1SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDY

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm, Sweden

A vision of Integrated Urban Planning comes to life in Stockholm’s Hammarby Sjöstad district

The eco-district of Hammarby Sjöstad, situated to the south of Stockholm’s city centre, was one of the first such districts to implement a holistic environmental vision incorporating aspects relating to waste, energy and water as part of one sustainable system. This vision is encompassed within the “Hammarby Model,” an eco-cycle which promotes the integration of various technical supply systems, so that the waste from one system becomes a resource for another. The district has since become a model for the application of integrated urban planning throughout the world.

The Hammarby Sjöstad district, first thought up in the 1990s, is already inhabited and due to be completed in 2017, by which point 35,000 people are planned to live and work in the area. It rehabilitated a contaminated brownfield area to the south of the capital Stockholm, and provided a solution to the city’s increased housing needs without adding to urban sprawl. As part of its holistic environmental vision, the project set ambitious goals for environmental impact reduction. The city of Stockholm has a keen interest in evaluating the outcomes of the project, given its development of other brownfield sites into environmentally friendly districts.

Hammarby Sjöstad’s holistic environmental vision is still widely held as a model for integrated planning and resource use minimisation. Indeed, the integrated thinking and management applied in the district can easily be replicated in other contexts. However, lessons drawn from the project’s implementation, for example in terms of the importance of early and realistic vision and goal setting and monitoring, should also be taken into account for future projects. Indeed, the project has not succeeded in meeting the environmental targets it set itself, and has also not fully reached the social aims it had set out to achieve.

Integrated planning in an urban setting

Quality of life in the urban setting is in large part determined by how a city’s water is managed. Indeed, it is not just the city’s natural environment that is affected by water management practices, but also the health and safety of citizens, as well as the economy of the city in general. However, current urban water management practices often view the water system as isolated, and tend to implement short-term solutions that may not be optimally sustainable. Conversely, the Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) approach treats the entire urban water cycle as one system, and seeks to involve all relevant institutions in order to achieve integration. As a result, investments made are more likely to ensure the long-term sustainability of the urban water system. Integrated Urban Planning is a highly related concept which finds synergies between different areas of urban management.

Population: 837 000 (2010)

Land area: 209 km2 (14% water surface)

This case study was produced for the SWITCH project (2006-2011), which aimed to achieve more sustainable urban water management in the “City of the Future”. A consortium of 33 partner organisations from 15 countries worked on innovative scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions with the aim of encouraging widespread uptake around the world. www.switchurbanwater.eu

The case study is part of the SWITCH Training Kit, which can be found at www.switchtraining.eu

2 SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDYStockholm, Sweden

Stockholm in context

Stockholm, Sweden’s capital and largest agglomeration, is a water-based city. Known as the ‘Venice of the North,’ it is built on 14 islands, and includes within its boundaries multiple lakes and waterways. Indeed, not even half of Stockholm’s surface area is developed: over half is composed of fields, forest and water. This is one of the reasons why Stockholm has developed a reputation as one of the cleanest and most environmentally friendly capital cities in the world. In 2010, it was named as Europe’s first Green Capital.

Stockholm is lucky to benefit from outstanding natural resources and a high percentage of green spaces; for example, Lake Bornsjön, its reserve water source, is at drinking water standard even without treatment. However, the city has also had to make efforts to attain and preserve environmental quality, particularly given its growing population. Its main problems in terms of water management are eutrophication, due to high phosphorus loads from diffuse sources into incoming waters but also from historical deposits in lake bottoms, and the presence of hazardous substances in ground and surface waters.

Sustainable water management is but one of the areas in which Stockholm is making advances: it has implemented innovative traffic reduction measures, encouraged the use of district heating with a high renewable energy component and developed a waste management system which promotes recycling and energy recovery. It aims to become fossil fuel free by 2050.

Integrated Urban Planning in the Hammarby Sjöstad development

Stockholm is a growing city. To accommodate its increasing population without compromising environmental sustainability and increasing urban sprawl, the city has become a pioneer in the creation of new eco-friendly developments in brownfield areas. The latest example is Norra Djurgårdsstaden, a 236 hectare mixed-use district due to be completed in 2025. The Hammarby Sjöstad project, originally planned as part of Stockholm’s 2004 Olympics bid, served as an example for this development as well as many others throughout the world. It applies the “Hammarby Model” which sees urban planning in an integrated way.

