Copenhagen Trip: Part 1

Disclaimer: While I am currently employed by the US EPA, the views and opinions provided herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of EPA.

I had always heard that Copenhagen is the place for environmentally sustainable buildings, and I had wanted to go for years. So when I learned about Circular San Antonio’s circularity delegation to Copenhagen, I had to apply. Opportunities to hear from and speak directly with the city’s sustainability experts, take part in an architectural bike tour, travel alongside 19 other sustainability enthusiasts from across the US, spend a day in Malmö (Sweden), and see as much as possible on packed 14-hour, 10+ mile days? Sign me up!

The trip was amazing. I came back last week, and am making the most of my morning jetlag to try to preserve the magic in writing.

Copenhagen's famous Nyhavn waterfront.

One of the most defining characteristics of Copenhagen is the people-first attitude towards building design and urban planning, and the community-based lifestyle it was borne of and continues to foster. Buildings are smaller in a conscious effort to be “human-scale.” There are walkways along and between residential buildings so that residents and the public alike are encouraged to spend time outdoors, intermingling with neighbors and other pedestrians. Practically every apartment has a balcony. During the morning rush hour hordes of people bike to school and work, some with a wagon attached for kids to sit in. When I am in Copenhagen, I start to see why Denmark has been ranked the “second happiest country in the world” (after Finland). Our bike tour guide laughed and told us he honestly could not think of any downside of living in Copenhagen. He just loved living there.

Tour of a residential neighborhood in the Carlsberg area. Note the walking paths under and between buildings, and lack of fences at ground level.

And this approach to designing and building in consideration of what a good life looks like extends to the non-human inhabitants of the area as well. We heard from a representative of the think tank CONCITO that the organization is in the process of developing a standard for addressing biodiversity impacts. We heard from a project manager for the Fælledby project that the project is trying to increase biodiversity in the area by two or threefold; this will be done by working with biologists and taking measures such as encouraging bats to nest on the façade and roof. It was important to the team that the project do its share in addressing the current biodiversity crisis. We heard from the CEO of the construction and demolition / deconstruction company Tscherning that when their headquarters office was constructed, the project had to pause to scour the area for water salamanders, to comply with relevant wildlife protection laws. He said that this ended up costing a lot but that "that's how it is" - just the cost of doing business in a responsible manner.

On these projects, it is a given that local ecosystems are worth thinking carefully about, planning for, and investing in; the question is not whether to help wildlife, but how best to go about it. While I understand that the projects we visited were standouts even in Copenhagen and do not necessarily represent a norm, in my past life as a sustainability consultant for big-name clients in the US I had never heard biodiversity and wildlife come up as a topic so frequently or with so much enthusiasm.

In short, the trip was about much more than circularity, biodiversity, stormwater mitigation (which was plenty talked about as well) or any particular topic in sustainability. What I took away was something more general – what can be achieved if we design cities with a more holistic vision for improving quality of life.

• Quality of life here and now. Recognizing how much we are shaped by the places we spend the most time in; designing spaces that are inviting and that encourage enjoyment of the space.

• Quality of life everywhere. Recognizing that nothing we do happens in isolation of other places, people, or other organisms; in the context of construction, thinking carefully about where all materials and other inputs will come from and where all waste and other outputs will go. This important for any industry, and especially so for those that churn through massive quantities of resources the way the construction industry does.

• Quality of life into the future. Recognizing that we are operating at a debt with respect to natural resources, emissions, waste, etc.; reminding ourselves that as with any debt there will be long-term consequences and that we would do best to start addressing the issues now.

In other words, what I took away was the sense that Copenhagen is striving towards a better life for everyone - here and elsewhere, now and in the future.

The Nordhavn (North Harbor) waterfront, which is fully opened for recreational use. The water is clean enough to swim in, and there are several swimming areas that are free to access.

You can say it’s human nature to focus only on what is present in front of us; it does not come naturally for us to think big-picture and long-term when we have so many other things to keep up with in our busy lives. That is perhaps the biggest challenge with climate change – wrapping one’s mind around, communicating about, and working through the scale of the problem and solutions needed. To me, Copenhagen is a model for how a whole society is challenging this boxed thinking and creating an environment that nurtures the intangible, elusive, and timelessly important things in life – a sense of security, a feeling of belonging, and happiness.

It’s not like Copenhagen has it all figured out, and it’s not like the US is doing nothing right. But when my fellow delegate from Tampa talks about the lack of floodwater planning and infrastructure in her area, and the delegate from LA talks about how it is actually mortally dangerous to get around without a car in her area, and when I look out the window of my Jersey City apartment at the giant parking lot I walk through every day to cross the block, I get the sense that we still have a lot to learn from across the Atlantic.

Home sweet home.