Why Copenhagen Makes Sustainability Look Easy
One student from Penn traveled to Copenhagen on the SNF Paideia Dialogue Fund grant to see sustainable design at work. What they found was a city where sustainability is simply life. At Copenhill, a waste-to-energy plant that doubles as a ski hill and hiking trail, they saw how infrastructure integrates itself into daily life. Reffen, a restaurant complex made out of re-used shipping containers, showed them how reuse could be infused and social, full of life and community.
The culture was most surprising to them. Sixty-two percent of Copenhageners commute by bike to work or school. The city makes it easy, with hundreds of miles of dedicated bike routes and transport that complements cycling perfectly. Houses are built in a way so solar panels can be installed and low-energy windows. Even mundane routines include this mindset. Trash was sorted into eight types in their apartment rental, which seemed intimidating at first but eventually became second nature. Children are taught climate responsibility from school lunch. Neighbors and families treat these habits not as chores, but as integral to ordinary life.
The Danish hygge, which can only be described as a sense of comfort and togetherness, held the journey together. Sustainability here was not so much a list of commandments but a kind of creating spaces wherein human beings may live in good company.
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