Hammarby SjöstadThe 250 hectare Hammarby Sjöstad development, situated on the edge of Stockholm’s city centre, takes its name from the lake around which it is built. It regenerated a contaminated brownfield area formerly used as a harbour and an industrial zone. Although much of the district is currently inhabited, it is due to be fully finished by 2017, by which point it is foreseen that 35,000 people will live and work in the neighbourhood.

Stockholm, Sweden (© Anne-Claire Loftus)

3SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDY

Stockholm, Sweden

The new district’s overall goal is that it should halve its environmental impact compared to that which would be produced by technologies existing at the time of the project’s start. A number of specific goals have been set in the areas of energy, transport, waste and water – some examples are:• Energy: Hammarby Sjöstad aims to meet half of the energy needs of its residents

through energy produced internally, for example through solar energy as well as heat recovery from sewage or waste, and to ensure all of its heating energy needs are met by renewable sources.

• Transport: The majority of journeys are to be made by walking, cycling or public transport use – light rail, bus, ferry and carpool systems are available to residents.

• Waste: Reuse and recycling are prioritised, but non-recyclable waste is largely used for energy recovery.

• Water: Hammarby Sjöstad’s residents are to use 100 litres of water per person per day, which is considerably less than the Stockholm average of 200 litres. The neighbourhood also has goals pertaining to the reuse of nutrients for agriculture and to the reduction of harmful substances in wastewater.

Beyond these targets, Hammarby Sjöstad has incorporated other quality of life considerations into its design and planning: for example, the district has mixed private and business uses, aims for a roughly even split between tenancy and ownership and incorporates much green and blue space as well as buildings of varied heights and styles. The fact that Hammarby Sjöstad is still held up as a model of urban planning is a testament to the strength of both the holistic vision and the specific goals set up for the district some 15 years ago. The neighbourhood continues to play an important role in maintaining Stockholm’s profile as an environmentally friendly capital.

The Hammarby ModelStarting from the project’s beginnings, Hammarby Sjöstad has incorporated integrated urban planning into its design and implementation. This integration is found not only in plans and concepts, but also in the project office itself, where the physical presence of staff from different authorities and administrations has facilitated communication as well as interdisciplinarity. The application of integrated urban planning has led to the development of the Hammarby Model, a closed-loop eco-cycle which illustrates the interrelationships between various areas of urban management.

Some examples of integration within the Hammarby Model are as follows:

• District heating and energy is produced from combustible waste. In 2002, 47% of the heating in Hammarby Sjöstad came from combustible waste.

• The anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge produces biogas which is used as cooking fuel for 900 households in the district and also as fuel for buses and cars.

• District heating and cooling is produced as a result of the wastewater treatment process.

• Wastewater sludge and organic waste are converted to biosolids which are used as fertiliser.

• Rather than being sent to the wastewater treatment plant, where its volumes and relatively high quality would lead to unnecessary energy expenditure for treatment, rainwater collected from roofs, courtyards and streets is drained into Lake Hammarby. In the case of rainwater runoff from city streets, this is collected separately and treated via a settling process prior to discharge into the lake, in order to remove contaminants.

Clean power in Stockholm (© iStock-photo.com/Photomick)

4 SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDYStockholm, Sweden

With the Hammarby Model, the various urban systems (waste, water and energy among others) which the neighbourhood benefits from are not designed in isolation, but are rather thought of as one integrated system. With integrated urban planning, what would generally be thought of as the waste from one area of operation actually becomes a resource for another, allowing for waste reduction but also savings in terms of energy, fuel and money.

Results

An Environmental Impact Profile (EIP) report prepared in 2008 based on data obtained in some completed parts of the district shows that in terms of soil, water and air emissions, the environmental impact of the examined zones was between 29 and 32% lower than that which would have occurred with technologies existing in the early 1990s. As for the consumption of non-renewable energy raw materials, this showed a reduction of between 28 and 42% compared to the baseline. Water consumption was reduced by 41 to 46%; as of 2008, water consumption per person per day was 150 litres, rather than the initially planned 100.

