Stockholm Royal Seaport

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Population: 2,361,864 [metropolitan area]

Climate: Oceanic

Duration: 2010 – 2030

Sector: Cross-cutting

Funding sources: Public

City networks: C40

Savings: CO2 levels reduced by 30%.

Solutions: The Royal Seaport is a fully integrated solution across mobility, the built environment and integrated infrastructure.

Multiple benefits: When completed in 2030, it is expected to provide approximately 12,000 new apartments and 35,000 additional workspaces

The Stockholm Royal Seaport – formerly a brownfield industrial and port site, owned by the city of Stockholm – has been designed to become a renovated waterfront urban district with a strong focus on sustainability. The land is managed by the Development Administration, which also leads the development of the project in close cooperation with other city administrations [source].

Objective – By 2030, the target is for Stockholm Royal Seaport residents to be completely fossil fuel-free.

Solutions – The Royal Seaport is a fully integrated solution across mobility, the built environment and integrated infrastructure. More specifically, the neighbourhood will provide public transport in the form of subway, biogas-powered buses, tram and boat buses. It includes a closed-loop integrated waste management system and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified19 buildings. Furthermore, the area is prepared for a future smart grid electrical system and also represents an investment and showcase to market Swedish solutions for sustainable development. Additionally, an ICT infrastructure will also help to manage port activities in an efficient and sustainable way.

Funding – The City of Stockholm is investing around $150 million in the
project.

 Innovation – The district´s innovation centre – Stockholm Royal Seaport Innovation – will show how solutions within environmental technology are being tested and applied in the new urban district, serving as an important showcase to the outside world. The centre will be an international meeting place where the city, the business community and research institutions work together to profile and demonstrate Swedish know-how in sustainability and city planning. The centre will furthermore serve as a platform for presenting the area to the public and interested parties [source].

Success factors – Stockholm Royal Seaport is a neighbourhood-in-progress, so lessons learned are based on planning and design rather than actual performance.  Therefore, the development of a competence program, where city planners, architects, and private developers exchange knowledge so that all actors can plan their work according to the environmental targets set for the project is considered to the City of Stockholm as a real success story in the planning process [source].

Significant outcomes:

• CO2 levels reduction to 3 tonnes per person (-30%) by 2015.
• The planned bio-fuel combined heat and power plant will generate 10% of the city’s overall electricity needs and 25% of its district heating requirements.
• CO2 emissions lowering to below 1.5 tonnes per person (compared to Stockholm’s registered average of 4.5 tonnes per person in 2008) by 2020.
• Fossil fuel-free by 2030.

Synergies with local policies:

• Strategy for a fossil-fuel-free Stockholm by 2040 lays down a framework for what the City can do, in the short and long term, to make its own operations fossil-fuel free. The strategy sets up a milestone target for emissions of no more than 2.3 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents) per resident by 2020;
• Stockholm City Plan is a spatial development strategy that establishes a broadly ‘green’ approach to land-use and transport policy, focusing on intensifying existing urban centres and connecting centres with environmentally efficient public transport [source];
• Stockholm action plan for climate and energy 2010–2020 aims to demonstrate how the City can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2015 from transport, electricity, heating and district cooling within the City boundaries. The action plan also includes estimates on how much the City can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020;
• Environmental Program 2017-2021 aims to reduce the environmental impact and drive developments forwards in the Stockholm region, in Sweden and globally. The goals in the programme contribute to sustainable social development, with sustainable transport systems, properties and healthcare.

Political alignment:

• National Energy Efficiency Action Plan sets a target of 20% energy savings by 2020 (2008 baseline) and a reduction in energy intensity of 50% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels;
• Sweden’s Climate Act and Climate Policy Framework intend to create and clear a coherent climate policy to ensure long term signals to the market and other actors. The long term target for Sweden is zero net GHG emissions by 2045.
• The Environmental Code promotes sustainable development. It encourages re-use and recycling of materials, raw materials and energy and use of renewable energies;
• Swedish Building regulations (BFS 2011:6) establishes that new buildings must be designed in such a way that energy use is limited by low heat losses, low cooling demands, efficient use of heating and cooling, and efficient use of electricity [source];
• Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to boost energy performance of buildings [source], sets different requirements regarding energy performance in new buildings.

Marketability: The solution is one of Europe’s largest redevelopment areas and it presents some similarities, in terms of infrastructure, with projects currently under construction in Sweden and other countries. A direct example is represented by Stockholm’s Hammarby Sjöstad and Copenhagen’s Nordhavnen.