycling – Integrated resource flows

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Integration of urban flowsCases

1. Organic waste fermented to produce biogas to be used for buses (several Swedish municipalities) 2. Wastewater to energy forests to produce wood chips for energy (Enköping)

3. Wastewater to mussel banks to canned mussel to food (Varberg)

Cycling 1. Carbon cycle is closed2. Carbon cycle is closed, in addition linear nitrogen and

phosphorus flows decreased, and cadmium decreased3. Nitrogen flows closed

GainsEnvironmental gains: flows closedEconomic gains: money flows stays in the local communityWelfare gains: better environment, better water,

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A special case of rescaling - Localised resource flows

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Localisation - Local resource flowsLocal energy provision- Solar panels (households or fields)- Bio energy from close-by farmers- Heat pumps- Local hydro-, wind-, wave powerLocal nutrient flows- urine from separating toilets to local farmers- sludge to local uses (composting / fermentation)- wastewater to local uses (energy forests etc)Local markets- municipalities buying from local companies- recycling arrangements - local currencies - locally produced food

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Both recycling and localised resource flows are

systems approaches

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The Swedish LIP programme

• Local Investment programme, 1998-2002

• 600 MSEK (65 MEuro) to 161 municipalities for 577 local projects

• 29 waste energy projects

• 230 district or near heating projects

• 225000 tonnes of oil replaced with biomass

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Experiences from the LIP

• Waste energy from local factories goes to district heating

• 7 industries cooperated in heat production• Biogas production from organic waste• Smart solutions often possible• Stake holder cooperation recommended• Industries could save energy to 50 %• Residential areas could save energy by 38 %• 225000 tonnes of oil replaced with biomass• Very large economic savings possible• Why is it not done? The role of public and business

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Alternative energy strategies

Housing sector (About 30 % of energy budget)

- Energy efficient houses more common- Biomass in increasing - Heat pumps increasing in Sweden- Solar panels slowly increasing- Value of increased efficiency

19 BSEK in Sweden alone

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How to implement sustainabilty strategies

• Management systems

• Management centres

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Incentives

EconomyDominating incentive for householdsA municipality can accept investments also with low interest rates

Quality Especially for water, it is important Heating it is as well important

EnvironmentalLegally required in many cases (EU directives)Recycle nutrient flows (compost, production of biogas, nutrients to fields)

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Evaluation of urban flows

Evaluate the process by consequences for economy and health

- Save money; taking care of energy

- Improve health and wellbeing; less pollution, better waste management, will lead to better health

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Monitoring -indicators

• Indicators developed for each of the nine categories

• Monitoring for urban management

• Often required for EU directives

• Used for reporting, e.g. GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)

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Management systems

• Management systems

• EMS (environment management systems) e.g. ISO 14001)

• IMS (integrated management systems) health and economy can be included

• Private/public choice

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The

A Mobility Centre is the operating unit at the urban/regional level, where Mobility Services are initiated, organised and provided. The establishment of a Mobility Centre is an important milestone and serves as a crystallisation point for Mobility Management.

There are two basics for a Mobility Centre:- a multi-modal approach in the provision of services- individual access for the public via personal visit, phone, fax, e-mail, information terminals or online services

A Mobility Centre concentrates all services and thus serves as a platform - a place for communication and exchange. Its presence can give Mobility Management a public face and, thus, promote its presence in the transport marketplace.

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entre

A Mobility Centre

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Typical Mobility Management projects

• Car sharing• Car pools• Audio conferencing instead of meetings• Coordinated deliveries of goods• Distance work • Supporting local shops• Supporting biking• Supporting public transport

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http://www.epommweb.org