Sustainable Tourism In Stockholm: Here’s How They’re Doing It

When it comes to green destinations, it may not get much more sustainable than Stockholm.

In the Swedish capital, most of the museums have advanced programs to promote recycling and green energy. Many restaurants have next-level environmental initiatives to reduce food waste or grow vegetables in hydroponic gardens. Even the hotels are recycled.

There’s just one problem: No one wants to say anything about it.

“We’ve come a long way,” says Camilla Zedendahl, CEO of the Royal Djurgården Society, a collection of 62 attractions in Stockholm. “But the dynamic nature of being a green destination is that the goalposts keep moving. It’s an ongoing journey.”

That kind of understatedness is common in Stockholm, a place so sustainable that it’s difficult to find a comparison anywhere else in Europe.

“We’ve been working really hard on sustainability,” explains Susanne Andersson, CEO of Visit Sweden, the Swedish tourism government’s marketing company. “And even though we are doing a lot, we don’t really talk about it.”

Andersson says that’s the way the tourism industry approaches sustainability. There’s always more to be done, and no one wants to discuss it until it’s 100 percent there.

Although the scope of tourism sustainability efforts is complicated, the takeaway for tourists is simple: If you care about the planet, you might want to add Stockholm to the list of places to visit. You’ll come as close as possible to having a carbon-neutral vacation, give or take an offset or two.

How Stockholm’s museums are taking sustainability to the next level

Stockholm’s museums are showing their sustainability stripes in two ways: First, with exhibits that highlight some of the issues involving climate change and possible solutions. And second, with complex sustainability initiatives behind the scenes that are meant to save energy, recycle and make the facilities more sustainable for future generations.

For example, the Museum of Technology has an exhibit that explores the challenges and benefits of the Scandinavian woods. But they also beg the question: Why do we need the forest?

The answer is in the next room. It’s an event center called the Wisdome, a cavernous wood hall that uses cross-laminated timber in the ceiling, roof, and floor tiles. Since opening late last year, it has become an attraction unto itself at the technical museum. Director Peter Skogh says it’s a unique structure that shows how wood can be used in modern buildings.

“It’s cutting edge, when it comes to sustainability,” he adds.

At the Nordic Museum, where Zedendahl has her office, there’s also an exhibit with a sustainability theme — this one dedicated to the melting Arctic ice. The museum tells the story of modern Sweden, but like many progressive museums, it also challenges visitors to look to the future. What will Sweden look like if climate change continues at this pace? The Arctic exhibit pushes visitors to contemplate questions such as these.

Zedendahl’s job is to drive the cooperation for sustainability efforts of all of the area’s museums and attractions. She says they’ve adopted sustainability goals for 2025 and 2027, one more ambitious than the next.

“We’ll never be done,” she says.

That’s a common sentiment in Stockholm.

Sustainability is on the menu in Stockholm

At the Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm’s museum of photography, art and culture, sustainability isn’t just in the building. (The museum is a former customs house.) It is also in the food. Martin Wall, the executive chef at the Fotografiska’s restaurant, has used his kitchen as a place to experiment with various sustainable foods. Every year, the chef tries to pickle something new or to grow a different variety of plant. He’s particularly proud of his new hydroponic garden, where rows of basil are growing for the kitchen. The indoor facility will lessen his reliance on outside and imported food. He even chartered a sailboat to bring produce from South America, because it’s greener.

“We want every part of the museum to be sustainable,” he says.

It’s not the only museum with sustainability on the menu. Two Swedish entrepreneurs, Per Hjalmarö and Daniel Oddhammar, teamed up a few years ago to create a company called Generation Waste. The idea is simple: Measure your food waste so that you can eliminate it. The duo are doing it through a smartphone app and conventional scales. One of their customers is at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, where celebrity chef Fredrik Eriksson’s restaurant uses the system to reduce food waste in his kitchen.

“It’s becoming more of an issue, not just here in our restaurant, but in Stockholm,” says chef Eriksson. “We have to take care of the environment.”

The environment is also front and center at Rosendals’ Garden Foundation, a public garden on the site of an old palace in Stockholm. The restaurant is a center for biodynamic farming practices, featuring a “farm to fork” concept that allows the staff to harvest vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits used in the garden café and wood-fired bakery.

But restaurants aren’t alone in Stockholm’s drive toward sustainability.

A former bank becomes a sustainable hotel in Stockholm

Hotels in Stockholm are also pushing the boundaries when it comes to sustainability. At the Bank Hotel, a boutique hotel near the city’s famous quay, sustainability was built into the hotel from the very beginning.

Lisa Lindwall, the Bank Hotel’s manager, says the building was originally designed as a bank in 1910. Before it was refurbished as a hotel, it was home to four Swedish banks. The building has a rich architectural history, with Art Nouveau and Renaissance elements, but transforming the building into a property proved to be an issue.

“We wanted to preserve as much of the original building as possible,” she says.

The idea of recycling an old building in Stockholm is at the heart of Scandinavian sustainability. It is practical, but not always easy. And that’s just one aspect of sustainability. Lindwall says customers, and particularly meeting planners, have raised the bar since they’ve opened, pushing them to find more ways to become sustainable. That’s included new programs for reducing food waste and the pursuit of new green certifications.

Lindwall says visitors have become sophisticated when it comes to sustainability. Simply saying you’re green won’t cut it anymore. They want to see sustainability in action when they visit a property like the Bank, from locally grown produce at breakfast to aggressive recycling programs.

How much more sustainable can a hotel like the Bank — and indeed, a city like Stockholm — get? Lindwall says keeping her green certifications is a challenge because the certifying agencies keep adding new requirements. And interestingly, guests are nudging properties like hers to take bolder steps toward carbon neutrality.

Of course, there’s still a sustainability to-do list. Visit any grocery store in Stockholm if you want an example. The self-checkout kiosks churn out paper receipts, which are then scanned by a machine before customers leave the store. They toss the receipts in a large bin, which sometimes overflows. But you have to look hard to a place where Stockholm hasn’t tried to become more sustainable, and it’s getting harder.

Stockholm has come far, but when it comes to sustainability, apparently it’s just getting warmed up.