Presentation on a City-to-City learning and innovation exchange at the World Environmental Education Congress WEEC2015) in Gothenburg, Sweden

1. An analysis of the Hong Kong - Malmö
Sustainability Collaboration
Waltraut Ritter, Björn Gunnarsson
Knowledge Dialogues
World Environmental Education Congress
1 July 2015
Gothenburg
Can Cities Learn From Each Other?

2. Background: Malmö Hong Kong Sustainability
Charter
"We share a common vision of the vital role of sustainable development
to our community and future generations" Hong Kong, China-Malmö, Sweden "Sustainability Charter",
2011.
Can an open innovation approach be applied to sustain the collaboration?
2011 The cities of Malmö and Hong Kong signed the sustainability charter.
Renewable energy, waste treatment, sustainable transport, innovation and
technologies.
Share information, experiences, best practices to the environment.
Strengthen the link between Hong Kong and Malmö.
Achievements:
Study visits between Malmö and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks as third party of the collaboration.
Innocarnival in Malmö inspired by Hong Kong and supported by Hong Kong
Science and Technology Parks.
Waste management in Hong Kong inspired by Malmö.

3. Research Questions:
How can local community activities strengthen
learning exchanges between Malmö and Hong Kong?
Who are the current and potential stakeholders in
the collaboration?
Can an open innovation approach be applied to
sustain the collaboration?

4. The cities
Hong Kong
Population: 7.3 million
Density: 6690 inhabitants/km²
Area: 1 108 square kilometers where
443km2 is country park
Green space per capita: 3m²

Bikes: 0.5% of daily transport,
 62 000 bike trips a day.
Environmental Ranking:
2012: Above average
(Asian Green City Index, Siemens.)
5.7 tonnes CO2 production per capita, 2012
Distance between Hong Kong and Malmo:
8648 km or 5374 miles
Malmö
Population: 316 000
Density: 897 inhabitants/km²
Area: 355 km²
Green space per capita:35.01m2
Bikes: 25% of all transport is by bikes. 100
000 bike trips a day
Environmental Ranking:
2014: No 1 in Sweden
2015: No 23 in Sweden
Miljöaktuellt,
http://miljoaktuellt.idg.se/2.37899
4 Tonnes CO² production per capita, 2012
• .
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5. Aims of the project
Developing a workable collaboration platform for cities (communities, academia,
business and government)
Defining urban practices, where community groups in different cities can learn from
each other on:
Urban Gardening (Food Resilience)
Green Buildings (Old and New Buildings)
Mobility (Increasing non-motorized mobility)
Flooding (Mitigation strategies)
Innovation Spaces (e.g. Living Labs, Innocarnival)
Exploring common grounds for exchange and communication.
Defining benefits from international community collaboration.
Contributing to open innovation research

6. Theory: Urban sociology
Collaborative Planning Theory:
Citizen participation is a crucial tool to gain credibility for government.
Citizen participation can improve quality of environment, programme and planning
since participants have special knowledge contributing to quality.
Participation shall increase responsibility and inclusivity.
Participation shall decrease anonymity and alienation in neighbourhoods.
Empowerment through collaborative learning.
Training and resources enabling members to participate as real and equal partners.
Local communities recognized as dynamic, diverse entities and as actors in
innovation.

7. Urban Gardening
We consider urban gardening as a tool for:
Greening the city
Self-sufficient food supply
Integration
Educating about sustainable living
Meeting point for and different cultures and generations
Learning how to collaborate cross generations and cultures

8. Urban Gardening examples
Malmö: Odla i Stan (Cultivate in the City)
Strengthen community and get children and elderly to meet each other.
Creating a safe and attractive neighbourhood.
Finding and testing crops from participants native countries to create inclusivity.
Hong Kong: Time to Grow
Teaching the Hong Kong community to grow vegetables in the city and to live a low-
carbon life.
Lack of space to be self-reliant from food.
Rooftop gardens, implying that community groups and social enterprises get access
to roof space.

9. Green Buildings
A major focus area with regard to GHG reductions.
Sustainable approach to waste management.
Sustainable energy systems.
Buildings are major contribution to CO² production in cities
 Built area in Hong Kong:
264 km² of a total of 1108 km². Equals to 24% of the total area.
Built area in Malmö:
38.07km² of a total of 158,36 km². Equals to 24% of the total area.
Buildings take up 61% of all greenhouse emissions in Hong Kong.
Both cities experience challenges with space and need to densify the city.
Malmö Municipality limits extension of the city to the outer highway since the best soil of
northern Europe is next to the city border.
Country parks in Hong Kong covers 443km² .

