Face it: everyone who’s anyone in green design says the U.S. is way behind Europe. And one of the areas outpacing us further and further… is Scandinavia. 

Scandinavia’s sustainable strengths are no new feat in Seattle. Local group International Sustainable Solutions has been taking local building and city professionals there for years on a whirlwind eco-tourist trip. It is just about getting ready to kick of a Portland version of the trip,  more here.

Scandinavian speakers have also graced the Seattle scene every couple of months to teach us what we don’t know. One of them, Svend Auken, is going to be in Seattle again on Monday from noon to 1 p.m. He will be speaking at Seattle City Hall in the Bertha Landes room.

Scandinavia also reared its green head when I attended a forum at the UW a couple of weeks ago. At that forum, Jayson Antonoff of Seattle’s green building team (formerly with ISUSTAIN) spoke about how Scandinavia has focused on energy efficiency by looking at different energy producers, varying it’s idea of energy, and requiring buildings to meet an energy requirement per square foot.

For more on that story, and to learn what other sustainability leaders in the Pacific Northwest think about green solutions, check out the story in the DJC here.

Antonoff showed images of one of his favorite buildings: the Nykredit Building in Copenhagen, built in 2001.  The top photo is a side view of the building, and bottom photo is a front view - the building is really two inner buildings with an outer skin - and shades along the outer skin close or open to let heat or light in or out. In the bottom picture, the blinds are open. For more on the building, click here. To see a picture with closed blinds, see the picture with my story here.

If you’ve been to Scandinavia (which I haven’t) I’m wondering what your favorite green building is and why, and what you think Scandinavia can teach us? If you’ve got one, send me a photo at katiez@djc.com.

To learn about one how one Scandinavian hospital is tackling sustainable concerns, click here.

The DJC has also chronicled this idea for quite some time. To read about how Pioneer Square can be energy self efficient, click here To read how Scandinavia can influence Seattle, click here. To read about green power plants specifically, click here. For district energy systems, go here. *you must have a DJC subscription to see these stories*

Tags: Denmark, Energy, Scandinavia, Seattle, University of Washington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Energy, Famous speakers, Scandinavia, Seattle, Seattle Department of Planning and Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.