Cinderella Industrial city becomes glorious vibrant buzzing cafe society

Malmo – city of  ideas, innovation and creativity is now a top100 sustainable destination

Today Malmö is a melting pot of nationalities, ideas, innovation, and creativity. It’s a vibrant city buzzing with activity and it has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in Sweden. It’s an iconic place with a focus on culture, cuisine, architecture and pioneering sustainable living concepts.

In a major transformation, Malmö has changed from a grey industrial city with deserted streets and squares to an exciting city of the future, where anything can happen – and does. This Cinderella city has now become queen of the ball. How?

Malmö was a typical industrial city, but when Kockums shipyard closed and thousands of workers were laid off in 1986, the people running the city realised that an era had ended and it was time for a new one. Work to establish a university soon gained momentum, IT companies were attracted to set up here, and not least, it was decided that the bridge across to Denmark could actually be built, following years of discussion.

Nowadays, Malmö’s sustainability is part of everything they do. It is a guiding principle that permeates their business and is part of their language. Sustainability features in their innovations and presentations, in their descriptions of Malmö and in our meetings and discussions with partners, citizens and external contacts. But above all, it is with them every day at work, in the choices they make every day and in their long-term strategic decisions.

Malmö has set a tough goal: Simply to become Sweden’s most climate-smart city. By 2020, the City of Malmö’s own organisation will be climate neutral and by 2030, all of Malmö’s electricity supply will be from renewable energy. The aim is for as large a proportion of this energy as possible to be locally produced. By 2020, the use of resources in Malmö will be characterised by sustainability and long-term thinking. It will be easy to choose sustainable goods, services, travel and waste management for businesses, Malmö residents and the City of Malmö’s organisation. This will be an exciting process to follow.

Now Malmö is internationally acclaimed for its work on sustainable development. The areas of focus have been, and remain, energy, construction, consumption and transport, and this work continues with vigour and focus.

A visitor to Malmö can form their own impression of the sustainable results by seeing examples of what has been achieved. As the city has 500 km of cycle tracks and is almost completely flat, it can easily be explored by bike around Western Harbour area which is symbolic of what has happened in Malmö.

When construction took place for a housing exhibition in 2001, this was a partially abandoned industrial area, sited on landfill. The area is now globally unique, with 100% locally-produced renewable energy, pneumatic refuse collection systems to minimise heavy traffic in the area, low energy consumption in homes, green roofs and other green initiatives to keep the level of biodiversity high, despite the dense urban landscape.

But it’s not just urban architecture to enjoy – Here, the City of Malmö has constructed one of the world’s leading skateboarding ramps. Social sustainability is also a strong focus – over 50% of children under five have at least one foreign-born parent. In Stapelbäddsparken children and young people from different cultures meet and skate together.

A simple booth next door houses a café that, naturally, serves Fairtrade coffee.  Malmö was named Sweden’s first Fairtrade City on 17 May 2006 and since then the range of ethically-produced coffee in the city’s cafés and restaurants has increased significantly.

A canal encircles the old city centre. Here you can easily shop and lunch sustainably. With several clothing stores that sell organic/fairtrade clothing, food shops with an environmental focus, a number of cafés and a high-quality eco-pub, the city has become a focal point for consumers who think about how they consume.

And visitors love it! Green parks and sandy beaches and a rich culture, history and modern art, all blended with an attitude of sustainability plus quirky Swedish humour! And since Malmö loves food, drinks and good company, you’re never far from fine dining or a proper Swedish Fika coffee and cake break!

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