The vision is that Växjö shall become a municipality where it is easy and profitable to live a good life without fossil fuels. The municipality has for a long time successfully worked with environmental and climate issues and the political consensus and involvement has given visible results.

The emissions of carbon dioxide from Växjö have decreased by 22 % per capita between 1993 and 2010. This means that every inhabitant in Växjö only contributes to the climate change with about 3,5 ton CO2. The result of 2010 is actually a bad result – in 2009 the decrease was 34 %. Due to the very cold year, and to the fact that the CHP plant is facing its maximum capacity, a lot of oil was used as back-up. However, the prognosis shows that in 2011 we will be back to normal levels again. And the problem with the CHP plant capacity will be solved when a new plant is being built within the next few years.


Targets
The politicians in the municipality decided back in 1996 that Växjö shall become a Fossil Fuel Free city. Even if Växjö already has come far, there are more to do. The goal is that the emissions per capita shall be reduced by 55 % until year 2015 compared to 1993. Växjö shall be fossil fuel free 2030.

All political parties are unanimous in this task that also involves industry, NGOs and citizens. The reduction has mainly been achieved by substitution of oil for biomass in the heating. More than 80 % of the energy for heating is renewable. Most of the emissions come from transportation, but here is also a decrease of the emissions lately. This reduction is a result of a bigger share of environmental vehicles and more biofuel blended in petrol and diesel.


The Swedish city of Växjö has been named Europe’s greenest city, reducing CO2 emissions per person by more than a third. What are the secrets of its environmental successes, and where will it go from here?

If there something that Växjö has a lot of, it is fresh water and trees. This little city in southern Sweden is surrounded by dozens of lakes and millions of trees, and these natural resources have important roles in the story of how Växjö received the title “Europe’s greenest city” and how it hopes to live up to that honor.

The once-polluted lakes in and around the city have provided an important lesson in how environmental action at a local level can have an effect. The trees are a renewable resource with which the city is tackling some of today’s most pressing challenges: energy security and climate change.
Fossil-fuel free

Växjö was named “Europe’s greenest city” by the BBC in 2007, which led to massive interest in the city from policymakers, entrepreneurs and journalists from around the world eager to learn from its example. The visitors — two or three foreign delegations per week ever since — soon learned that Växjö had not jumped on the early 21st century’s environmental bandwagon but had in fact been cleaning up its act for years, even decades.

In 1996, for instance — one year before the Kyoto Protocol set binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions and raised awareness of climate change — the city decided to become fossil fuel free.

The key to Växjö’s achievements in reducing CO2 emissions is that about 90 percent of the energy used for heating in the city, and about half its electricity comes from trees. Waste from the local forest industry — branches, bark and sawdust — is burned to generate heat and power, and the Sandviksverket plant where this takes place has become a must-see for delegations on their study tours of Växjö.
Local forest industry waste is transformed into heat and power at the Sandviksverket plant. Photo: Jerzy Kociatkiewicz (CC BY A SA)


Since 1993 the city has been successfully reducing its carbon emissions. In 1996, with the help of business, industry, the University and stakeholders, it set tough new targets to further reduce CO2 emissions. The new policy, A Fossil Fuel Free Växjö, committed to:

reducing CO2 emissions per capita in heating, energy and transport, by at least 50% by the year 2010, and by at least 70 % by the year 2025, compared to 1993.
reducing the use of electric energy per capita by at least 20% by the year 2015 compared to 1993.
increasing cycle traffic in the City of Växjö by at least 20% by the year 2015 compared to 2004.
increasing the travels by local public transport by at least 20% and the travels by regional public transports by at least 12 % by the year 2015 compared to 2002.
stopping the use of oil in the municipal operations, other than for complementary uses, by the year 2010.
reducing the fossil CO2 emissions from municipal operations’ transports and services by at least 30% by the year 2015 compared to 1999.

The city is now ahead of its goals in the majority of these commitments. It has achieved this by monitoring its CO2 emissions and energy savings in three categories – heating, electricity and transport. Where improvements need to be made – the city then adapts its policies accordingly.


Heating

One of the main reasons for Växjö’s progress is the massive expansion of its district heating system along with greater use of biomass as an energy fuel. High oil prices and favourable subsidies have also encouraged households to change their heating systems. As a result, in 200 6 nearly 88% of heating came from renewable energy sources (total 8 77 GWh). The largest share came from biomass, with some use of peat, oil and geothermal. A very small proportion of solar energy was also used, but the public interest for solar panels is growing.