Overall, the report found a considerable part of the reduction in environmental impact was achieved by changes in personal transport modes, with the light rail and ferry playing an important role. Indeed, CO2 emissions from transport per apartment were reduced by 48% compared to the baseline scenario. Additional impact reduction compared to the baseline was achieved through the choice of construction material but also in the areas of water, wastewater and heating as well as technical services within the district. Finally, though the target for energy consumption was set at 60 kWh/m2/year, a subsequent assessment found the actual consumption to be closer to 120 kWh/m2/year, or double the target. A combination of factors led to the higher consumption of energy; these include user behaviour different to that which had been anticipated and the occasional prioritisation of resident comfort over energy saving in the design of the district.

The Hammarby Model (Source: www.hammarbysjostad.se)

5SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDY

Stockholm, Sweden

In sum, though the district is not yet fully complete, the assessment found that the project has not achieved its initial goal of a 50% reduction in environmental impact but that for certain aspects it is approaching them.

From a social sustainability point of view, the project’s aim to promote social heterogeneity has not been achieved, with the neighbourhood’s residents mostly belonging to a homogeneous group of higher socio-economic status. Increasing construction costs and the removal of housing subsidies are partly to blame for this trend, as is the shift in political direction which led to a change in the percentage of land allocated for public ownership, own use and rental use. Housing costs have increased as the project has progressed. Although rental prices are similar to those of the city centre, monthly management fees are higher. Moreover, while the price for apartments sold within the first building phase was around 900 Euros/m2, in the second phase it approached 3,500 Euros/m2.

Lessons learned

As a way of gathering useful experiences for use in the development of other sustainable districts within the city, Stockholm commissioned in 2009 an environmental profile report of Hammarby Sjöstad from the School of Industrial Engineering and Management (KTH).

Strengths and weaknesses of the holistic visionHammarby Sjöstad’s role in bringing a new level of integration of environmental considerations into their urban district planning, such that the district has become a model for such integration worldwide, is to be praised. At the time of the project’s start, taking a holistic view of the urban environment with a focus on finding systems-based technical solutions was still a novel approach. This approach allowed for excellent cooperation between stakeholders and also for innovations in technology and management within the different municipal departments.

Stormwater collection canal in Hammarby Sjöstad (© Malena Karlsson)

However, having drafted the district’s environmental programme after the planning process had already started created difficulties with the implementation of the programme. Indeed, this led to some contradictions between goals, for example when the installation of rooftop solar panels did not match with urban design requirements. Moreover, the holistic view adopted by Hammarby Sjöstad led to the prioritisation of systems-based technologies, which in some cases made the integration of more specific emerging environmental technologies more challenging.

It is therefore vital, in the establishment of such overarching visions and goals, to ensure that it is done at the very beginning of project planning. This enables environmental considerations to be integrated into urban planning to the fullest extent possible.

6 SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDYStockholm, Sweden

Setting goals and monitoring their outcomeSeveral barriers prevented Hammarby Sjöstad from reaching the environmental goals chosen at the outset. Some of the goals were unrealistic, some did not have the full support of all stakeholders and some could not be reached by using the technical solutions in place. Indeed, the goals had not taken into account the fact that all material, energy and water flows in the district are also fundamentally affected by the behaviour patterns of its residents. One such example is the energy consumption per square metre target, which is influenced not only by the technologies chosen but also by the behaviour of residents. Another example of conflicting goals was the decision to prioritise north-facing windows with lake views in Hammarby Sjöstad buildings. From an energy use point of view, it would have been better to have south-facing windows, but this would not have been optimal from the point of view of the residents.

The assessment report recommends that environmental goals are formulated more explicitly in future district projects, that they closely involve all stakeholders and that they are based on scenarios and technical option evaluations. Goal setting should be integral to the technical solutions choice phase, and should also consider measures relating to the behaviour of residents and how to influence this through information provision and incentives.

Finally, Hammarby Sjöstad’s goal setting was not followed up by systematic evaluation of performance against these goals, and also suffered from a lack of baseline data and from unclear planning for evaluation responsibilities. Follow-up of results should be planned as part of the goal setting process, where the baseline data needed can be determined, as can the measurement points, the responsibilities for goal monitoring and the feedback process.

The city’s role in project governanceStockholm had an important role in the management of the district project, particularly in determining the roles and responsibilities of the building contractors. However, in Hammarby Sjöstad the responsibilities for the fulfillment of environmental goals were not stated using written agreements; similarly, data collection responsibilities were not set from the beginning.

