Climate risks and sustainable growth are shared responsibilities — engineers, architects, planners, and developers are uniquely placed to improve the built environment. Sustainable development can both reduce emissions and cities' vulnerability to climate change and many impacts can be avoided, reduced, or delayed. Cities have the right density, economic conditions, and geographic scale for efficient public transport; recycling of water, waste, and materials; and energy production, distribution, and use. However, few cities have reached their full potential in these areas. There are major benefits with creating cities with substantial efficient use of resources, where transportation and use of infrastructure is both effective and attractive, land is used optimally, and the impacts on water and the natural environment are limited.

Cooperation and synergies require more coordinated solutions, as well as new construction with better environmental performance and more energy efficient transport vehicles. In this program, Stellan Fryxell from Tengbom architects, and Erik Freudenthal, from GlashusEtt, presented an overview of SymbioCity, the Swedish approach to fostering sustainable urban systems and processes. And they used the Hammarby Sjöstad waterfront redevelopment project in Stockholm, Sweden, to illustrate how the SymbioCity approach has been applied at the district scale.