In Focus | Sweden
A green conscience
Sweden hopes to pass on a sustainable environment to future generations
- By Sanaya Pavri, Feature Writer
- Published: 00:00 June 6, 2010
- Image Credit: Supplied
The Swedes are smart people andwhile they are proud of a heritagethat includes everything from Abbato the three-point safety belt, they are ensuring they go down in history for something more than Voulez-Vous, which brings usto Sweden's most important contributionfor the future — green technology.
A noted milestone in this endeavour isthe fact that Stockholm is the very first cityto be designated European Green Capital 2010 by the EU Commission. The ‘European Green Capital' concept was initiated to improve the living environment in cities and the environment as a whole. Each year one city will be designated as a capital in the hope that it will be anexample to others.
According to the EU Commission, the prizeis awarded to the city that is leading the way towards environmentally friendly urban living and that can display consistent results with regard to satisfying environmental standards, continuous commitment in terms of ambitious measures, continued environmental improvements and sustainable development.
A capital achievement
Stockholm was awarded the title of European Green Capital because it guarantees that environmental aspects are considered in budgets, operational planning, reporting and monitoring. Stockholm has cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent per inhabitant since 1990 and has adopted the objective of being fossil-fuel free by 2050.
This ideology is not restricted to Stockholm alone — the entire country has a deep commitment to sustainable urban development and is proudly setting the stage for an ambitious green technology business. According to the Swedish government's website on energy policy, it ‘strives to create a sustainable energy system with a long-term vision for Sweden to obtain all energy supply from renewable energy sources. The objective of the Swedish Government's energy policy is to secure a reliable supplyof electricity and other forms of energyat internationally competitive prices, bothfor the short and the long terms'.
This is an impressive policy consideringthe fact that the overall goal of the government's environmental policy is to, ‘hand on to the next generation a society in which the major environmental problems facing Sweden have been solved.' By adapting this national sentiment into their core area of expertise, a number of Swedish companies are doing their bit to ensure that the environment is protected. From managing urban waste collection to providing clean-up solutions for spillages in factories, ports, processing and sewage plants, these companies ensure a cleaner tomorrow.
Swedish expertise in this area is being used in the UAE and across the region. Envac has developed an automated waste collection system that consists of a pipe network connecting waste inlets, placed outside or inside buildings, in the area with the collection terminal. Fans create pressure in the system that sucks the waste away in the underground pipe system at a speed of about 70 kilometres per hour. The entire process is fully automated using electronic control systems that monitor and regulate operation.
"All manual handling of waste bags andwaste containers has been eliminated. The system offers a complete solution for solidwaste in mixed urban areas," says Graham Bell, Managing Director and Regional President,ME and India, based in Dubai. "Households, offices, entertainment and shopping areas areall connected to one waste-collection system. The installations are fully automated and remote-controlled. A permanent personnel presence is not required on site."
Clearing waste
Having eliminated the heavy, dirty and potentially hazardous manual handling of waste, Envac has ensured that large, smelly, noisy and polluting trucks are no longer present in the streets. The result is an environment that is quiet, hygienic, free of CO2 emissions, traffic congestion and rodents due to spillage, not to mention no ugly dumpsters. If you are wondering where these systems are in place in the region, the impressive list includes � Emirates Flight Catering (2005), Jumeirah Beach Residences (2007), Tiara residences and Palm Marina Apartments (2009) in Dubai, Yas Island including the F1 racetrack in Abu Dhabi (2009), New Doha International Airport, Qatar, andthe Pearl of Qatar project.
"Apart form these mega projects, we also have Envac Automated Systems in many smaller ones in Ibn Battuta Serviced Apartments and Hotel, Oceana Movenpick Towers, Maze Tower, Latifa Tower [and] Marina 101," says Bell. "This roster is an indication of stakeholders in the region becoming aware of waste management andthe environmental hazards of it as well ashow to deal with it effectively."
Local initiative
It's not just Swedish companies that are gunning for the green label. Emirates Steel, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation (ADBIC), has protection of the environment as a key priority of its operations. The steel production industry can only show sustained development if the negative impact on the environment is minimised; this is the basis of Emirates Steel's ecological policy. The company strives for a reduced impact on the environment from production activities as well as aimingto provide a favourable living environmentfor the UAE community — and this is where Swedish firm Haugen System AB stepped into help the company achieve its goal.
"Material handling and spillage handling is a costly problem in all types of processing plants, factories, civil engineering projects, water and sewer systems as well as in ports and cities," says Karl T. Haugen, Managing Director, Haugen System. "Today, it is more important than ever to take care of our resources and to create a healthy environment in the plants and in the cities.
"Spillage creates high costs for increased machinery maintenance, it creates high cost for the loss of valuable finished products and it creates a high health cost for the people working in an unhealthy internal and external environment. Labour for manual handlingof spillage is inefficient and many times creates more pollution than reducing it."
A DISAB truck mounted mobile vacuum loader from Haugen System AB is a 15-tonne heavy suction machine that is mounted on a truck, trailer or railroad wagon and virtuallyany solids, dry material, sludge or liquids can be sucked by the unit. "For Emirates Steel, we were given the order to design, supply and install a total mobile and stationary vacuum system to clean, transport and recover valuable material in the brand new plant," says Haugen. "The vacuum system, one of the largest in the Middle East, has a large mobile unit and 15 stationary systems. The total length of the vacuum systems is 2,640 metres.
"The instillation of such a system will enable Emirates Steel to rank among the best GCC companies in terms of environmental protection, thus strengthening its competitive advantage and contributing to the company's sustainable development."
Setting trends
Swedish culture has a deeply engrained environmental consciousness that is evident across the board, from public agencies and organisations, to enterprises and individuals. Years ago, Volvo, for instance, produced an internal ‘grey list' of substances that should not be used during manufacture, and this ban was also passed on to their suppliers. Today, it has become an accepted trend worldwide.
In 2006, Sweden was also the first nation to declare that by 2020 it will break the dependence on fossil energy and reduce its oil-dependence. According to the energy committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is growing concern that global oil supplies are peaking and will shortly dwindle, and that a global economic recession could result from high oil prices.
Mona Sahlin, the then Minister for Sustainable Development, described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world. "A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices," she said. "The price of oil has tripled since 1996."
Whether this goal is achieved only time will tell but for now Sweden is successfully taking up one of the biggest challenges of our time — to develop sustainable and dynamic cities thatthe next generation shall inherit.
Clear waters
Ever wondered what it takes to clean the Burj Khalifa lake or the canals in the Madinat Jumeirah? The answer lies in Weda's cleaning solutions. A Swedish entity, Weda is the world's only company with a complete range of cleaning and inspection products for underwater use. Its unique competence is with underwater solutions using electrical equipment.
"All our cleaners use submersible pumps that create a very strong suction, which combined with brushes of various kinds, efficiently clean machines even in pools, tanks and reservoirs that have large amounts of sedimentation," says Klas Lange, CEO, Weda Poolcleaner AB.
"Submersible pumps are very efficient, with high capacities, and unlike diesel driven pumps, haveno harmful exhaust fumes. Besides,a very small amount of chlorine is used to disinfect the cleaners, especially when cleaning drinking-water reservoirs where there are no added chemicals during the process." Weda uses this technology to clean the Burj Khalifa lake where 1,000,000 square metres of water a month is cleaned.
"We have 11 cleaners working 11-hour shifts. This project is the largest one in the world for Weda," adds Lange. The work, started in June last year, is carried out with cleaners from Weda and serviced by Pax Kent International LLC, Weda's distributor for the Middle East and ECA Gulf.