The central role of the interdisciplinary and interdepartmental project management team was key to the outcome of the Hammarby Sjöstad project. Although the project team used many traditional and formal means of management, it was found that informal management practices were also vital to the project. For example, the team’s ‘environmental rounds’ revealed a mould problem caused by non-compliance by a contractor, serving as an early warning system.

In the implementation of environmental programmes in new eco-districts, it is important for the city to influence this implementation through the provision of information to residents, as was done in Hammarby Sjöstad’s environmental communication and information centre GlashusEtt. As an example, an exhibition at the GlashusEtt regarding undesirable substances found in wastewater led to an immediate reduction in their presence, in the case of certain substances. These information centres are also useful tools for the systematic marketing of environmental and systems technologies and urban planning as a whole. Another means through which cities can influence behaviour is by setting incentives allowing for a clear connection between resident behaviour and cost savings to be made, something which was not explicitly done in Hammarby Sjöstad.

Hammarby Sjöstad (© Malena Karlsson)

7SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDY

Stockholm, Sweden

Budget and finances

The project has been estimated to cost between 1.7 and 2.2 billion Euros. Eighty percent of the financing for the project was contributed by the 25 construction companies involved in the project, with the City of Stockholm contributing the rest of the budget. Additional sources of funding came from the Swedish Rail Administration, for the light rail link, and from the Swedish Road Administration, for the link to the nearby ring road.

A national subsidy system for investments in environmentally-friendly technologies, the local investment program (LIP), was made available within Hammarby Sjöstad, though its success as an incentive for builders and contractors is debated.

Replication

Systems-based technology innovations applied in Hammarby Sjöstad can be replicated either directly or with modifications in other cities. For example, heat recovery from wastewater treatment is replicable, as is the production of fertiliser from organic waste, as long as specific investments in technology are made. Indeed, energy recovery from waste is very common throughout Sweden.

However, the main highlight of the Hammarby Model for other cities lies in the holistic systems thinking which it promotes. The integrated urban planning vision, incorporating all elements of the urban system, means that the ‘waste’ from one area can become a resource for another. Not all of the systems technologies applied are replicable in other cities, but the idea behind them is. In the planning of the Hammarby project, the local context was taken into account. For example, the district benefits from the existing Högdalen combined heat and power plant, which uses domestic waste for energy production. Also, given the proximity of Lake Hammarby and the design of the rainwater collection system, the district is able to divert rainwater harvested from roofs and courtyards directly into the lake without treatment.

Time and place often play an important role in starting up projects but also in their outcome. In the case of Hammarby Sjöstad, the genesis of the project was the city’s bid to host the 2004 Olympics: although the bid was not successful, the advantages brought to light in the project planning stage were such that the city decided it should continue. Cities hoping to emulate Stockholm will find that such pivotal moments often provide the incentive needed to bring projects to fruition.

The Norra Djursgårdsstaden development

The Norra Djursgårdsstaden development, also known as Stockholm Royal Seaport, is a brownfield rehabilitation project whose planned completion date is 2025. The area will include 10,000 dwellings and 30,000 office spaces, following the same mixed use concept as Hammarby Sjöstad. In terms of planned infrastructure, it places the same emphasis as Hammarby Sjöstad on public transport links as well as cycling and walking. It includes in its design many cutting-edge technologies, such as smart grid, electric vehicle charging, and renewable energy integration. It aims to become fossil fuel free by 2030, before the rest of the city. Norra Djursgårdsstaden’s energy consumption target is higher than that of Hammarby Sjöstad, at 55 kWh/m2/year, and it reached a decision on the environmental profile of the area at the very beginning of the project, showing Stockholm derived some useful lessons from the implementation of the Hammarby Sjöstad project.

Computer simulation of Norra Djursgårdsstaden (Source: Stockholm Stad)

8 SWITCH Training KitCASE STUDYStockholm, Sweden

The political climate of the city in which eco-friendly developments are planned also plays a big role, and is something that is also subject to sudden and sometimes radical change. In Hammarby Sjöstad, the case of parking spaces provides an interesting example. At the start of the project, the standard was set at 0.25 parking spaces per apartment by the ruling coalition, but was raised to 0.7 when a more right-wing coalition came to power in 1998. Similarly, after 1998 the proportion of land allocated to municipal housing companies fell from 40 to 18 percent.

