Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. How Integrated Systems Impact the Sustainability District's Energy Management Situation

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Politics - Miscellaneous, University of Heidelberg (Institut für Politische Wissenschaft), language: English, abstract: This paper is an analytical description of Hammarby Sjöstad, a district in the Swedish capital of Stockholm that has been organized and planned around the objective of sustainability. This concerns elements such as wastewater treatment, urban hydrology, sustainable housing, and clean energy. The Stockholm City Planning Department has aimed to reduce the district's and overall city's carbon footprint as well as to prioritize initiatives for a sustainable urban life. In the analysis, the paper describes the so-called Hammarby Model with all its components and illustrates its contributions to a balanced and healthy life in Stockholm. For Sweden, sustainability practices have long been a core part of national philosophy. By continuously working on solutions to different sectoral problems in trade, building, forestry and fishing, people's well-being can be improved substantially. Communities in rural areas face the challenges of aggressive mining and climate change. However, also cities, like the capital Stockholm, must deal with multifaceted issues, from waste management, providing public transportation and green space accessibility to household and company energy consumption. Stockholm, the European Green Capital of 2010, has incorporated sustainability and circular thinking in its planning and decision-making practices. This becomes visible in the suburb of Hammarby Sjöstad. To better manage sustainability demands, the city administration created numerous political and strategic programs to focus on environmental concerns. The most significant one is the so-called 'Hammarby Model,' whose process and effects are analyzed in this paper. Supported by goals and guidelines, it is a circular model aiming at maximum recycling and reuse capacities. It was put in place to manage different sectors in the city and make them more efficient. The implementation of the model together with the sustainability guidelines and goals decreased resource consumption levels and increased efficient usage methods in most targeted sectors in Hammarby. However, in some other sectors, goals have proven not to be achievable because of limited capacities or operational discrepancies. Still, Hammarby Sjöstad can be regarded as exemplary and successful urban sustainability practice.