Innovation to Empower Climate Transition

The City of Stockholm has approved a Climate Action Plan 2030 with strong commitments to show global leadership in the transition process. The Stockholm Green Innovation District (SGID) is confirmed as one of the city’s “transition arenas.”

As such, SGID is supporting the city by offering a broad range of testbeds and innovations that will empower and accelerate climate and digital transitions.

Here are ten examples of innovations that are implemented or tested in the Stockholm Green Innovation District. Our business partners are ready to inform and show how it works and what you can achieve.

A constant Chase to reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Process and Product is the New Normal

The construction of Sthlm New, a residential and office area in Hammarby Sjöstad, is a leading example of new construction concepts. The construction and development company Skanska aims to reduce CO2 emissions in construction yearly to become climate neutral—Skanska Commercial Development by 2037 and the Group by 2045—by using, for example, concrete with substantially lower embodied carbon, choosing materials in general with lower embodied carbon, circular materials, minimization of material transports, reuse of excavated earth and rubble from nearby projects, digital twins, high-standard sustainability certification, etc.

The houses are also built in such a way that they can be easily changed to fulfill new requirements from customers today and in the future. Today, carbon calculation and analysis are as natural in the process as economic calculations.

Wood instead of Concrete with 30-50 per cent CO2 reduction over life time

The development of Sickla by real estate company Atrium Ljungberg, from an industrial area to a vibrant urban neighborhood, involves ambitious goals regarding sustainable construction and climate action. Reusing some of the industrial buildings is a basic element.

The main new approach is the development of Stockholm Wood City—the world’s largest urban development project built with wood. The advantages of wooden buildings are numerous, both for the environment and for people’s health. Studies show that wooden buildings provide better air quality, reduce stress, and increase productivity. Furthermore, wooden buildings can store carbon dioxide throughout their entire lifespan.

The carbon dioxide emissions could be 30-50 percent lower than building with conventional materials. Building with wood also results in quieter construction sites and reduces the number of heavy transports during the construction period.

District heating 2.0: Using Local and Clean Energy Sources

District heating, i.e., centralized cogeneration of heat for buildings using biomass and household waste, has been in operation all over Sweden for many years, thereby replacing individual heating. This has dramatically lowered carbon dioxide emissions.

Now, Stockholm Exergi is introducing the next stage of district heating and cooling by adding more local energy sources to the system, such as excess heat from data centers, industrial waste heat, and locally produced energy (heat pumps). Furthermore, introducing a lower system temperature will increase the possibilities of using more residual heat. This also means that the cogeneration plant can produce more electricity for the citizens.

This initiative goes hand in hand with activities to recycle more of the plastic from household waste, thereby minimizing carbon dioxide emissions from the cogeneration plant.

Bio-CCS – Capturing and Storing Carbon Dioxide

Capturing and storing carbon dioxide has been identified by the UN climate body IPCC as a key technology to achieving global climate goals. Stockholm Exergi, the city’s district heating company, operates a research facility that captures biogenic carbon dioxide at the heat and power plant in Hjorthagen, Stockholm.

The technology is called bio-CCS. The potential is to capture 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the emissions from Stockholm’s road traffic for an entire year.

The captured carbon dioxide will be sent to a permanent storage location below the sea. Due to high pressure, the carbon dioxide will be mineralized and become part of the bedrock. The goal is to have a full-scale plant in operation by 2028. This will be the largest Bio-CCS facility in Europe.

Digital Supported Waste Management

From the outset of Hammarby Sjöstad’s development, buildings have been equipped with an automated vacuum waste collection system (AWCS). This innovation promotes cleaner and more sustainable neighborhoods while requiring less space than traditional waste handling systems. The waste is transported underground, eliminating the need for waste trucks, rooms, and bins.

Hammarby Sjöstad serves as a global demonstration site for Envac, the inventor and producer of this technology, attracting visitors from around the world. Envac is now developing the next generation of automated waste collection by using digital data collection and AI to optimize waste management, reducing both environmental impact and operational costs. Through this digital platform, citizens are empowered to make more informed decisions about consumption and waste handling, further supporting sustainable living.

Using Less, Saving Money, Climate Transition

Energy efficiency has been a primary aim of the “renew a new city” initiative in Hammarby Sjöstad and the energy renovation program in Årsta. The buildings in Årsta were updated with better insulation and a wide range of efficiency measures. The projects demonstrate how 12 smart solutions for buildings, infrastructure, and mobility can reduce energy consumption and emissions by more than 60 percent.

