Field Trippin' Fun

There is a general theory in geography that states something very obvious, namely that things which are located in greater proximity to one another will tend to be more interrelated than things which are further apart. It's clear that this is true in the case of relationships between people as well, even in this electronic age in which we can instantly communicate from nearly anywhere in the world. “Out of sight, out of mind” still seems to be the rule, and it doesn't take long for one who is absent to drop off of the radar.

I mention this because I am somewhat perplexed and amused by all of those who have asked if I still have the same email address. Did they think my email address would somehow fail to work from Sweden and that I would need to get a new one? Rest assured, my email has not changed and I typically check it several times a day.

I have heard from a couple of you that you are caught up with reading this blog and ready for more. If any of you have any feedback to give please feel free to post a comment or to send an email. It's nice to know it's being read and it would be great to get a bit of a conversation going. Keep in mind that a long post like the last one with pictures takes three or four hours on my end to produce.

This past weekend we took our class field trip, leaving Karlskrona on Friday morning and returning Sunday evening. We visited Växjö (pronounced something like 'vek-wha'), which has been called “the greenest city in Europe” for it's success in reducing CO2 emissions. We then spent two nights and had some leadership workshops at a place called Bildingshelm, and then on Sunday we visited a car cemetery in the forest and also a modern art park known as Wanås center.

The first thing I noticed about Växjö were how many bicycles there were parked outside of shops and in the median between the two lanes of the main street. I have become accustomed to seeing a lot of bikes in Karlskrona and when I first arrived in Sweden I even mistakenly thought a couple of businesses were bike shops because of the number of cycles parked outside. In the U.S. it's uncommon to see more than a few bikes parked on the street, whereas in Karlskrona there are often dozens. Växjö had literally hundreds of bicycles parked throughout the town and it was obvious that they are one of the main means of transportation there.

Other than that, the city does not look particularly “green”. It is attractive and nicely laid out, with wide streets and plenty of common spaces. There is an amazing church and many other beautiful historic buildings, but also a lot of more modern construction of concrete and steel. It is interesting that in Sweden there seems to be no particular desire to separate newer and older areas, so that a very modern design often stands right next to a centuries-old building. There are still plenty of cars on the streets as well, and the level of auto-related noise and air pollution seems to be about the same as in any similarly sized town.

At the city hall in Växjö we were given a talk about the town's efforts towards sustainability by the city's environmental manager. What she had to say was very impressive. Beginning with a successful lake cleanup in the 1960's, Växjö began a series of ambitious environmental projects. Since 1993, CO2 emissions per capita have already been reduced by 35%, with goals of a 50% reduction by 2010 and a 70% reduction by 2025. It is especially impressive to see a graph of the town's carbon reductions next to one which shows economic growth in the same period, since the latter has climbed as fast as the former has declined.

Eventually the town plans to become completely carbon neutral, or even to have negative carbon emissions. These measures have the unanimous support of the regions politicians and continue despite the fact that the conservative “right-wing” party currently has the majority (can we please get some of these Swedish conservatives to move to the U.S.?)

The United States currently emits around 20 tons of CO2 per person annually. Sweden as a whole emits about 6 tons per capita, but Växjö only emits 3 tons per person. Most of the buildings in the town are connected to a district heating system that circulates hot water from a biomass burning power plant. The plant also produces electricity and over 90% of the town's heat and power are from renewable sources. Bicycles and public transport have been so successfully promoted that 46% of the population does not own a car. This is especially impressive given that people are riding bicycles through the Swedish winters!

Public schools have solar photovoltaic systems with live displays that show the production and consumption of energy, so that children learn the importance of conservation from an early age.
Other measures include a plan to run city buses on biogas generated from sewage, and an strategy of sequestering carbon by using mainly wood for construction of new buildings.

After lunch and another talk by one of the city's urban planners, we visited Limnologen, a modern block of high rise apartments built using prefabricated wooden construction. These were probably the largest wooden buildings I have ever seen. The design and materials were of high quality and the buildings are designed for maximum efficiency. The tenants have displays which show their daily use of heat and power, encouraging conservation. All of the flats feature balconies and large windows which overlook a lake, with the biomass generation plant visible on the far shore.

Afterward, we visited another of Växjö's communities, a very nice neighborhood built as urban infill on the site of the former sewage treatment facility. Swedish neighborhoods are designed to build community by clustering homes around common spaces where children can play and are more conducive to walking than to driving cars. There is a different sense of personal space than we have in the U.S. and hedges and fences are almost unknown. As you walk around the neighborhoods it is possible to peer right into most of the houses, but this doesn't seem to concern anyone. Perhaps rather than an invasion of their privacy Swedes see this as an opportunity to invite their neighbors in for a chat.

