Even after a year of prize winning professors at UCLA, it wasn’t every day that I got the chance to attend an event with the likes of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, the Guest of Honor at this year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse, Margaret Atwood, recently announced Booker Prize winner 2019, and renowned award-winning authors Maja Lunde, Elif Shafak, Colson Whitehead and Ken Follett.

Amidst the enormity, I most enjoyed talking to one of the Norway writers who was concentrating on things really small. Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, a Norweigian scientist and the author of Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects (Simon and Schuster), described our dependence on insects along with fascinating facts about seemingly normal creatures like the house fly. Did you know it has tongues underneath its feet?

“When they walk on your food,” she said, “that’s because they want to taste, ‘Maybe this is something nice for me to eat’.”

The fair was really nice, albeit very professional. With publishers promoting particular ways of thinking, some for the greater good, many just for profit via books on an incredible variety of subjects inviting my mind to wander, it didn’t take long to realize I was in a two-birds-one-stone situation, since one of my best friends from the European School was studying nearby in Leipzig.

The more I thought about Ben and my childhood growing up in Brussels, the more I longed for the old days at the European School with its diverse and very open-minded culture, due to all the different languages and ways of thinking from original sources (kids!) from different countries. In my Brussels days, my friends were from Germany, France, England, Greece…mostly ‘mixed’ like me. We shared our common ground because we were all different, but living in the same place. Ben is half German and half Nicaraguan, from Brussels, like me.

I decided to sacrifice a few hours of sleep to go see Ben for a night in Leipzig. The train took about three hours. I watched the green countryside, garden houses and occasional industrial buildings go by as I read my books. My mind kept wandering to what a long time it had been since I’d seen Ben–almost four years–and then he was there in front of me! We were really happy to see each other. Ben hadn’t changed much; he’s still a student. I told him about the power of the self and what I believe to be true inside, not according to the book or just what’s outside in current society, or only possible scientifically according to certified organizations. We stayed up all night, then slept for two hours before I had to catch the train. On the way back, I told myself, it’s OK if we don’t see each other every day, but whenever I get the chance to see him in these types of situations, I will.

The post Traveling to the Frankfurt Book Fair and on to see a Brussels friend appeared first on Brussels Express.

Returning to the city after these years the first thing that stuck me was the icy blade of silence. No cars were visible, not for a long while, and the ones I saw seemed to glide past squares and roundabouts before disappearing into distance. No sound. I had never seen so many electric cars in a neighborhood, let alone a city. I wondered if that was one of the indicators that had led to Oslo winning the 2019 European Green Capital Award.

The European Green Capital Award, I discovered, is the result of an initiative taken by 15 European cities (Tallinn, Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Ljubljana, Prague, Vienna, Kiel, Kotka, Dartford, Tartu & Glasgow) and the Association of Estonian cities on 15 May 2006 in Tallinn, Estonia. Their green vision became a joint Memorandum of Understanding that rewards the cities leading the way on environmentally friendly urban living. The European Green Capital Award was launched by the European Commission in 2008.

The objectives of the European Green Capital Award are to:

• Reward cities that have a consistent record of achieving high environmental standards
• Encourage cities to commit to on‐going and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development
•  Provide a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practice and experiences in all other European cities

To select the winner of the European Green Capital Award, an Expert Panel conducts a technical assessment of the applications received.

The evaluation of each city’s application is based on 12 environmental indicators:

1. Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation
2.  Local Transport
3. Green Urban Areas incorporating Sustainable Land Use
4. Nature and Biodiversity
5. Ambient Air Quality
6. Quality of the Acoustic Environment
7. Waste Production and Management
8. Water Management
9. Waste Water Management
10. Eco‐innovation and Sustainable Employment
11. Energy Performance
12. Integrated Environmental Management

A shortlist of candidate cities is then made and each finalist is asked to present a communication strategy substantiated by action plans on how they intend to fulfill their green capital year if they were to win. For 2019, the shortlisted cities were Oslo (Norway), Lahti (Finland), Ghent (Belgium), Lisbon (Portugal), and Tallin (Estonia).

