The Swedish Experience Change is always possible

Finding the right way

Cities are and have always been the very centres for cultural life and economic growth. The main challenges are well known: water and food supply, transport systems, waste disposal, threats to fauna and flora and, of course, CO₂ emissions and climate change. Managing these areas of urban growth is crucial to every decision maker – and SymbioCity is all about finding the best and most profitable ways.

Sweden – once a troubled nation

By the 1970s, decades of heavy industrialisation had finally taken their toll on Sweden. Polluted air, dead forests, wastelands and toxic water were everyday news. To cap it all, Sweden was the most oil-dependent country in the industrialised world.

New policies - new ideas

Eventually, the negative events triggered political action and tougher legislation, spurred cooperation between local, regional and national authorities and private industry – and got ordinary citizens involved, too. Suddenly, companies began to turn sustainable ideas into reality, finding new ways to treat water, insulate buildings and develop automatic energy saving systems and alternative fuels. A new insight: these innovations also turned out to be really profitable.   

Oil habit broken

In the past decades these innovations have been put into practice on a wider scale, cutting the amount of oil that Swedes use for heating and electricity by a stunning 90%. When it comes to sulphur emissions Sweden is back at pre-World War I levels.

Economy up - emissions down

And there is more. The new environmental legislation did not seem to clash with the economy. In fact, it was the other way round. Since 1990 CO2 emissions have been reduced by 9% while the economy has been growing at stable speed. Seemingly, the goal of sustainability does not have to hamper economic growth. Maybe it could even drive it. Not to speak of all the social benefits coming from a better environment.

Finding the money

The financing of SymbioCity investment projects follows the same procedures as for any other investments. By applying a holistic, long term planning approach, it is often possible to increase revenues or reduce costs, thereby improving your net income. On this basis, the alternatives are either public financing or seeking capital on the financial markets.

A large number of organisations have infrastructure finance as their main market offer, e.g. the World Bank, African or Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development just to mention a few. Sometimes, international development aid could also provide an opportunity to finance for example feasibility studies.

There are a number of Swedish financial institutions that are experts in finding potential financial solutions in the fields of infrastructure, energy and sustainable construction, with experience from all over the world.