Representatives from the City of Copenhagen hosted us for an inspiring half-day workshop to explore solutions for building and city-wide sustainability. Copenhagen is a leader in creating a sustainable, livable city where citizens can feel engaged in municipal decisions. The city is well on its way to becoming a carbon neutral city by its intended 2025 goal. It has successfully implemented a dense cycling network to reduce congestion and worked closely with the port to clean the harbor water to such a degree that you can now swim there. The City of Copenhagen also engaged with the private sector for workable solutions by creating a transparent partnership selection process. Denmark is also known for its work-life balance, where employees are encouraged to take vacation days and flexible work hours to stay healthy and stress-free. Maternity and paternity leave are deemed very important and have helped in reducing female turnover, especially for women in top positions.
During the workshop, we also met with representatives from LeapCraft, a small and innovative startup who have developed a unique data driven air quality monitoring product used in Copenhagen’s city air monitoring projects and are considering US expansion. We discussed some potential applications for the product within the US market. Some of our suggestions included using the monitors for clean rooms, for improving fire-alarm monitoring and for home patient or child care. The final presentation at the workshop came from Henning Larsen Architecture firm, who presented their work on creating climate-resilient city blocks, which reduce flooding risks and improve quality of life within Copenhagen’s city center.