When it comes to green destinations, it may not be much more sustainable than Stockholm.

Most museums in the Swedish capital have advanced programs to promote recycling and green energy. Many restaurants have next-level environmental initiatives to reduce food waste or grow vegetables in hydroponic gardens. Even the hotels are recycled.

There’s just one problem: No one wants to say anything about it.

“We’ve come a long way,” says Camilla Zedendahl, CEO of the Royal Djurgården Society, a collection of 62 attractions in Stockholm. “But the dynamic nature of being a green destination is that the goalposts keep moving. It’s an ongoing journey.”

That kind of understatedness is common in Stockholm, a place so sustainable that it’s challenging to find a comparison anywhere else in Europe. 

“We’ve been working hard on sustainability,” explains Susanne Andersson, CEO of Visit Sweden, the Swedish tourism government’s marketing company. “And even though we are doing a lot, we don’t really talk about it.”  

Andersson says that’s how the tourism industry approaches sustainability. There’s always more to be done, and no one wants to discuss it until it’s 100 percent there. 

Although the scope of tourism sustainability efforts is complicated, the takeaway for tourists is simple: If you care about the planet, you might want to add Stockholm to the list of places to visit. You’ll come as close as possible to having a carbon-neutral vacation, give or take an offset or two.

How Stockholm’s museums are taking sustainability to the next level.

Stockholm’s museums show their sustainability stripes in two ways. First, exhibits highlight some of the climate change issues and possible solutions. Second, with complex sustainability initiatives behind the scenes that are meant to save energy, recycle, and make the facilities more sustainable for future generations.

For example, the Museum of Technology has an exhibit exploring the Scandinavian woods’ challenges and benefits. But they also beg the question: Why do we need the forest?

The answer is in the next room. It’s an event centre called the Wisdom, a cavernous wood hall that uses cross-laminated timber in the ceiling, roof, and floor tiles. Since opening late last year, it has become an attraction at the technical museum. Director Peter Skogh says it’s a unique structure that shows how wood can be used in modern buildings. 

“It’s cutting edge, when it comes to sustainability,” he adds.

At the Nordic Museum, where Zedendahl has her office, there’s also an exhibit with a sustainability theme — this one dedicated to the melting Arctic ice. The museum tells the story of modern Sweden, but like many progressive museums, it also challenges visitors to look to the future. What will Sweden look like if climate change continues at this pace? The Arctic exhibit pushes visitors to contemplate questions such as these.

Zedendahl’s job is to drive the cooperation of the area’s museums and attractions in sustainability efforts. She says they’ve adopted sustainability goals for 2025 and 2027, each more ambitious than the next.

“We’ll never be done,” she says.

That’s a common sentiment in Stockholm.

Sustainability is on the menu in Stockholm.

Sustainability isn’t just in the building at the Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm’s Museum of Photography, Art and Culture. (The museum is a former customs house.) It is also in the food. Martin Wall, the executive chef at the Fotografiska’s restaurant, has used his kitchen to experiment with various sustainable foods. Every year, the chef tries to pickle something new or to grow a different variety of plants. He’s particularly proud of his new hydroponic garden, where rows of basil are growing for the kitchen. The indoor facility will lessen his reliance on outside and imported food. He even chartered a sailboat to bring produce from South America because it’s greener.

“We want every part of the museum to be sustainable,” he says. 

It’s not the only museum with sustainability on the menu. Two Swedish entrepreneurs, Per Hjalmarö and Daniel Oddhammar, teamed up a few years ago to create Generation Waste. The idea is simple: Measure your food waste to eliminate it. The duo does this through a smartphone app and conventional scales. One of their customers is the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, where celebrity chef Fredrik Eriksson’s restaurant uses the system to reduce food waste in his kitchen.

“It’s becoming more of an issue, not just here in our restaurant, but in Stockholm,” says Chef Eriksson. “We have to take care of the environment.”

The environment is also front and centre at Rosendals’ Garden Foundation, a public garden on the site of an old palace in Stockholm. The restaurant is a centre for biodynamic farming practices, featuring a “farm to fork” concept that allows the staff to harvest vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits used in the garden café and wood-fired bakery. 

But restaurants aren’t alone in Stockholm’s drive toward sustainability.

A former bank becomes a sustainable hotel in Stockholm.

Hotels in Stockholm are also pushing the boundaries when it comes to sustainability. Sustainability was built into the Bank Hotel, a boutique hotel near the city’s famous quay from the very beginning. 

Lisa Lindwall, the Bank Hotel’s manager, says the building was originally designed as a bank in 1910. Before being refurbished as a hotel, it was home to four Swedish banks. The building has a rich architectural history, with Art Nouveau and Renaissance elements, but transforming it into a property proved to be an issue. 

“We wanted to preserve as much of the original building as possible,” she says. 

The idea of recycling an old building in Stockholm is at the heart of Scandinavian sustainability. It is practical but not always easy. And that’s just one aspect of sustainability. Lindwall says customers, particularly meeting planners, have raised the bar since they opened, pushing them to find more ways to become sustainable. That included new programs for reducing food waste and pursuing new green certifications.

Lindwall says visitors have become sophisticated about sustainability. Simply saying you’re green won’t cut it anymore. They want to see sustainability in action when they visit a property like the Bank, from locally grown produce at breakfast to aggressive recycling programs. 

How much more sustainable can a hotel like the Bank and a city like Stockholm get? Lindwall says keeping her green certifications is challenging because the certifying agencies keep adding new requirements. Interestingly, guests are nudging properties like hers to take bolder steps toward carbon neutrality. 

Of course, there’s still a sustainability to-do list. Visit any grocery store in Stockholm if you want an example. The self-checkout kiosks churn out paper receipts scanned by a machine before customers leave the store. They toss the receipts in a large bin, which sometimes overflows. But you have to look hard for a place where Stockholm hasn’t tried to become more sustainable, and it’s getting more complex.

Stockholm has come far, but sustainability is just getting warmed up.

 

 

 

Written by: Christopher Elliott

 

 

BIO:

Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@elliott.org.

 

 

 

 

 

======================================