Arctic Smart City: Bodø, Norway

Bodø’s ambition to be the smartest city in the world started in 2017 when the Norwegian government granted the move of their airport to Bodø. The city establishes the vision of being the most smart and sustainable city by creating thorough planning of a more compact city and focusing the development on the city centre. Bodø developed and implemented a district heating system which uses biofuel based on recycled materials. This is part of the goal of reducing 50%of the city-wide building energy. Further, Bodø developed and design a planning toolbox to integrate energy and emission aspects into the planning process of the new city district, evaluating different options based on scenarios. The goal of building an energy efficient community has become particularly visible in the county’s own buildings and energy use: In 2018, 99% of the energy use in city and county owned buildings came from renewable sources. Emission reduction also happens in the transportation sector, through the improvement of bike- and walk paths, public transport and roads through Bypakke Bodø. The citizens also contributed in limiting the climate impact as over 80% of the waste from households in Bodø was recycled. 

Reference:

Raspotnik, A., Grønning, R., & Herrmann, V. (2020). A tale of three cities: the concept of smart sustainable cities for the Arctic. Polar Geography, 43(1), 64-87.

‍