Episode 12: Grow Your City - A Just Transition in Fredericia, Denmark - Peter Kirketofte
In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Peter Kirketofte, CEO at Kanal Byen. This interview was recorded in Denmark only a week into Peter’s time in his new role!! You can also, as always, tune in through our Substack or Apple Podcasts. Hope you enjoy!
Intro
Denmark has always seemed to me like a Star Trek-esque country - futuristic, full of great cheese and also new technology. Ok fine, I’m not sure Star Trek boasts futuristic cheese…I’m more of a Star Wars fan anyway. But when it comes to innovative tech solutions to climate change, Denmark has always stood out to me as a shining example of what’s possible.
And in some ways, that’s true. Unlike the US, Denmark is actually on track to hit carbon neutrality by 2050, a goal agreed to by many governments during the 2021 COP26 conference in Glasgow (including the US). Denmark currently has 50% of its energy coming from solar and wind power with the goal of 100% by 2030 and has specifically doubled down with other Scandinavian countries on maximizing off-shore wind potential.
Beyond tech, they also have one of the best examples of high-functioning Democratic Socialism in the world. While the US is busy building an anti-Socialism campaign across our polity, Denmark’s citizens enjoy free education through university (plus a stipend for students from 14-22 years old), free healthcare for all, the highest ratings for Happiness in the world (yes, countries measure that), low poverty, incredible long-distance transportation infrastructure, and other programs sponsored by the government that are helping all sectors of society including the environment. While the US can’t get a comprehensive Infrastructure Bill through Congress, countries like Denmark seem to be leaving us in the dust.
But every square km of Denmark isn’t a perfect Scandinavian paradise. They are still a part of our global capitalist economy and lower income communities experience the negative effects of that system much like similar communities in other parts of the world.
In today’s Case Study, we’ll hold a magnifying glass up to a specific Danish town called Fredericia, about a 2-hour train ride from the capital of Copenhagen… spending time in Fredericia, I learned more about their industrial past and challenges that come along with being a port town known for shipping and ‘heavy industry’ like fertilizer production. I also left inspired by many innovative programs that are allowing them to re-imagine their physical space and what is possible within their community. Excited to share more…
Fredericia
After a couple days in Copenhagen, my mom and I had the chance to hop on the train and head out to Fredericia. We have been there a few times because my mom has a relationship with the theater in the town - well known across Denmark and internationally, the theater is a center for the community. It’s a small, quiet city with, in addition to the theater, a couple schools, a burgeoning waterfront, and an old castle with ramparts that overlook a stretch of river that leads to the North Sea.
This town reminded me a lot of my ancestors’ hometown in South Wales, Merthyr Tydfil mostly because of its history as a center of the industrial revolution. Instead of coal mining, though, Fredericia's past was molded from its geography as a port. For hundreds of years, they were a hub for shipping and an important stop along a path delivering goods out from Europe to the Baltic and North Seas. That history has left its mark on the land… In recent years, the town has been undergoing a huge re-invention, led in large part by Peter Kirketofte and his organization, Kanal Byen.
A Just Transition
For many generations, hundreds of families have relied on work in Fredericia’s shipping yard to put food on the table. Health of the air, water, and soil was an afterthought. This is the situation so many towns have encountered, in the past and present, and it poses a really complex challenge.
How do you support families who currently rely on jobs that negatively impact the surrounding climate?
How do you think holistically about ‘Health’ to incorporate climate concerns as a variable that impacts human life and survival?
How do you deliver a legitimate alternative rather than just complaining that we ‘Need a new way’ without incorporating the people who might lose their jobs.
Is there a win-win scenario?
The inability for the US to answer these questions has led local leaders like Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia to push back against anything to do with ‘Climate’ legislation… check out Donnel Baird’s thoughts on this. “If we had spent the last 5 years investing in solar factories and installation factories in West Virginia, we’d have a climate bill right now.” The $$ flowing to Sen Machin from the fossil fuel industry is a different, connected issue, but I digress…
Grow Your City
As we envision a true alternative and a Just Transition, Peter and Kanal Byen are leading a few really great initiatives in downtown Fredericia, by the waterfront that was hit hardest by their industrial past. I’ll outline their projects briefly below:
15 years ago, the town started a program called, ‘Grow Your City’. For 500 Kroner a year, about $71, you can own 10 raised beds filled with soil. In these beds, you can plant produce, flowers, or anything in between. Your plots will be located amongst the beds of other families who are growing their own!
While being a great source of locally sourced, fresh food, this has also been a great way for the community to come together on the issue of their green transition. The town hosts concerts at the Grow Your City venue, school education events, and provides a common space open to the public.
I imagine this working really well in parts of New York where families just don’t have the space indoors to grow produce but could cut down on massive amounts of CO2 emissions, and eat better food, if there was a common place to plant in each community.
Container Living
One of the great re-imaginings of their physical space, the town is transitioning old containers that used to be used for shipping into sustainable living spaces. These are affordable housing options, also located right next to the Grow Your City plots. Other containers are also canvases for local artists and/or rented to local entrepreneurs selling ice cream, food, and drinks, down by the waterfront.
Tree Planting
Also 15 years ago, they started planting different species of trees and devised an experiment: which trees best filter out the fertilizer left over in the soil along the water… many of the early generations of trees died because they could not handle the level of contamination, but over time, the natural filtration system has worked and soil health is on the up!
Green Space
They have built a park just about a hundred feet from the water where school kids are coming to play and learn about the transition of the town. They have even transplanted some of the older trees used for filtration to be a part of the new green park.
Just Transition
In order to support the workers who used to work in the shipping industry, they have increased the amount of jobs in the transportation sector. The transition of the town is attracting more and more people, so jobs for creating that infrastructure are increasing. They have also built new technical colleges in town to offer increased skill training to individuals and families who want to expand their work beyond those traditional sectors.
For me, the concept of ‘Growing Your City’ back to life is special. Not necessarily because of the concept of growth from an economic standpoint but because of the applications this has towards applying natural solutions to solve the problem. Today, these are called Regenerative Solutions.
Another Quick Example
Definitely also take a look at the work being done in Malmo, Sweden - another fantastic example of an industrial port city transitioning to a ‘Living Lab’ and ‘City of the Future’. Their waterfront district D001 runs 100% of renewable energy (already!!) and is a North Star for groups like Peter’s.
I had the opportunity to take a day trip to Malmö and learn more… here’s a visual blueprint for how the D001 District has imagined and executed their vision.
Takeaways
Be brave! If you listen through the interview I had with Peter, this was his final message for any local leaders who are thinking about how to re-define the history of their community towards sustainability.
You’ll notice that many of the above programs in Fredericia started about 15 years ago… there's a reason for that. Peter taught me about the Mayor at the time who made this happen. He decided to buy back the waterfront land from the shipping companies on behalf of the municipality and then asked the heavy industry fertilizer and shipping companies to leave the community. The response wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows…. He was beaten in the next election because of much of the backlash. But he set Fredericia on a path to a new future. I wish more elected leaders would stick their neck out like this.
There are so many towns across the world trying to recover from generations of air, water, and soil pollution… whether you're a government leader, an entrepreneur, an academic, a student, or anywhere in between, take Peter’s blueprint and run with it!
Peter is excited to connect with anyone who has questions or new ideas!!!
Thanks for reading :)
