Hammarby Sjöstad Draws Global Attention in Barcelona

Jörgen Lööf, CEO ElectriCITY Innovation, at Smart City Expo World, i Barcelona

FSuccessful climate-neutral and energy-positive districts are built on partnerships – between citizens, municipalities, companies and academia. Everyone has a role to play in creating inclusive and sustainable communities. That message resonated during a well-attended session at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

The power of community partnerships
The session, titled “Power of Communities: Co-Creating Pathways to Climate Neutrality”, highlighted the importance of cross-sector collaboration in accelerating the green transition.

Jörgen Lööf, CEO of ElectriCITY Innovation, spoke on behalf of the City of Stockholm and the ASCEND project, sharing lessons learned from Hammarby Sjöstad – where ElectriCITY acts as a local accelerator for climate innovation.

“In our project Hammarby Sjöstad 2.0, we’re about 18,000 people living in brf – that’s Swedish housing associations – that we work with. It’s a real-life testbed where we try out innovations with our members and partners. Right now, we have around 88 members – municipalities, companies, organisations, universities – and everyday people testing things with their own money in their own homes, to see what actually works. So the question we ask ourselves every day is: how do we become climate neutral by 2030?” said Lööf.

“We do things together, we learn from each other – and whatever we test or implement has to be financially sustainable, too. Being climate-smart should also be profitable.”

DigiCityClimate and local energy communities in focus
There was strong interest in ElectriCITY’s work throughout the expo. The DigiCityClimate project – where ElectriCITY, KTH and the City of Stockholm are developing and implementing a digital platform – was presented in several forums during the event. The initiative to build a local energy community in Hammarby Sjöstad also attracted attention.