In addition to previous article, I would like to discuss about Hammarby?s environmental plans. This can be a lot of information, it took considerable time for me to read everything and find the key interesting points. But I believe that the way Hammarby practice environmental policies are so efficient and considerable that I wanted to share it with you guys! So bear with me.

The General plan divides into 6 parts the use of land, transportation system, Building materials, Energy uses, water and sewage system, and the waste treatment.

The land project covers sanitary redevelopment, reuse and transformation of old sites to attractive residential areas with beautiful green parks and green public spaces. For instance, the city plan states that there shall be certain amount of courtyard and Green Park within every apartment.

Transportation system raises concern for the air quality. This concern lead to the creation of fast public transport that will win favor over personal transportation devices, the carpool system, and the beautiful cycle path program to reduce use of private car. The plan specifies the aim to 80% of resident and worker?s rides to be by public transport. This is assisted by the new light rail link ?Tvärbanan. ?This transport has central route running through the city and connecting major districts. In addition, Ferry ?Sjöstaden?, with intensive ferry links, is run by the city of Stockholm. Because it is free to use and runs every day from early in the morning to late at night, this transport system appeals to the citizens. Also, carpool is practice in this city. This will reduce the overall car usage, and thus improving air quality. Currently, the city consists of over 3000 clean technology organizations, over 1000 city parks and recycling system. 2000 or more public buses and 1000+ train.

The active environmental concern also raised the concern for materials used throughout the city. The materials, used on the ground and buildings, require environmentally free healthy materials. For energy use, the city highly recommends renewable fuels, biogas products and reuse of waste heat coupled with efficient energy consumption in buildings. While limiting use of new sands and gravels, the city recommends the use of recycled materials. For instance, the city avoids any use of chemical products or construction materials that contains hazardous substances. Use of heavy metals, such as the copper, has been limited, and instead eco-friendly oils have been used. Thus the city requires anyone who builds in hammarby to check and state the chemical products in material before they construct buildings. In addition, the city requires ?eco-inspections? throughout the construction.

Water and Sewage system also attempts to get clean water and efficient sewage system as possible, by using the new technology for water saving and sewage treatment. The city recommends the 95% of the phosphorus in waste water to be reused on agricultural land. In addition, the city desires to reduce water consumption by 50%. The rainwater and snowmelt is also to be treated locally in various ways. From what I learned in my Stanford environmental class, rainwater and snowmelt serves as essential drinkable water source (for instance, in California, where I live, Sierra Nevada?s runoff helps our state.) By treating these natural sources differently, the city will be able to conserve more water.

One unique thing we can note here is that the city uses the unique system called ?Green roofs.? The way this system works is that these roofs collect the rainwater. At the same time, these roofs allow plants to form in living green areas of the city buildings. This system not only assists the city to collect more water resource but also to grow more plants around the city, thus making ?green city.?

The waste goes through practical system with maximized energy recycling. Once considered as undesirable leftovers, waste can now considered as a resource that is being used more and more. The city desires energy to be extracted from 99% by weight of all domestic waste. The city prioritized reusing materials. Because the eco-friendly products from recycled materials both save environment and economy. Now then some of you may wonder, how about the food waste? We can?t recycle food waste. That?s right. So what this city has come up with was to place food waste in biodegradable corn starch bag that naturally composts food wastes.

Now there are three levels of waste management in this city the building-based, block-based, and area based. The building based management deals with separating the source. The plastics are placed in ordinary plastic bags, food waste in corn starch bag, and newspaper and paper in waste disposal system. The block-based recycling separates the types of waste that do not belong in the building, based categories, such as the glass, old furniture, electric wastes, and textiles. Lastly, the Area-based hazardous waste collects the environmentally dangerous components, such as the nail polish, cleaning agents, chemicals that harms environment, and so on.