Electric energy

The largest share of Växjö’s energy is produced outside the municipality’s borders, and is mainly based on hydropower and nuclear power. As a result the city is lobbying the national government to improve the sustainability of its power sources. The city does produce one fifth of its electricity locally which is almost entirely renewable. In 2006 , the supply of electric energy for the city was 785 GWh.




Energy Efficiency initiatives


These include:

Large-scale project to use solar energy in the village of Ingelstad
Policy to exchange street lighting with energy efficient light bulbs
Free energy advice to residents at the Energy Information Center “EnergiCentrumEtt”
Installation of solar panels at the city swimming hall
Sankt Sigfrid’s Folk high school and Växjö Airport installs boiler for wood pellets
Municipal subsidies for private households that install wood/ pellet boilers instead of oil
Municipal subsidies for private households that install solar panels
Energy efficiency measures in regional Health care organizations
Energy use restrictions on properties sold by the Municipality of Växjö
Energy efficient Växjö project, expert consultants are advising developers on how to make savings through design, insulation, better lighting and windows.
Individual metering of electricity in student dwellings
Construction of energy efficient wooden buildings at Välle Broar district
Production of an electronic climate map showing Växjö’s climate actions




CO2 emissions


From 1993 -2006:

Total CO2 emissions dropped by 18% from 330,571 tons to 253,606 tons. – an average reduction of xxxx tons annually in heating, energy and transport.
Every inhabitant reduced their emissions by 30%, emitting just 3. 232 tons of CO2 annually by 200 6 – this is very low for Sweden and well below the world average
Total CO2 emissions reduced by 75% in heating, due to the massive conversion from oil to biomass
Total CO2 emissions reduced by 25% in electrical power
Total CO2 emissions were 20 % higher in 2006 than in 1993


Energy Efficiency

In 2006, as much as 52% of Växjö’s energy supply was renewable – a very high percentage for Sweden. The main reason is the large share of biomass (37%) mainly used for heating compared to fossil fuels 35% mainly in the transport sector . The rest of the energy supply is electricity produced in other municipalities and imported (a mix of 50/50 hydro and nuclear power).




Next steps


Transport

Växjö’s transport sector has been much harder to convert to a sustainable energy use. Most of the energy supply for transport globally is based on fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel. The city is also a logistics center for southern Sweden and experiences a lot of traffic. As a result, CO2 emissions increased by 20% in 200 6 compared to 1993. Renewable energies for transport currently sit at 3% in Växjö, but they are increasing. Other programs to reduce transport emissions include:

Alternative fuels in public transport systems
Cars fuelled by gasoline converted to use ethanol
Municipal car-sharing with environmental vehicles
An expanding cycling project establishing new cycling roads and information campaigns
Free parking for environmental vehicles
Education in eco-driving for public
Växjö Taxi reduced the number of km driven by 20% thanks to a positioning system
Municipal subsidies were provided for buying environmental vehicles
Centre for biomass gasification established at Växjö University
Actions to improve bus stops
First filling station for biogas opens (biogas is produced at the sewage water treatment plant)




Future sustainable projects

Växjö University and hospital will use absorption cooling based on the district heating system;
the food industry will convert from oil to wheat bran as energy source for heating;
a new CHP plant fired by biomass is expected to be constructed;
by 2015 there will be a fullscale production plant for gasification of biomass
more biofuels will be introduced;
the City will lobby EU politicians to accept a higher blend of biofuels into gasoline and diesel;
a railway to the CHP plant will be constructed to transfer wood chips;
a filling station for DME will be installed and fleet test will be made in cooperation with Volvo;
by 2010, the City will construct houses with no conventional heating system and install photo-voltaics in houses.


Application

Measuring CO2 emissions: By collecting CO2 emissions data across all sectors, Växjö has been able to identify, understand and target areas that are falling behind. They have also been able to measure successes of projects and assist policy-making.
Strict targets: The emissions data has enabled the City to set clear targets into the future based on known outcomes. The targets have also helped to make projects a reality.
Maintaining Political Will: Although Växjö has a strong history of sustainability and political will to remove its reliance on fossil fuels – it has maintained this determination and taken the community, business and stakeholders with it.
Energy efficiencies: Finding energy efficiencies has been crucial in reducing emissions. They focused first on the sectors where immediate reductions could be made – the heating and electricity sectors.

 

Izvor: http://www.c40cities.org/media/case_studies/v%C3%A4xj%C3%B6-is-halfway-to-becoming-fossil-fuel-free

http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/sustainable-cities-2/show-theme/show-theme/?theme=32072