The path to sustainable development

For the past 100 years we have been taking part in advanced projects to improve the environment. As consulting engineers, we have considerable scope to promote sustainable development by influencing our clients’ strategic and long-term decisions. Swecos employees have a high level of environmental expertise and in each assignment we analyse what can be done to benefit the environment. In our dialogue with clients, environmental aspects are always taken up at an early stage of the assignment process.

Global urbanisation is continuing at rapid pace and our cities face daunting challenges. Over the course of many years Sweco has developed a concept for sustainable urban development. To succeed, it is vital to start at an early stage when new cities are planned and existing areas are redeveloped. The Sustainable City is a holistic approach to urban planning and design from an ecological, social, economic and spatial perspective and is based on a closed cycle approach to energy, waste and water together with integrated transport and land use planning and energy-efficient buildings. This concept provided the basis for Stockholm’s Hammarby Sjöstad eco-village and has also been implemented in countries like China, Canada and Ireland.

Sweco addresses climate issues in a wide range of assignments, such as planning to reduce problems related to rising groundwater levels and flooding or assessing the risks for landslides and erosion. Sweco is also a forerunner in finding new solutions that limit the use of fossil fuels, with in-depth knowledge of many different energy types and experience in everything from optimisation of biogas production to planning for new wind farms and rehabilitation of older hydropower plants. One fast-growing area is transport logistics, where effective route planning can reduce CO2 emissions by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).