Not surprising, Copenhagen has been named Europe’s Green Capital for 2014 by the European Commission, and also received the 2013 INDEX Award – the world’s largest design award – for the sustainable design solutions in its climate plan.
Copenhagen’s goal is to be the world’s first carbon neutral capital city by 2025 and completely independent of fossil fuels by 2050. Green living is at the core for its 540,000 residents, from its bicycle culture to farm-to-table cuisine.
The city has over 100 hundred miles of bike lanes and 55% of citizens commute by bike. It mandates green roofs on all new developments and over 60% of its land is cultivated for farming, making local foods second nature. Its citizens eat more organic food than anywhere else. 63% of hotel rooms are green-certified and Scandinavian Airlines aims to cut emissions 20% by 2020, one of the few airlines that even has a target.
Denmark’s biggest offshore wind farm just came online – the 400 MW offshore wind farm will provide 4% of the country’s electricity, adding to the 30% that wind already contributes. The goal is for renewables to provide 50% by 2020.
Denmark is one of 10 countries that recently formed the international "Renewables Club" to scale renewable energy worldwide.
Neighboring Sweden is also a leader, with goals of eliminating fossil fuels to produce electricity by 2020 and gasoline cars by 2030. In 2009, Sweden launched the world’s first carbon label on foods and all state-owned companies are required to file annual sustainability reports. Norway‘s target is 67.5% renewables by 2020.
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