10. Green Buildings examples
Malmö:
Greenhouse (Augustenborg, Malmö)
Each flat has a large balcony with space for gardening.
Passive design, solar energy, innovative green design.
Social aspect: garden as meeting place, theater, pre-school.
Hong Kong
Energizing Kowloon East Office
Saving space by revitalize unwanted land under a fly over.
Reusable material. Steel structures that can be reused in the future.
Passive design.

11. Mobility
Malmö (mobility)
Strategic plan for pedestrian
Hong Kong (transport)
No dedicated strategy for
pedestrians

12. Innovation Spaces
Innovation Space in cities are public spaces where different groups can
meet: citizen/city halls, libraries, living labs etc. What spaces are there
in Hong Kong and Malmo? How are they used?
Innovation activities involving different groups:
Example: InnoCarnival, originally organised in Hong Kong by the Hong
Kong Science and Technology Parks.
Online idea management: Malmo.se/initiativet
http://initiativet.malmo.se/epetition_core/

13. Outline for an inter-city collaboration
platform for cities
Community involvement in Western Harbour (“Green Buildings”) as a
model for an inter-city collaboration platform.
“Det goda samtalet” (The Good Conversation), dialogue between
developers, municipality and citizens, as inspiration.
Users, entrepreneurs and developers can share information and experience
to create new ideas in both cities.
Ongoing learning space of exchanging knowledge and values.

14. Different experiences of urban
gardening
Malmö
Integration of marginalised groups.
Strengthening the community.
Inclusive and accessible for
everyone to participate.
Easy access to land due to space
anc acceptance and support from
authorities.
Not technically advanced growing
methods.
Hong Kong
Education of a healthy living.
Self-reliance of food supply.
Not very accessible since they
are limited to roofs and walls.
Technically advanced due to
urban
circumstances demanding
technical solutions.

15. Current status and next steps:
Dialogue between the cities started autumn 2014 in the context of the
BODW (Business of Design Week), where Sweden was partner country
We are now exploring partnerships, funding and needs of the
communities to sustain the project.
Next step is to establish networks between communities in the two
cities.

16. Presentations and seminars
WEEC 2015 (World Environmental Conference), in Gothenburg, June 29 - July
2nd, 2015. Presentation of research project.

17. The Hong Kong – Malmo sustainable
collaboration project is open to anyone interested
in the topic.
Please contact:
ritter@knowledgedialogues.com
Or
bjoerngunnarsson@gmail.com

18. References
 Atkins China Ltd, Cycling Study, Transport Department,2004.
 Chadwick, M, Francis, R, Urban Ecosystems: Understanding the Human Environment, Routledge, New York, 2013.
 Delshammar, T, "MALMÖ, SWEDEN Case Study City Portrait; part of a GREEN SURGE study on urban green infrastructure planning and
governance in 20 European cities", Green Surge, 2015.
 EMSD (2012a). Hong Kong Energy End-use Data, 2012
 Energizing Kowloon East, http://www.ekeo.gov.hk/en/quick_wins/ekeo/index.html (from internet 23rd June, 2015).
 Gatukontoret, Malmö Stad, "Mobility in Malmö", http://malmo.se/English/Sustainable-City-Development/Mobility.html (from internet
20150710).
 Maginn, P. J. (2007), Towards more effective community participation in urban regeneration: “the potential of collaborative planning and
applied ethnography”, in Thousand Oaks and New Delhi vol. 7(1) 25–43, 2007.
 Miljöbarometern, Malmö Stad, http://miljobarometern.malmo.se/miljomal/sveriges-klimatsmartaste-stad/minskade-
utslapp/koldioxidutslapp-per-invanare-rus/ , 2012 (from internet 20150721)
 MKB Fastighet, “Greenhouse Vertical Urban Farming,
http://www.boplatssyd.se/sites/all/files/nyproduktion/mkb_greenhouse_en_low141027.pdf (from internet 20150624)
 Orange, R., etc," How safe are the world's cities for cyclists?",The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/20/how-
safe-are-worlds-cities-for-cyclists (from internet 20150710).
 Wandersman, A., Florin, P. (2000), “Citizen Participation and Community Organizations” in Rappaport, J. Seidman E, (2000), Handbook of
Community Psychology, 2000.
 Information Services Department, Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government “Hong Kong: The
facts”, January, 2014.
 The World Bank, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC (from internet 20150721)