Due to the pandemic situation the MULTIPLY project in Sweden continues with digital workshops. Special guest this time was the Dutch consulting firm PosadMaxwan, who together with their affiliate Generation.Energy brought expertise on sustainable city development.

The national project leader IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute organised two separate workshops for the Swedish MULTIPLY municipalities in June 2020. At the workshops PosadMaxwan and Generation.Energy (PMGE) created solutions to challenges formulated by the municipalities.

– It is exiting to introduce our Swedish municipalities to one of the partners in the MULTIPLY consortium and get a more international touch into the project despite the fact that we cannot travel, Aurora Øvereng at IVL comments.

Six different challenges to work with

In preparation for the workshop, each municipality had identified a challenge within district planning on which they wanted input from PMGE and the other municipalities.

Botkyrka: Other transports than the car for leisure and shopping travels.

Kalmar: Improved accessibility to bicycle and walking paths, how to create corridors and handle conflict points at specific intersections within a city district.

Lomma: Spacial planning of travel and mobility hubs.

Umeå: Placement, strategy and operation of a mobility hub.

Västerås: Prioritisation of road crossings, walking and bicycle paths in an area with high speed and heavy transport.

Örebro: Planning of a road, that today functions as a barrier, in order to make it pedestrian and bicycle friendly with a low speed limit while also allowing heavier frequent traffic.

Suggestions on digital post-its

At the start of the second workshop, PMGE generously presented two solutions per challenge. These were decided in collaboration with the respective municipalities.

These two questions were discussed with the solutions in mind:

• Which actors must be involved to realise the solution?
• What are the spatial consequences, both positive and negative, of each solution?

Thanks to the digital tool Miro, the participants could comment on each other’s plans with digital post-its.

– The discussions were fruitful, with all the municipalities getting engaged in each other’s plans and challenges. For example, Umeå informed Örebro on funding actors to support the suggested road plan, Aurora Øvereng says.

As the next step PMGE is forming a summary of their suggestions and the solutions from the participants at the workshop, which can be included in the municipalities’ energy plans.

Mobility is the biggest challenge in Sweden

MULTPLY’s main goal is facilitating integrated energy, mobility and land use planning.

– When discussing the mobility hubs in Umeå and Lomma it was obvious that the other municipalities were very interested. The question is whether to have several smaller mobility hubs or a few larger ones. On the one hand, the smaller ones are easier to build from an organisational viewpoint and can be placed near all residents of the district. On the other hand, several smaller hubs also mean closer proximity to parking spaces, making it easier to choose the car as the main transport with further consequences on land use planning, Aurora Øvereng comments.

MULTIPLY Sweden has highlighted that mobility is the predominant challenge in Swedish municipalities regarding greenhouse gas emissions. This contrasts to other European regions where emissions from heating account for the larger share. Emissions from heating remain low in Swedish municipalities, thanks to the large network of district heating.

Want more information about this?

Jeanette Green, project manager MULTIPLY Sweden, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +46 10 788 67 40

Aurora Øvereng, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +46 10 788 66 76

Foot note: Borlänge municipality is also part of MULTIPLY Sweden but did not attend this part of the workshop series. 

Caption: With the help of the tool Miro, the participants of the workshop could comment the different solutions created by PosadMaxwan and Generation.Energy. In the illustrations you see the suggested solutions for Västerås municipality with post-its from the other municipalities.

(Illustration source: PosadMaxwan and Generation.Energy, in Miro)