“Living is more than just living”

To build quickly, but with quality. Large-scale, but beautiful. Beneficial for the builder, but at the same time reasonable prices for the occupants. And at the same time create the conditions for a good life between the buildings. Is that even possible? – There was never any hesitation in saying yes, says Eva Nordström, the government's coordinator for sustainable community development in the north.

She grew up in Luleå and has dedicated her entire professional life to community development and housing issues. But perhaps the most difficult task Eva Nordström has taken on is the sustainable community transformation in Norrbotten and Västerbotten.

– Even if I had followed it peripherally, I had not fully understood how big this transition is. How many perspectives and dimensions it has. Everything from infrastructure issues, where people come from and where they will live, how they will be integrated, who will pay for what and so on. At the same time, I have been impressed by the enormous capacity these municipalities have, the work they are doing, she says when we meet in Kiruna's new cultural center, Aurora Culture & Congress.

It is a Wednesday in November and Eva Nordström has taken yesterday's only flight to attend a conference organized by the Viable cities project together with the municipalities of Gällivare and Kiruna. Now she has several commitments before she can travel back to Stockholm, where she lives. Since taking office last summer, she has spent a lot of time traveling.

– This assignment is so much fun for someone like me who loves community building, loves meeting people and is from Norrbotten. I grew up in Luleå where Stålverk 80 was supposed to have been built. Being part of the movement to everything positive that is happening today, it's fantastic, she says at the conference.

“Don’t just stack sustainable cardboard boxes”

Sustainable community development is complex and does not just involve the construction itself. It is also about how residential areas are managed, human encounters, and being able to fill your free time with something meaningful.

– Ecological sustainability is about energy consumption in the properties, solar cells, that we have good material choices that last over time and don't wear out so quickly. We have economic sustainability – that you can build at reasonable prices with reasonable rental levels or purchase price. That the builder can put together the calculation in a sensible way. The third leg is social sustainability. What kind of society are we building so that we don't just stack sustainable cardboard boxes on top of each other. It's important to keep all these dimensions in the air at the same time, and that's not easy.

We are talking in the recently inaugurated Kiruna city center, next to the Kristallen city hall and the new Scandic hotel. Eva was happy when she saw that the door handles had been taken from the old city hall to the new one. The new hotel with the roof like a slope. That the wishes of young people in Kiruna were taken into account when the new center was designed.

– Basically, a home is nothing more than protection against wind, heat, cold, danger. But it is also how we build beauty, what happens between the houses. You need friends. There must be a civil society around you that you can be a part of. Living is more than just living.

Kiruna's urban relocation and community transformation has been ongoing for many years, but much work remains. A model of the future city can be seen in Kiruna City Hall.

Her mission is to work with affected municipalities to plan, build and manage sustainable communities. How to look at everything from architectural values ​​to who will shovel. The challenge is to build a large amount of housing in a very short time.

– It takes a long time to build homes. From detailed plans, land allocation, building permits, putting the first shovel in the ground. It's not a quick fix, but it has to be a quick fix. 

In addition, she will promote collaboration between industry, credit institutions, developers. Coordinate the assignments that authorities such as the National Board of Housing, Planning, and Economic Development, and the County Administrative Board have received. Try to find ways to balance different national interests, such as mineral extraction and reindeer husbandry. But also be a spokesperson.

– At least as important is to convey what I see to try to get politics to have a good picture of the challenges, and to raise suggestions on how the state could contribute.

“People don’t fall from the sky”

A big challenge is the lack of labor. It takes a lot to get people to move here.

– 100 people won't fall from the sky, you have to do a huge amount of work, market the counties and municipalities. That you think about where they will come from. It's not enough to have returnees. Then there will be labor immigration to a large extent, plus the unemployed must be motivated to move where there are jobs. Skellefteå alone noted that they had as many fly-ins, fly-outs as there are people living in Dorotea municipality. That's quite a large number of people. If you get just ten percent of them to move here with their families, that's good. We have to keep all the balls in the air at the same time.

Another challenge is for the old Norrbotten people to accept that their communities are changing. 

– I usually say that if 4000 Pakistanis move to Luleå to work, they won't be interested in Luleå Hockey, they'll be playing cricket. Then you have to be able to meet those needs. What do I mean by this somewhat brutal example? That what is important to Swedes, to people from Norrbotten, to people from Luleå, doesn't have to be important to anyone else. Social sustainability also means preparing those who live in these places today for what is to come.

In many places in Norrbotten there will be plenty of unfamiliar faces in town, new residential areas, new phenomena.

– You have to respect that people are basically security junkies, all the unknown is a bit dangerous. But here I think that civil society can have a big role, to include and for local residents to notice that these are people like anyone else. Companies also have a responsibility in building society. They can contribute money to sports clubs that can invite people to ski school for adults, hire someone to work with this. Creativity must flow!

The municipality of Boden is one of the locations facing major changes. “I usually say that when H2GS is built, it will be as big as the entire Kungsholmen in Stockholm,” says Eva Nordström.

The project is now underway in Norrbotten North Sweden Green Deal which is run by Region Norrbotten. In the project, the region joins forces with Luleå University of Technology, the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten, all the county's municipalities, the Swedish Lapland Visitors Board and the municipalities of Norrbotten. In different sub-projects, work is being done on four major challenges that follow new industrialization: attraction, skills supply, physical planning and energy.

“Holistic thinking”

– I think that the North Sweden Green Deal is absolutely right in its holistic approach. The challenge with the green transition is that it consists of different components. All of these components are equally important, so a holistic approach is absolutely necessary. I believe that the issue of population growth, skills supply and its connection to sustainable community building will increase even more in the future, says Eva Nordström.

The coordinator questions whether all people in Norrbotten and Västerbotten really know how big this change is and what it could mean for the communities. That they know how fly-in fly-out works, where to tax, the dangers of having a population structure with an ever lower proportion of people of working age. Knowledge is a path to acceptance. Investments in existing residential areas and civil society as well. But some will not embrace the changes no matter what.

– I usually think of the micro popcorn bag. A few popcorn pops at once, they think the change is absolutely wonderful. Then we have the big mass that after a while starts to pop. And then we have some kernels that will never pop. If you try to get them to pop, you will burn the others.

If you dare to take a look into the crystal ball, where do you think Norrbotten will be in ten years?

– I think that housing construction has started, I'm not that worried about that. I think they are still struggling with the recruitment base, because it is a European challenge. But they will be able to stand and tell about the journey they made from the depopulated region to the developing region. I think they have come a long way on the journey but not finished. We are in the early stages of the green transition.

Text: Sara Stylbäck Vesa

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Facts: Eva Nordström

Growing up: Lulea
Living: Nacka, Stockholm County
Current assignment: Coordinator for sustainable urban development, Government Offices. Board assignments for Blomsterfonden and Husman Hagberg.
Selected previous assignments: Special investigator, Proposals to make it easier for first-time buyers in the housing market. CEO Stockholms Kooperativa Bostadsförening. CEO HSB.

The North Sweden Green Deal is an initiative to realize a sustainable societal transition, in the wake of the new industrial establishments.

The project is run by Region Norrbotten and Region Västerbotten together with a number of other actors. It is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).