In Hammarby Sjöstad, 60+ housing associations are part of a similar program to reduce energy use from the grid, reusing and producing more locally produced renewable energy, and investing in geothermal energy, solar cells, and energy-saving and sharing measures. With good returns!

Hammarby Sjöstad has now established a Local Energy Community, a microgrid for locally produced renewable energy, sharing, and storing of energy.

World leading Technology for Sustainable Water Treatment

Stockholm Water and Waste Company is building a new treatment plant in Henriksdal, Hammarby Sjöstad, to meet Stockholm´s future needs for clean water. The Sickla facility under the Hammarby Hill is being expanded and new sewage tunnel is being built from Bromma to the Sickla plant. It is equipped with new biological treatment technology and will become one of the world´s largest facilities with membrane filtration.

With such membrane technology, larger amounts of wastewater can be treated on the same surface area. The emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Baltic Sea will be significantly reduced and the sewage is also purified from small particles larger than 0.04 micrometres. The new plant will also have better possibilities to minimise the emissions of climate change gases and pharmaceutical residues.

From Waste Separation to Production of Utilities

Sjöstadsverkets Water Innovation Center, SWIC, is developing a facility for new climate-efficient and sustainable solutions for municipal and industrial water. The focus is in reducing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, pharmaceutical residius and PFAS, using biological, chemical and physics methods, while also enabling nutrients, metals and purified water to be returned to the cycle and energy to be produced. The experiments are carried out in a scale that allows the solutions to be implemented in full scale. To show citizens that this new purification method can turn waste water into clean water of the highest quality SWIC together with a local brewery, Carnegie, produced a beer with water that had been treated with the new MBR combined with some polishing steps. SWIC is jointly operated by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Electrification from Busses to Private Cars

Electrification of the transport system in the Stockholm Green Innovation District is well under way. The light rail (Tvärbanan) extends throughout the district. The underground extension from Stockholm to Nacka is expected to be ready by 2030. By then, all buses and taxicabs will be electrified.

In Hammarby Sjöstad, housing associations have taken the lead in installing charging equipment through the “Charge at Home” program, aiming for 100 percent coverage of all parking places by 2030. The next generation of charging facilities, equipped with digital surveillance to reduce power needs, is already in operation.

My Climate Contract

Consumption-based CO2 emissions represent a major part of the climate challenge. Stockholm Green Innovation District is taking the Hammarby model for a circular economy forward by engaging citizens in ”nudging” activities, i.e., step-by-step changes in consumer behavior. This includes correctly sorting waste, buying climate-smart food, reducing food waste, increasing reuse and sharing of products, and initiating urban gardening with local production of greens in the neighborhood. To strengthen this process, a new concept, ”My Climate Contract,” has been developed and will be tested in full scale.

A New Concept for Sustainable Sport Facility

In the center of Stockholm’s Green Innovation District is Hammarbybacken – a ski slope that has gradually been raised and developed by Skistar into what it is today: one of Stockholm’s easy-to-spot landmarks and a sports center. Hammarbybacken has hosted Alpine World Cup competitions that are televised all over the world.

SkiStar has launched a new concept and an investment plan to develop Hammarbybacken into a year-round activity center for the benefit of Greater Stockholm. It is very easily accessible from the Tvärbanan light rail, which runs just a few hundred meters from the facility. Climate change has inspired SkiStar to offer alpine skiing all year round on new and innovative surfaces.

Innovative Transition Process

Stockholm Green Innovation District is a testbed for a new form of governance for sustainability and climate transition. The City of Stockholm introduced ”eco-governance” for the construction of Hammarby Sjöstad and a new model for recycling energy, water, and waste, known as ”the Hammarby model”.

Later, citizens of Sjöstaden took the initiative to ”renew a new city” with the aim of making the district climate neutral by 2030, using Hammarby Sjöstad 2.0 as a trademark. These new forms of citizen-driven climate transition are now included in the Climate City Contract 2030, a deal between the City of Stockholm and the national government, and in the Stockholm Climate Action Plan 2030. This will engage all stakeholders from the city, business, housing associations, NGOs, and citizens to work together in a holistic way to reach a common goal (see picture 2, the energy team).

New European Bauhaus

Stockholm Green Innovation District is a Swedish contribution to the New European Bauhaus initiative and community. The NEB initiative brings together the European Green Deal with citizens’ living conditions and calls for building sustainable and inclusive communities, that are also beautiful. It promotes the EU’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. SGID has therefore been a part of the NEB conference in Brussels for the first two editions and is striving towards further engagement within the initiative, such as calls and other financial opportunities. The work will continue in close collaboration with the Stockholm Region EU Office in Brussels.

Contact: Rebecca Timm