https://www.fastcompany.com/90975243/small-finnish-city-carbon-neutral
"In the U.S., cities like Denver and Austin plan to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Seattle and Miami are aiming for 2050. In Finland—where the whole country wants
to be carbon neutral by 2035—one small city may get there within a few years.
Lahti, a city an hour north of Helsinki by train, was once a polluted
industrial center. But over the past few decades, it’s been working to become
more sustainable. And in 2019, it set a goal to become carbon neutral by 2025.
The city is now likely to hit the target a year or two later than that, says
Elina Ojala, Lahti’s environmental director. But aiming for 2025 is making it
possible to achieve the goal this decade. In a recent meeting with city
leaders, she says, “They all felt that if we wouldn’t have set the targets that
tight, we wouldn’t be where we are at the moment.”
So far, the city calculates that it has cut emissions by 64% below 1990 levels.
While there are different definitions of “carbon neutral,” it’s ultimately
aiming for an 80% cut in emissions, with the rest offset by programs like
reforestation in the region.
To help make it easier for residents to drive less, the city is building more
bike highways and expanding its network of other bike lanes; it already added
new bike parking, a bike repair station, and shared e-bikes. It even tested an
urban ski-sharing program that people could use to run errands. It’s also
buying more electric buses and using alternative fuel in others. “From a city
development point of view, it doesn’t solve all problems if we just switch to
electric cars,” Ojala says. “So we try to promote all modes of sustainable
transport.”"
Via
What Could Go Right? November 9, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/work-life-balance-gen-z/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
