Review of Urb-En Pact's participation in the Urban Future conference (UF22) in Helsingborg

UF22 offered a very exciting programme that looked at leadership skills, highlighted innovative sustainable ideas and shared learning curves. On 1 and 2 June, the full-day programme offered a variety of parallel sessions. On 3 June, excursions were organised for participants to the city's green and innovative neighbourhoods. More than 2,000 participants from among city stakeholders, leaders, entrepreneurs, sustainable cities, media and talent gathered at Europe's largest event on urban sustainability.

A delegation from our network participated in sessions on climate neutral cities. Participants were able to listen to inspiring speeches, including on multi-stakeholder collaboration as one of the key success factors in tackling the challenges of sustainable city development, how to successfully digital transform cities, how to create an ecosystem for change, how to unleash the power of cities to tackle climate change and why the 15-minute city approach is taking cities by storm.

Participants from our delegation also had the opportunity to see various inspiring solutions related to wood construction or the circular economy.

The City of Oslo, MAD Architects and the Oslo Metropolitan Area presented one of the world's most innovative wooden buildings, over 100 metres high, which will be built in the near future in Berlin.

A very interesting study visit was organised for the participants at Nordvästra Skånes Renhållnings (NSR). This environmental and waste management company collects and transforms the region's waste into valuable resources. Its goal is to ensure the long-term sustainability of the company by constantly improving efficiency and customer benefits. The company focuses on developing new methods to contribute to a sustainable future. As part of this work, a unique bio-char plant was opened in 2022, where waste from parks and gardens is converted into climate-smart bio-char. Bio-char itself is very valuable as it can improve water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the soil, reduce nutrient leaching, reduce soil acidity and reduce irrigation and fertiliser requirements.