Ah Sweden! The homeland of IKEA, meatballs, ABBA, Volvo, Surströmming (yes, that’s fermented herring!), Pippi Longstocking and so much more. But did you know that Sweden is also one of the least populated countries in the world, more than 50% of it is covered by forest and it’s one of the world’s leading countries when it comes to sustainability?
Swedes love their nature and wilderness – staying at the country cottage in the middle of the forest, foraging for berries and mushrooms, fishing, hiking and just spending time in the midst of the peace and quiet of it all.
All of this is probably also why they are so keen on being green. If you have all of this in your backyard, why wouldn’t you want to save it? We’ve put together a list of 6 of our favourite things about Swedish nature and their sustainable way of life.
56 days of nonstop daylight
Summer in northern parts of Sweden means 56 days of daylight around the clock. That’s just insane! That’s entire month of July and also some of June and August too. On the other hand, winter means 32 days of just darkness. Also, as Sweden spans 1574 kilometres, there are some pretty extreme weather variations – while the summers in the South can be pretty hot, the winter in the far North can even be as low as -53 degrees of Celsius.
At least 300 000 Moose
There are somewhere between 300 000 and 400 000 moose that roam the Swedish woods and tourists can even go on moose safaris! The funny thing about the moose living in Sweden is that every now and then one of them decides to swim all the way to Denmark – a country that has no moose of its own. Maybe the moose are just trying to secretly move to Denmark and start a new colony? After all there are more Moose in Sweden per square kilometer than in any other country!
Camp anywhere you like
In Sweden, allemansrätten – every man’s right – basically means that for a night or two you can pitch your tent anywhere in the countryside, as long as you keep your distance from private houses, do not cause any damage or disturb the landowner. Just choose a lovely spot you like, pitch a tent and enjoy the awesomeness of Sweden. Bliss!
Being ever-(so)-green
Swedes buy more eco-labeled food than the European average, they recycle 88% of all aluminum cans and 52% of the Swedish energy comes from renewable resources – a whopping 95% of this being hydropower.
Importing trash from Norway
Sweden runs a very successful waste-to-energy program but as it turns out – they might be too good at recycling – As Sweden is not producing enough garbage (everything gets recycled!) the country is now forced to import trash from the neighbouring Norway. #garbagecrisis
Food waste = public transport fuel
The city of Stockholm is famous for it’s ever growing sustainability and recycling initiatives. For example, 993,000 kg of food waste is gathered by the city of Stockholm every month and this waste is then turned into 115,000m³ of gas to fuel the cities buses and taxis.
These are just a few things we love about Sweden. Being respectful to the nature and environment seems to be something that is just a way of life for Swedes – so it’s natural that so many of the Swedish products we sell in the shop hold different environmental certifications and eco-labels.
Make sure you check out our Swedish handmade moccasins, baby blankets & sleeping bags, bridal accessories and wall art. It’s all so so adorable!