Pics of Stockholm...

On the ferry to Hammerby

DAY ONE:  PERFECTION MANIFESTED IN A TRAIN

Welcome to the very first day of greenbatonrouge.blogger.  How appropriate that this site should be conceived in Stockholm, Sweden!  I am visiting my friend, Matt, while he is in grad school at the University of Stockholm, studying Sustainable Enterprise, or some equally ambiguous subject matter.  Nonetheless, I am also here to observe the greenest city in all of the earth.  From its robust, almost perfect, public transportation system to its mindset about wastewater and garbage, it is the example to be followed for cities like Baton Rouge, who have nowhere to go but UP, UP, UP!  And, yes, before you even ask yourself the question, we can shoot for this level.  It is not too ambitious.  Why not incorporate some of the very best measures instead of none at all?

Honestly, if it were not dark at 3pm (and the opposite is true, too- it's also dark until 8am) and 27 degrees outside, I would probably consider this to be the perfect city.  The weather leaves much to be desired.  I am much more akin to the mild, windy nights of southern California and Louisiana.  I am a southern girl at heart, and this is why I aspire to bring green innovations to the places I love dearly instead of simply moving to the places that are "perfected." 

Stockholm is a city that sits on water, and because of this can offer underground tube rail, excellent wastewater treatment, drinking water, and a ferry service from one area of the city to another.  Sound familiar?  Their public transportation is so robust one would think it impossible to finely tune; however, there hasn't been a time yet, and I have already been on twelve different trains and ten different buses, that the system has shown up late.  In fact, the train or bus is always, and I mean, always EARLY.  When given time to ponder this rather unusual reality, it make sense for it to run this way, though.  Start this way, always running early and leaving precisely on time, and your residents know they must always show up on time.  The opposite is true, too.  Once the precedent is established, the system cannot be late.  A bus or train breaks down?  The residents here are IRATE.  Everyone arrives everywhere on time and knows the schedule of every bus and train TO THE SECOND.  The system runs like a well-oiled machine.  The long-term effect is quite beneficial for the transportation system, though:  prove your product as one that is extremely dependable and timely, and what do you get in return?  You are bound to get A LOT OF CUSTOMERS.  Hence, the system makes a lot of money.  The cycle is, what could you say?  Perfection. 

There is also a free ferry to the greenest neighborhood in the world.  One might argue that if you pay enough to live there, you should be able to ride there for free twice a day.  Well, the truth is you pay a lot because you don't have to pay anything ever again after you pay for your house, besides taxes.  Ha!  We'll get to the neighborhood later.  The ferry, however, is a genius idea.  It doesn't have to go a long way (it takes a total of about 3 minutes) to get from one bank to another.  But... it got me to thinking.  If a person in Brusly, Port Allen, or Plaquemine needed a job in Baton Rouge?   Hmmmmm....  All they would need is a bicycle to get to the ferry dock!

I was once at a SB conference, and I heard a person from IDEO say, "Sustainability is a journey.  Sustainability is a conversation."  I have never forgotten that.  I am constantly on my journey, and I am constantly conversing with myself.  Constantly pursuing the state of green.... PERFECTION.

From Stockholm,