For the Green Capital Award, the jury’s decision is based on three points:

1. The city’s overall commitment, vision and enthusiasm as conveyed through the presentation

2. The city’s capacity to act as a role model, inspiring other cities, promoting best practices and raising the awareness of the EGC model further, bearing in mind city size and location

3. The city’s communication strategy and actions, which should address:

• Citizen communication and involvement to date in relation to the 12 environmental indicators, effectiveness via changes in citizen behavior, lessons learned and proposed modifications for the future
• The extent of the city’s (local, regional and national) partnering to gain maximum social and economic leverage
• How they intend to fulfill their role of EU Ambassador, inspiring other cities.

On the plane from Brussels to Oslo, I spoke with the person seated next to me, a Norwegian pharmacist who lived in the municipality of Asker, about 20 miles southeast of the capital. I mentioned the Green Capital Award and asked her what changes she had noticed in Oslo that could have an impact on the environment.

“I’ve noticed a lot of open public spaces where people can walk, ride a bicycle, run or just lay on the grass. It’s become very convenient to be in the city without a car,” she said.

Oslo has ambitious climate targets. The city wants to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020 (in relation to 1990), and by 95% in 2030. Polls have shown that the population supports such initiatives. Three out of four inhabitants support the overall goal. The municipality wants to offer an emission-free transport system and to that end, it is in the process of transforming its vehicles. More than 40% of the buses use renewable energy (biofuels, hydrogen and biogas), and it is expected that by 2025, 60% of them are fully electric. The trams and the metro already run on renewable energy.

“The city is also working on a renewable solution for the ferries,” said Mathilde Rübberdt, Communications Advisor for Visit Oslo. “The ferries that go to Nessoden, the municipality just across the fjord, will be fully electric by 2020.”

I met Mathilde for a quick coffee at the Hub Clarion Hotel in downtown Oslo. She briefed me on all the exciting changes that are happening in the city such as the boom of urban farming in all its forms. “If you have the chance you should visit the Losæter Urban Farm. It’s not far from here. They’re doing a lot of interesting things for adults and children alike. And there’s even a bake house!”

In the lounge we sat and delighted in the sunlight pouring in through the large windows. The day was clear and dry, the endless Nordic blue sky as crisp as the cry of a bird. The leather seat of my chair creaked as I bent forward to tell her about the signs I had seen at my hotel, Scandic Vulcan, indicating there were beehives on the rooftop. “Yes, all of that is happening in the city more and more. And in this very hotel, there is garden on the rooftop where they grow vegetables. In the basement grow herbs.”

Oslo has a population of nearly 660,000 inhabitants. It is surrounded by the nationally protected Marka Forest, which gives people the possibility to be in close contact with nature. “We Norwegians love to on hikes in East and Nordmarka. It’s like a breath of fresh air within very easy reach,” said Lene, guide for the Oslo Guidebureau. “But it also means the city cannot expand, and that of course brings about challenges to city planners who have to make the most of each centimeter of space.”

In 2017 approximately 350 parking spots were removed. The idea was to create space for other activities. The same dynamic continued all through 2018 and in total nearly 700 street parking spots for private cars were removed.

Oslo has become the ‘Electric Vehicle Capital of the World’ with 30% of all new cars sold in Oslo being electric vehicles (EV) or plug-in hybrids, which can be explained by the incentives offered by both, local and national authorities, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The positive shift in behavior, however, has brought about some undesired side effects.

“Electric cars can ride in the same lane as the bus and in the morning there are so many electric cars that you can’t really be sure to arrive on time at work if you catch the bus,” said Lene. Some people have complained that the incentives are not fair because most electric-car owners also have a petrol-fueled car for longer distances. “There is feeling, at least among a segment of the population, that only the rich ones are benefiting,” Lene went on. “The incentives will start do wind down, but the important thing is that many people have already changed their behavior. They use their cars a lot less.”