We spent some more time in Växjö visiting the historic church, exploring the downtown, and having dinner (in my case, Thai food more memorable for it's exorbitant price than for any other reason). We then went to Blidingsholm, which is a sort of estate in the countryside that has become a resort and conference center. We were all tired when we arrived so we didn't do much until the following morning. When I woke up there was a lovely mist rising from the ground and the river nearby and I got some nice pictures. We had a traditional Swedish breakfast with such delicacies as smoked eel, which was good but a very fishy way to start the day. Then we had a full day of workshops related to the leadership component of the course. In the afternoon there was time for a brief mushroom hunt and I found quite a few species although I didn't collect any for eating.

We had an outdoor dinner / cookout which lasted on into the night with music, wine and conversation. I didn't play any but really enjoyed talking to some of my classmates throughout the evening.

On Sunday we visited the car cemetery first thing after breakfast and leaving Blidingsholm. This was a junkyard started by an old man in the 1990's. After he passed away it became something of a tourist attraction. The cars rusting in piles and slowly becoming part of the forest were a mute testament to societies impact on the natural world. I took a lot of photos here, and really enjoyed being out in the Swedish countryside. It was hard to get back on the bus because I would have liked to have spent the entire day just hiking and exploring the area.

After the car cemetery we went to Wanås, an estate with a historic castle which has become an exhibition center for modern art. The theme of the current exhibition had to do with man's relationship to the environment. Most of the pieces were large modern art installations rather than paintings or sculptures. I won't say too much about the artworks here other than that they were provocative and that it was a very interesting counterpoint to the “left-brained' way we have been thinking about and discussing sustainability over the last few weeks.

The pictures this week are from Växjö, Bildingsholm, the car cemetery and Wanås- enjoy!

Lingonberry Letdown

The other day I bought a big jar of Lingonberry jam from the grocers. I'd been excited to try this for a while- I knew they ate a lot of it here because I see large tubs of it in all of the stores. It seemed like something that would be exotic and distinctively Swedish, and I love to try new foods from different cultures.

When I opened up the jar and tasted a spoonful, I found it was made from nothing other than plain old cranberries... so much for the exciting experience of a completely new taste! I can't complain too much because it is quite delicious. I had some on my toast this morning and it was a pleasantly tart way to start the day.


It's been a busy week or so with quite a lot of schoolwork. We had an individual presentation yesterday that was basically intended to give us practice explaining some of the core concepts of sustainability and the ideas behind The Natural Step (TNS). Tomorrow we have another presentation, this time in a group of 7 people. The subject is applying the ABCD methodology for backcasting to the operations of a hypothetical organization.

I don't really feel that public speaking is one of my strong suits so all of this is good practice for me. I did get some good feedback on the talk I gave yesterday. My classmates seemed to think that I organized my ideas and explained the concepts well, so I think what I really need to work on is presentation and delivery and just feeling more comfortable in that role.


Since I will probably be referring to the “Core Concepts” of Sustainability quite a bit, it might be helpful if I provide some background for the folks at home who may not be familiar with some of the terms and ideas. Anyone who already knows this stuff should just skip the next few paragraphs.

Basically, sustainability is a term that is only necessary because of human activities since the industrial revolution. The natural world (biosphere) is inherently sustainable because it operates in closed loop cycles where the waste materials from one process become food for another. Plants, using sunlight for energy, create carbohydrates, sugars, and oxygen through photosynthesis. Animals can use these materials as their own energy source through respiration, in turn producing carbon dioxide and solid wastes that in turn are food for plants. In addition, the chemistry of natural systems is such that compounds produced by nature are eventually broken down and reused.

The earth is essentially a closed system with regards to matter, although it is an open system with regard to energy. The matter conservation law states that matter cannot (under ordinary circumstances outside of certain nuclear reactions) disappear, but only change form. This mean that whatever is created here on Earth, essentially stays here. If it is a compound that nature can recycle, it will become food for another process, if not, it will simply remain. This is where problems can be caused by human activities... if we create materials that nature can't deal with, they will simply accumulate, or increase in concentration, gradually over time.

Furthermore, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, often referred to as “Entropy” states that energy tends to become more dispersed and disordered. The upshot of this is that it is only because of the constant energy input we get from the sun that plants are able to continually recreate the structure, or quality of matter in natural systems. Matter is not consumed on an atomic level, but it tends to devolve to less organized and useful forms when we use it. It takes energy for it to be reorganized into forms that can sustain us.