The occurrence of pivotal moments and the changes in political support are factors which many cities may have in common with Stockholm. However, the Swedish legal and regulatory system also influenced the project’s management, in a way that may not be replicable in other countries. For example, the city’s use of leasehold agreements granted it greater negotiating power vis-à-vis its lessees. The public ownership of land was a decisive factor in determining to what extent environmental considerations would be included in the project’s design.

The fact that the Hammarby Sjöstad project began some 15 years ago makes it an important example for other cities to follow. The holistic vision it promotes is still very much valid, but its implementation has also yielded some important lessons for replication. These lessons pertain not so much to the technologies applied within the district, which have anyway likely been superseded by developments in the field, but rather to the urban planning process itself. In particular, it became clear that the process of developing an eco-district requires many trade-offs, given the need to take into account environmental but also social, economic and political considerations. Stockholm has sought and taken lessons from the implementation of the Hammarby Sjöstad project for the development of other eco-friendly districts in the capital – other cities can also learn from this project.

Key contacts

Hammarby Sjöstad, City of Stockholm, Swedeninfo@hammarbysjostad.setelephone: +46 8 522 137 00telefax: +46 8 522 137 01

www.hammarbysjostad.se

Sources

ADEME and Energie-Cités (2008) – Guidebook of Sustainable Neighbourhoods in Europe, ADEME and Energie-Cités. Available at: http://energy-cities.eu/-Publications-2008-

K. Brick (2008) – Report summary - Follow up of environmental impact in Hammarby Sjöstad: Sickla Udde, Sickla Kaj, Lugnet and Proppen, Grontmij AB, Stockholm. Available at: http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/

City of Stockholm (2011, February 04) – General facts and figures, population. Retrieved from: http://international.stockholm.se/Press-and-media/Stockholm-facts/General-facts-and-numbers/Population/

City of Stockholm Executive Office (2008) – The Stockholm environment programme, City of Stockholm Executive Office, Stockholm. Available at: http://international.stockholm.se/Stockholm-by-theme/A-sustainable-city/

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Stockholm, Sweden

European Commission (2011, February 04) – Stockholm – European Green Capital 2010. Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/green_cities_submenu/awardwinner_2010.html

Hammarby Sjöstad et al. (2008) – Hammarby Sjöstad – a new city district with emphasis on water and ecology. Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm. Available at: http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/

Hammarby Sjöstad (2011, February 04) – Hammarby Sjöstad. Retrieved from: http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/

R. Johansson and O. Svane (2002) – Environmental management in large-scale building projects – learning from Hammarby Sjöstad, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 9, 206–214.

S. Pandis and N. Brandt (2008) – Utvärdering av Hammarby Sjöstads miljöprofilering - vilka erfarenheter ska tas med till nya stadsutvecklingsprojekt i Stockholm? KTH School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Stockholm. Available at: http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/

Stockholm Office of Research and Statistics (2010) – Statistical yearbook of Stockholm 2010, Stockholm Office of Research and Statistics, Stockholm. Available at: http://www.uskab.se/index.php/statistics-in-english.html

Stockholm Vatten (2011, February 04) – Drinking water. Retrieved from: http://www.stockholmvatten.se/en/Drinking-water/

Stockholm Vatten and City of Stockholm (2006) – Stockholm water programme, Stockholm Vatten and City of Stockholm, Stockholm. Available at: http://international.stockholm.se/Stockholm-by-theme/A-sustainable-city/

O. Svane (2006) – Situations of opportunity – Hammarby Sjöstad and Stockholm City’s process of environmental management, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 15, 76–88.

Swedish Trade Council (2011, February 04) – Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm: Making an entire sustainable urban district. Retrieved from: http://www.symbiocity.org/en/Cases/Hammarby-Sjostad/

D. Vestbro (2004) – Conflicting perspectives in the development of Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm, KTH School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Stockholm. Available at: http://www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf

Author information

Anne-Claire Loftus, ICLEI European SecretariatLeopoldring 3, 79098 Freiburg, Germanywww.iclei-europe.orgPhone: +49-761/368 92-0Email: water@iclei.org

February 2011© ICLEI European Secretariat