Sustainable Oslo?

Today we’re leaving Sweden. We’re going to the very last stop of our trip; Oslo. The capital of Norway declared itself a ‘sustainable city’ a few years ago, and won the European Sustainable City Award in 2003, and it reached the finals again in 2010/11. Oslo is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gasses emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to the 1991 levels, all use of fossil fuels for central heating is being phased out and by 2020 there should be zero emissions from heating of buildings.

Sounds good, but can they beat Järna when it comes to organic food? I doubt that any place on earth can do that. Pieter said something a few days ago that really explains what Järna is like; “it’s like the Silicon Valley of sustainability instead of technology. Endless opportunities and inspiration.” I don’t think there’s a better explanation than this one.

Being in Järna makes you wonder why someone ever thought of producing non-organic food, or why anyone would even think of harming the earth by using chemicals. I think that, of all the places we have been to so far, Järna is definitely the place that has had the most impact on me.

I doubt that Oslo is going to be any better than Järna, especially after what someone told us yesterday. He said that Norwegian people are a lot more conservative than Swedish people, and that it’s harder to change people’s lifestyle in Norway for that reason. Sweden has adapted to a more organic lifestyle very easily, and apparently that’s harder for Norway.

Of course, we don’t know if this is true yet, but we’re going to check in the short time that we’ll be in Norway. You’ll hear from us soon!