Vaxjo uses waste matter from their pulp and paper to produce 90 percent of their heat and one quarter of its electricity. The city uses a giant combined cooling, heat, and power plant that generates electricity and heat at the same time. This system uses underground pipes to deliver heat and electricity to homes. The only wood that is used is of branches and the tops from trees cut for furniture production. Ashes are collected and brought back to the woods to fertilize the soil.

Vaxjo, Sweden also uses biofuel for buses and other city-owned vehicles. One kind of biofuel is biogas. Biogas is created from organic wastes and water sludge. City residents are encouraged to walk, cycle, or take the public transit around town when possible. City streets have been renovated to make them more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. Vaxjo developed a 150 km bike-path system and a bus fleet running on biogas from waste. By 2015, these measures resulted in cutting the city’s emissions by half compared to levels in 1993. By 2025 the city aims to be 70 percent CO ² free. Vaxjo is on the path to being fossil fuel free by 2030. Biomass production has a low environmental impact and makes good use of waste from the city’s industries.

In municipally-run businesses, such as daycares and hospitals, Vaxjo uses organic food and serves vegetarian meals regularly. The reduction of pesticides and animal products helps to reduce the cities carbon footprint. As you’ve already learned, food waste is used to create biogas that is used to run city buses, which means less food is dumped into landfills.

Energy efficient buildings are designed to get the most work out of the energy that is supplied by taking steps to reduce energy loss. Energy efficient buildings are less expensive to operate, more comfortable to live in, and more environmentally friendly. Having an energy efficient home is becoming more and more important as the high demand for energy is unsustainable. Energy efficient homes produce less greenhouse gas emissions and will reduce pollution and the negative health-side effects of pollution.

However, energy efficient buildings require an initial investment as they can be more expensive to build, but expenses are usually recouped in the first few years of living there due to reduced energy expenses. The term zero net building for green technology refers to the idea that the building creates any energy that it requires, so it does not require any energy from an outside source.

Features of an energy efficient building are:

• solar panels on the roof
• wall insulation
• air filtration and ventilation
• roof insulation
• high performance windows
• low flow water fixtures
• induction cooktop
• efficient lighting
• efficient appliances
• heat pump and water heater

Over the years, changes to technology have given rise to many alternative sources of energy that can be harvested through modern techniques. Renewable resources include renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, wave, and tidal power.

Renewable resources have a low environmental impact and are widely available and naturally replenished. However, renewable resources, such as energy, can be quite expensive. They also sometimes have a negative impact. For example, wind energy can result in the death or serious injury of birds. Lastly, it is hard to apply this modern technology worldwide and different resources are available in different areas.

Cities around the world are using different renewable resources. More advanced technologies, such as geothermal energy, is being used in Iceland, El Salvador, New Zealand, Kenya, and the Philippines. Wind turbines are used worldwide, but primarily in China, the United States, and Germany.

Public transportation is a fast, affordable, and reliable sustainability project. It provides an alternative option to driving the car which reduces congestion, helps reduce stress and improve health, and reduces air pollution. However, some people have difficulty accessing public transportation for reasons such as their location, and if it works with their schedules and accessibility needs. The majority of cities around the world use public transportation.

Rooftop gardens are rooftops that are covered with earth so that plants can grow on them. They are built in layers to allow drainage and prevent harm to the building roof. Roof gardens have several advantages: they regulate temperatures keeping houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter, they can serve as urban vegetable gardens, they improve air quality in cities, they absorb 80 percent of the rain and therefore help avoid potential floods. They efficiently reduce CO ² emissions and air quality. However, green roofs can be expensive to design, add an additional weight load on the building, and require regular maintenance. Many developed countries such as Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong are adopting green roofs in urban areas.

Creative waste and recycling initiatives play a critical role in helping cities improve their energy efficiency and become more sustainable. These initiatives can be found around the world, most notably in Singapore and Songdo, South Korea, where advanced facilities break down more waste and turn the waste into energy.