Torbjörn Lahti, "The Natural Step: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices"

Torbjörn Lahti, Swedish Eco-Municipality Leader, Overtornea Sweden

Summary: Torbjörn Lahti shared his experiences as a planner and consultant with 24 years working in sustainable development. He has worked with about 160 communities to help them develop into eco-municipalities. It is important to show people examples of solutions – people can get frustrated and need hope. But there is hope for the future! It is happening in small towns and large cities. Stockholm is the biggest city in Sweden and has embraced eco housing and eco-villages within the city, showing that even urban areas can get down to a grassroots level. He said we need to plug into the growing global network of eco-municipalities – Suomussalmi, Finland, the first eco-municipality in the world. Also, Morbegno Italy, Kaneyama Japan, Machakos Kenya, Whistler Canada, and Madison Wisconsin are part of this global network using these same concepts. Mr. Lahti said there are two key perspectives cities must take:

They need a global perspective – people need to see themselves as a global citizen.

An example of this process is Mr. Lahti’s hometown, Overtornea, Sweden. Near the Arctic Circle, this community in 1980 had high unemployment, had lost 40% of its population (mostly its youth population) and was mired in apathy. If it was possible for Overtornea to change, it is possible anywhere! But it took time! In the 1980’s, people formed “study circles” to discuss and learn from each other and plan their eco-municipality movement. They planned for eco-villages – people taking care of their own neighborhoods, organic farming, a health center, eco-housing developments, and planned to attract 200 new companies to Overtornea. He likened the process to the story of “how the bumblebee changed the world”. The bumblebee should not be able to fly according to laws of aerodynamics, but the bumblebee doesn’t know this so he just flies. That is how Overtornea saw what they were doing – impossible but they were doing it.

They developed organic farming – very important in the north. The cold climate is actually an advantage because the farmers don’t need as much chemical pesticides so organic concepts were fairly easy to promote in Sweden. In the 1990’s they developed eco-schools that used pellet stove heat and eco-daycares. In the 2000’s they have been working to become fossil fuel free, developing free public transportation, ethanol cars, and now “eco-thinking” is a part of daily life. Eco-thinking is just common sense. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders referenced Overtornea in Agenda 21 and said every community should do the same. That was when he realized what a world-wide impact they had made. He is seeing this happening in countries all over the world. There are even Kurdish refugees in Sweden who want to go back to Iraq to start eco-municipalities there.

Robertsfor, Sweden, a coastal community of 7,000 people received a $2 million grant from the European Union in 2001 to develop into a pilot eco-municipality and did so in only five years time! It was an integrated process with the social, economic, ecological parts of the tree like Sarah mentioned. It was considered a “pilot” concept that other municipalities could adopt. However, this concept can be adopted by any town - it takes community involvement not money. Robertsfor’s projects included: village development, restoration of old meadow land, sustainable forestry, organic farming, biogas, ethanol cars and gas stations, land decontamination, certified environmental schools, a pellet factory, a Youth Forum and soliciting citizen proposals. They want to be entirely sustainable by 2050.

How did they do it? Through the Natural Step three-way process of LEARNING, PLANNING and DOING:

LEARNING: Also known as the Capacity Building Stage. Education is the key element for successful eco-municipality development. The community is educated on the system-based approach to community change. Learning, planning, and doing are not done in stages but rather should be done concurrently because they are equally important and on-going. Communities can learn from each other, but each one must set their own “sustainability compass”. Some communities are close to sustainable but aren’t moving towards that goal while others are far from sustainable but at least are moving. The community must define what sustainability means to them.

This requires creating a platform that people can learn from:

PLANNING: The planning stage is a democratic process built on mutual respect between individuals and the community. A common vision for a system-based approach must be shared by all. The planning stage decides what programs to implement, what construction projects to do, and establishes the criteria for success. A community must:

DOING: The doing phase is where the community releases the doers, the “Fire Souls” who have the passion and drive to get things done, and learns from them in the process, thus continuing the cycle.

The Eco-municipality model involves four objectives that are nearly identical to those defined by the American Planning Association (APA) as Sarah talked about earlier. The Robertsfor model just tells you how we did it in Robertsfor. Swedish solutions cannot solve your problems but the questions are the same. In conclusion, Mr. Lahti’s advice for sustainable community development is to:

You are all invited to the first ever International Eco-Municipality Conference and Eco-tour next year in Sweden. If you don’t believe what I’ve said, come there and see it for yourself.

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