In the depths of winter, daylight in Umeå, around 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Stockholm, lasts only around four and a half hours, meaning that many people catch a glimpse of the sun only through an office window.

“You feel tired during this time of the year, and getting an extra dose of light feels refreshing,” said Anna Norrgaard, head of marketing at Umeå Energy. Over the next three weeks, the company will help commuters combat winter depression by installing light therapy panels at 30 bus stops.

These panels are proven to help with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is a result of lack of sunlight, causing one to feel tired and depressed from overproduction of the hormone melatonin. Commuters are encouraged to stand in front of the panels with their eyes open—for a full 30 minutes for the maximum effect.

via good.is, 03.12.12.

Every country should be so lucky as to have Sweden’s problem: It doesn’t produce enough garbage.

As reported by Public Radio International (26.06.12), Sweden has a remarkably effective recycling program. Only 4 percent of the country’s waste ends up in landfills, with the other 96 percent being reused in some way. There is one problem with that, however: The country has incinerators that burn waste to create heat (a must-have in the region) and electricity. And too little waste means not enough fuel for those fires…

grist.org, 12.09.12.

In 2008, Sweden’s No. 1 burger chain got rid of its kids’-meal boxes and, contrary to expectations, sales of the meals rose. Apparently parents who are facing the prospect of their children scrabbling for survival on this wrecked cinder of a planet don’t like creating needless trash? At least in Sweden, anyway.

Max has even taken the unusual step of trying to nudge customers toward its vegetarian options by showing them that the beef version of its burger leads to five times as much carbon emissions. Sales of non-beef burgers went up 16 percent.

via grist.org: Swedish fast food chain makes bank by becoming ‘Klimatsmart!’, 13.04.12.

more: timemag, 09.04.12.

and there’s a “Minimize Me” campaign—contrary to America’s favourite fast food slogan.

how many more reasons to love Swedes/Sweden/Scandinavia?

But what might make it seem alien to Brits and North Americans is Ikea’s very active role in the neighbourhood’s life — in large part because the houses will be fully owned by Ikea. In a model that is the norm in Sweden and other parts of continental Europe, but alien to English-speaking countries, this will be an all-rental private neighbourhood, run and overseen by a private company.

“We’re about human scale, we’re about building things to a high design and a good quality, because we are long-term investors,” explains Andrew Cobden, the project’s manager. “We don’t like to sell income-generating assets.”

globeandmail, 01.04.12.
via smartplanet, 08.04.12.