The Natural Step for communities: sustainable communities in the Nordic countries.

• Author: Montague, Tim

Sweden has a penchant for safety and cleanliness. Swedes invented the Volvo, one of the safest automobiles. Volvos are built to minimize harm to passengers during accidents, and they are built without toxic flame retardants. Swedes invented the safety match and dynamite too--much safer than the alternative it replaced, black powder. Recently, Sweden has become known for its innovations in sustainable development--safer development.

Sweden recently declared that it will create an energy and transportation economy that runs free of oil by the year 2020. But the groundwork for this radical declaration was laid in the 1980s by Sweden's eco-municipality movement, which successfully incorporated sustainability into municipal planning and development.

Before former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland became a household name in international environmental circles, Sweden and Finland were stimulating local economic growth in ways that were good for people and the planet. The town of Overtornea--Sweden's first eco-municipality--was an early adopter of what we now call sustainable development, which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[The Brundtland Report, 1987]

Simultaneously, The Natural Step (TNS) was being developed by Swedish scientist Karl-Henrik Robert. The Natural Step began as a way for individual companies to create more environmentally and socially responsible practices. And TNS was quickly embraced by Swedish planners, government officials and residents who wanted to achieve their goals and minimize harm to the environment and human health.

The Swedish economist and planner Torbjorn Lahti was one of the visionaries in Overtornea--a town of 5,000 that had 25% unemployment and had lost 20% of its population during the previous 20 years. Lahti and his colleagues engaged the community--getting participation from 10% of residents--to create a shared vision of a local economy based on renewable energy, public transportation, organic agriculture, and rural land preservation. In 2001 the town became 100% free of fossil fuels. Public transportation is free. The region is now the largest organic farming area in Sweden and more than 200 new businesses have sprung up.

The story of the eco-municipality movement is documented in the new book, The Natural Step for Communities; How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices (2004; ISBN 0865714916), written...