The four Principles of Sustainability developed by Karl-Henrik Robert and the Natural Step were developed by identifying the main ways in which people contribute to the degradation of nature. They found that people disrupt the natural flows of materials by adding materials from the earth's crust to the biosphere through mining and oil drilling. People also introduce compounds created by society into the biosphere, which are sometimes persistent. The biosphere is also degraded by physical means (deforestation, bulldozing, depletion of aquifers, etc.)

Each of these activities becomes a problem if they are systematic and lead to a continual increase. To some extent this depends on the materials in question... for instance iron is very abundant in nature, so much so that mining for iron ore will not cause a systematic increase in concentrations. There is so much iron in soils already that the amounts added by human activities will not make any difference. Mercury, on the other hand, does not exist in nature in appreciable concentrations, so almost any mercury at all added by people will cause a systematic increase in the natural system.

Once these main factors contributing to unsustainability were identified, they were turned into principles for sustainability by adding the idea that we should not allow them. Therefore the four System Conditions for Sustainability are:

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:
1.concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust;
2.concentrations of substances produced by society;
3.degradation by physical means and, in that society,
4.people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs

The fourth condition recognizes the need for society itself to be sustainable. If society does not function at a certain level, it will be impossible to design, implement and enforce the preceding three conditions for sustainability. A certain level of social trust and social equity, along with functioning institutions, are a prerequisite for a sustainable future.

There is a lot more to this and perhaps I will write about some of the other concepts later, but for now this is probably enough. I don't want to lose anyone!



Today we are working on the group presentation that is due tomorrow. It really shouldn't be that difficult... 10 minutes divided by 7 people means each of us will only be speaking for a little over a minute.

The problem is getting 7 people to agree on anything and actually get any work done. So far we have put about 9 or 10 hours into this and we don't even have the text written yet! Is it always this difficult? If I were doing this purely on my own I would expect to spend 2-3 hours, total.

The irony for me is that one of the things we have been studying is the need for organizations to have a common vision and a shared mental model in order to function and plan effectively. The metaphor that TNS uses is that of a tree. You need the organizational level to correspond to the trunk and the branches, and to avoid getting mixed up in the leaves (details). This is because it is nearly impossible to get everyone to agree on all these specifics, but if they all share a principle-level vision they can still make common decisions and progress towards the goal.

Unfortunately, our group is stuck in the leaves and it's making our meetings very slow, unproductive, and frustrating (at least for me). Everyone has great ideas that they want to talk about or include, but many of them don't contribute to getting the assignment done.


Last Friday we had a housewarming party for our apartment here on Norra Smedjegatan. It was quite a success and we probably had in excess of 50 people show up. The place got very crowded for a while!

The theme of the party was “wine, cheese and chocolate”, and people brought a lot of goodies to share and enjoy. Since we didn't have any speakers, Hickory, Matt M. and I played some music. It was very loud with so many people so I even got out my fiddle for a while. There was some great dancing and general merriment.

A small group of us kept hanging out and playing music even after most people had left... I finally made it to bed about 4:30 am. Unfortunately I never seem to be able to sleep in so I was up again by 10 am or so... it made for a slow, not-so productive Saturday.



One thing I did on Saturday was go out to Amiralen and buy a bike. My original idea had been to find an abandoned bike or two around town and fix them up. I located several bikes that seemed to be owner-less and friendless, but for various reasons I gave up the idea. It's difficult to tell whether a bike is truly abandoned or whether someone might be coming back for it. Even if it is obviously not in ride-able condition, it could be a bike that someone is keeping just for parts, for instance. Also, many of the abandoned bikes are actually bikes that were stolen by someone who just rode them across town after a night at the bars and then left them somewhere (usually after wrecking them or bending the wheels). This means that although they are separated from their owners and just rusting into oblivion, they are also technically stolen bikes.

I had been looking for used bikes but none of the shops here sell them. They do come up on Blocket (the equivalent of Craigslist), but there were very few mens bikes that would fit me, and there are many other students competing for the few that are available.

After a week of doing the ½ hour walk up to campus twice a day, I realized that it might be worth it to buy a new one. As my flatmate Laura pointed out, if it is going to be your primary form of transportation for 10 months, it is worth spending a little money on. So when I found a nice, black cruiser at a department store for 1899 crowns ($271), I decided to go for it.