Looking at the Technical Assessment Report for the shortlisted cities, the ranking shows that Oslo scored 1 or 2 for nearly all of the 12 environmental indicators, something which is remarkable. The only two areas where the city scored low were: Waste Water Management, and Water Management.

Almost the entire population of Oslo is connected to the collecting system and to two Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs). The reason for the low score was that the total load received by the WWTPs of 79,000 PE, as recorded in 2015, was much lower than the total generated wastewater of the city, which was 792,000 PE. Oslo’s application did not explain how the city managed the wastewater not received by the WWTPs. Note: A PE or Population Equivalent in waste-water treatment is the number expressing the ratio of the sum of the pollution load produced during 24 hours by industrial facilities and services to the individual pollution load in household sewage produced by one person in the same time.

As for Water Management, the report mentioned that due to the availability of large quantities of high quality surface water, urban consumption and distribution losses are quite high. It noted, however, that bathing water quality of local water bodies is good, and that the ecological status of streams and rivers is healthy.

One morning I went jogging along the Akers river, as I used to do in the past, from Grünerløkka and up to Nydalen. In the parks I saw dogs chasing each other in circles, families of ducks dipping their orange feet in the water, women with sunglasses pushing prams and smiling at the sun. At the top of a hill, not far from BI University, I stopped to catch my breath. I stood there for a moment, smelling the scent of pines and firs, and all I could hear was the murmur of the river.

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After a 9-hour long fight, the inferno was finally suffocated by a team of 400 firefighters. In the street, Parisians sang hymns as they watched their beloved church smolder. On the internet, videos of the tragedy went viral. Not only France, but the entire world felt wounded. The loss was immense.

In the hours that followed, hundreds of millions of Euros were pledged to repair the damages. Governments extended a hand of solidarity to the people of France, because for everyone one thing was clear: the 850-year old building must continue to stand, resurrected, as an emblem of the beautiful city of Paris for future generations.

Notre Dame’s Cathedral was built over the span of not one or two, but several generations — it took 182 years to finish medieval church. The people who first embarked on its construction in the year 1160 knew that they wouldn’t live long enough to see the completion of the work, yet they gave their soul to the task while they could. Why?

To dive into this and other questions related to hope, the future of human kind, trees, literature and our connection to nature, I am in Oslo to meet Anne Beate Hovind, Project Director for Art at Bjørvika Development and Chairwoman of the Future Library Trust.

åpent bakeri is a coffee shop in the Bjørvika neighborhood in downtown Oslo. Several new and highly stylized buildings have been erected in this part of the city, one next to the other — people call it the Barcode district. On the floors above the cafe, offices from different companies overlook the Oslo fjord, its calm waters mirroring an expansive canvas of Nordic sky.

It’s half past noon and warm beams of April sunlight enter the room at an angle streaking the wooden floors with golden lines around me. I’ve been longing to speak with Anne Beate for a few days, ever since I found out about The Future Library, a project designed and executed by Anne Beate, along with Katie Paterson, a Scottish artist behind the art work. For the project, a thousand trees have been planted in Nordmarka, the forest on the northern outskirts of Oslo. In a 100 years’ time, the very same trees will become the paper for a collection of books, none of which can be read before 2114.

“Katie had spent a few days in my cabin, in Elverun, trying to think of ideas for a new project and one day she called and said, ‘I know what I am going to propose. It’s something that’s going to last for a hundred years.’ The first thing I thought was, How am I going to convince the board about this? How are we going to convince the municipality of Oslo?”

Among many other activities, Anne Beate works as an adviser and project director for art at Bjørvika Development, the company that has been in charge of construction, creating open public spaces and bringing life to the area.

“My first reaction was, It’s too risky. If the board asks me to run a risk assessment this is never going to fly. But a little later we realized that if you want to achieve something extraordinary, the kind of thinking that you need to have is the opposite. Instead of narrowing down, you have to open up and see what’s out there that hasn’t been tried yet.”

