Gothenburg, Sweden, is Scandinavia’s greenest destination, according to the Scandinavian Destination Sustainability Index report. The report, which follows the March 2012 Scandinavia Sustainable Meetings Accord, signed by more than 50 organisations, analysed sustainability performance across 16 regional cities.

Published by the regional chapter of the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA), each city was graded using 16 performance indicators. Cities were judged on two criteria: 'Hardware', the sustainability commitment of the city government and performance of its infrastructure; and 'software', the sustainability commitment and performance of the local meetings industry, including hotels, venues and convention bureaux/destination marketing organisations.

The fellow Swedish cities of Uppsala and Stockholm came in second and fourth, respectively, while Copenhagen, Denmark, came in third. At the bottom of the list, in 15th and 16th places, were the Finnish cities of Espoo and Turku.

Erika Eischer, chair of the ICCA Scandinavian Chapter, added: “We need to make it easier for our clients to organise a sustainable meeting in our destinations, so this report helps us to transparently communicate our performance and progress.”

One big factor in Gothenburg's win was that 90 per cent of the city's energy now comes from renewable sources, a boast only shared in the region by Karlstad, Sweden, and bettered by Reykjavik, Iceland, thanks to its abundant geothermal energy.

Lennart Johannson, director of the Gothenburg Convention Bureau, said: “There is now an unstoppable energy in the air, which will help us toward achieving our goal of being the world’s greenest city by 2021.”

Guy Bigwood of MCI Sustainability Services, one of the report’s authors, praised the region’s efforts but said more work still needed to be done: “Increasing risk from climate change, economic downtown and demographic shifts requires more strategic and focused attention from the meetings industry.”

Pictured: Gothenburg (photo: Dick Gillberg)