“Harald” as I named it, after the Harald Nyborg department store where I got it, is not a sleek, sexy, or fast bicycle. It is a heavy, somewhat cumbersome black Swedish bike with three speeds, pedal brakes, and a rat trap carrier on the back. However it is much more efficient than walking, cheaper than taking the bus, and quite adequate for just getting around town. The tires are wide enough that I should be able to ride through the winter even in the rain and snow. For a cheap department store “cykel”, it also seems to be solid and fairly well made.

Pics this week include shots of architectural details around my neighborhood, photos of our apartment (quiche dinner!), a few pics from the party, and a portrait of Harald.

Step by Natural Step...

Wow... what an amazing week this has been. Classes started on Monday with a lecture by Göran Broman, an engineer who founded the MSLS program in 2002. It was very interesting to hear about his personal career, early efforts to promote sustainability at other universities, and how our program came to be. I didn't realize that the MSLS program was so young... it makes me feel that we are really on the cutting edge! BTH (Blekinge Tekniska Högskala, our university) itself is only 20 years old and celebrating the anniversary this year. In fact, it was because it was a new university willing to be innovative that the MSLS program found a home here.

Monday afternoon and Tuesday were occupied by a sort of a workshop called “Open Space”. The way an open space session happens is that you start with a central question, in this case 'What do we want to create?'. There are a few very flexible ground rules, but the basic premise is that participants can propose any topic they wish to talk about and lead a discussion at a time and place of their choosing. When not leading their own discussion, they attend those hosted by others.

As soon as the session was opened people began to put up terrific discussion ideas. I probably participated in 8 or 9 discussions over the two days on a variety of topics. Some of the ones I remember were 'Buildings as Living Organisms', 'Product Design for the other 90%', and the one I hosted, which was on how to communicate sustainability messages to those who are not initially receptive to them. I got a lot of great ideas from the sessions and they were also a great way to get to meet everyone and learn about their personalities, backgrounds, and areas of expertise. The great thing is that I'm sure most of these terrific conversations will continue informally throughout the year.

Wednesday was pretty light academically so my flatmates and I went out to Vedeby on the bus to do a bit of shopping. It was a gruelling afternoon slogging around the big box stores in a characterless, pedestrian-unfriendly “landscape of consumption”, but we did have some successes. Maurita found a used bike for a reasonable price, which is like finding a needle in a haystack around here. We also bought a large gazebo / tent to set up in our living room. It is going to be Laura's bedroom, once we make some sides for it. I will have to post some pictures soon... the place is really coming together with the tent and all the furniture we got at today's garage sale. We now have a kitchen table, many more chairs, lots of kitchen stuff, rugs, curtains, you name it. Amazingly this huge apartment doesn't look so empty anymore!

On Thursday and Friday we had full days of lectures by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, the founder of The Natural Step. He is a powerful speaker and I found his lectures to be incredibly inspirational. They also made me feel that this program is a perfect fit for me, because of its interdisciplinary nature and emphasis on systems thinking rather than the reductionist model so frequently pursued in academia. I spoke with a number of my classmates who felt the same way. It is really an amazing experience to be part of a community of so many like-minded individuals. Everyone I'm going to school with is extremely intelligent, dedicated, and concerned with the environment and sustainability. The huge diversity of the class, drawn from literally all over the world and from many different disciplines and careers, just makes it that much more stimulating.

In addition to classes, there have been a lot of social events going on, from a huge, international potluck last weekend to Elsa's birthday party the other night, to the garage sale today. I have been playing music at some of these events with Hickory Strongheart from New Mexico, who is an excellent guitarist and singer. We have been doing a mix of swing tunes, Dylan songs, country music and fiddle tunes, with even some Buena Vista social club stuff thrown into the mix. All of the different style are stretching my musical abilities but we have already had some great jams and started to develop a little bit of a repertoire.

The pictures this week are from a trip that we took last Saturday to Aspö island on the free ferry. There is a 'Kastel' there, called Drottningskär, which was part of the original military defenses of the archipelago. Aside from the historical importance of the building, it is an amazing structure, with very large and heavy stones in the outer walls and solid walls in excess of four feet thick. It is constructed with stone arches and vaults and the masonry work is really something. It was a beautiful day when we went there, and it was really fun to walk around and explore the island. All of the gallery's we open so we were able to see some nice art work on the way, and we ended up having tea at an impromptu cafe in someone's back yard. There were also plenty of apples, pears and blackberries growing on the island, so we were able to pick some of each to eat and bring home.