Anne Beate has green eyes and olive skin, delicate manners, the smile of someone whose passionate about life. “When Katie told me about the project, it confronted me with my own mortality,” she says. “When you think of the span of such a project, it’s too far into the future. But that’s where the ideas of hope and trust come into play. I have to trust that future generations will continue this project, and they also have to trust me, trust that I will take action now so that they can actually have a future.”

The idea of cathedral thinking comes from medieval times when architects and artisans embarked on building a cathedral knowing they would never see the end product. It is a shift of focus from the individual towards the collective good, as well as to the greater good of the future. “Not long ago Stephen Hawking referred to Cathedral Thinking when he said that the most meaningful thing life is not inheriting money, property, but rather inheriting a great challenge. A challenge that one generation starts and another continues and so on until the next one sees it fulfilled.”

From the time Anne Beate and Katie decided to set off on this adventure until it became a reality, they encountered many fortunate surprises. But also great challenges. “When Katie suggested that we have a chat with the Oslo Municipality and the Deichmanske Library to see if The Future Library could have a room of its own I thought, How are we going to convince them about something that needs 100 years to be completed?”

The new building for the Deichmanske Library, also in Bjorvika, is scheduled to open in 2020, as well as the new Edvard Munch Museum just a few meters into the Fjord, in what is a fantastic display of modern architecture and Nordic design.

One of the rooms in the new library was originally conceived to become a Silent Room, and that’s where The Future Library has found a home. “When Katie explained the idea to Liv Sæteren, Deichmaske Library’s director at the time, Liv started to cry. It was clear that she and Katie shared views on the idea of delayed publication, keeping the manuscripts, and so The Future Library will have a home right here in Bjørvika, in that building over there.”

The authors that have so far contributed manuscripts to The Future Library include: Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Sjón, Elif Shafak, and Han Kang.

“I still remember the day when Katie called to say Margaret Atwood had accepted to participate in the project. We realized that was of course huge and we were both in awe. And even to this day, we are astonished by how much The Future Library is touching so many people across the world. People are moved by it. Nobody could imagine how much it would resonate.”

When asked about whether this project could have happened anywhere else in the world, the forests of Canada or Finland, Anne Beate tilts her head and gazes at me. For a moment she seems to be considering the question, then says, “People say it couldn’t happen anywhere else, that it had to be in Norway.”

The idea of breaking up the soil and planting a thousand trees, tending to them and pruning the branches over time, all of it implies a desire to stay closer to nature, a trait that lies at the heart of Norwegian culture. “Yes, there is that, but there is something larger, the idea of hope. By doing this we believe that there will be people in the future, that there will be a forest. We need strong narratives that, in an ever-changing world, show us how to reconnect with nature.”

The smell of smoked ham, melted cheese and brewed coffee wafts in the air. People around us chatter in low voices; they are at the end of their lunch breaks. Anne Beate opens her computer and shows me pictures of the ceremonies that have taken place every year when an author hands over his/her manuscript to the city of Oslo. A walk starts in the middle of the city and ends up in the forest, where the young trees have been planted. This year, on May 25th, South Korean writer Han Kang will be in Oslo to deliver her work to the city, her gift to The Future Library.

I thank Anne Beate for her time and for her insights; so many thoughts to take in. As I leave the cafe and walk into the cool sunny afternoon, I cannot but think back to the idea that letting go of an outcome can mean both, living fully in the present and caring about the future. In the middle of a bridge I stop and bring a hand to my brow to shield my eyes from the glare. I watch a train ride by, a slow procession of wagons one after the other, until the clattering dissolves into distance. I continue walking, somewhat dazed, not knowing which path I will follow. And the words of Han Kang still linger in my head:

“If it is possible to call prayer the moment when, in spite of all the uncertainty, we have to take just one step towards the light, in this moment I feel that perhaps this project is something close to a century-long prayer.”

***

My encounter with Anne Beate Hovind wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Mathilde Rübberdt, Communications Advisor for VisitOSLO.

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