When it comes to sustainable tourism in northern Sweden, there’s one guiding principle: If you build it, they will come.
Whether it’s a first-of-its-kind green flight academy, a new high-rise hotel made of wood in Skellefteå, or a treehouse hotel in Granö with a hidden purpose, there’s a sense that sustainability for sustainability’s sake is sometimes the best plan.
But maybe also because sustainability in Swedish Lapland is within reach.
“We have all these natural resources here — electricity from the hydroelectric plants, from the windmills, and biogas,” says Robert Lindgren, manager of Skellefteå Airport, which is perhaps the world’s greenest airport. “Of course, we had to do it.”
Back in 2020, the facility became one of the first zero-emission airports in the world. Lindgren and his team did it by turning to fossil-free heating, energy and fuel. They also added the charging infrastructure for electric flights.
It didn’t take long before the entire Västerbotten region began courting a reputation as a green destination, which culminated with the opening of Northvolt Ett, a lithium-ion battery gigafactory built on the site of an old paper mill. The facility is a highlight of an aerial tour of Skellefteå where you learn to fly at one of the only sustainable flight academies in the world.
An aerial view of the Northvolt Ett, a lithium-ion battery gigafactory built on the site of an old paper mill
Flying green in Skellefteå
The Green Flight Academy came to northern Sweden in 2021 because it had the infrastructure (you know, build it and they will come), and the concept has worked. The school, which trains airline pilots for SAS and other regional carriers, has ambitious goals of conducting up to 30 percent of the flight training in all-electric aircraft. It’s also using biofuels in the rest of its planes to cut back on emissions.
“We’re training pilots as sustainably as we can — and as sustainably as we are allowed to,” says Cecilia Holmlund, the academy’s operations manager. (Related: Yes, your vacation is destroying the planet. Here’s how to stop.)
Flying an electric plane is like taking a trip into the future. The single-engine aircraft is quieter and seems to respond quicker than a conventional plane. Holmlund says the academy is hoping to distinguish itself by training electric-certified pilots, so that when more planes go electric, they’ll be ready.
The flight school also feels a special responsibility toward the environment, thanks to its green pedigree. It’s also pledged to buy electricity only from green sources for its operations. And it has an electric bus to shuttle students from the classrooms to the hangars.
Sustainability in Northern Sweden sometimes seems to be done for its own sake, but sometimes it’s not. (Read more about sustainability here.)
A treehouse at Granö Beckasin, a resort and campsite in Granö, Sweden
A treehouse hotel with a hidden sustainability goal
A few hours’ drive south, you’ll find another way Northern Sweden is becoming sustainable. Granö Beckasin is a hotel that takes its sustainability mission seriously. So seriously that its entire reason for existing is to create jobs in this small town and to prevent the local school from shutting down.
Like many small towns in rural Sweden, Granö was losing population. Authorities wanted to close the local school and send the remaining students to Vindeln, a 20-minute drive away. Local residents thought that was a bad idea, so they formed a company to start a hotel and attract more residents to the area. (Related: Germany’s green vacations: How Berlin is making tourism more sustainable.)
“The whole point of living in the countryside here is not to live in the urban city,” says Christopher Storm, the Granö Beckasin’s manager. “So the idea was that there are people that would like to stay in the countryside and live here — and how do we organize infrastructure for that.” (Related: In Stockholm, tourism officials ask: How much more sustainable can it get?)
The centerpiece of Granö Beckasin is its famous treehouses, located on a hill overlooking a lake. There’s also a refurbished 17th-century farmhouse turned into an art gallery and, true to its mission, a new restaurant under construction that’s made from a recycled pavilion.
But has the concept worked? Storm says creating a sustainable resort has been, well, sustainable. The town’s population is growing and the school is still there.
So far, so sustainable.
The Wood Hotel’s general manager David Åberg, in Skellefteå, Sweden
In Northern Sweden, more than a wood hotel
If you happen to fly over Skellefteå, the distinguishing feature is a high-rise building that is a first of its kind. It’s the Wood Hotel, which may be one of the most sustainable hotels in Sweden. It’s built entirely of locally sourced spruce plywood that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it uses.
Modern construction techniques now allow architects to design wood buildings without any height limits — and so they have. (The technique, which uses stacked cross-laminated timber, reduces the fire hazard that limited previous wood construction.)
But the new Wood Hotel, which opened just before the pandemic, is more than a hotel. It is also a community center, a library and a concert venue. (Related: Hamburg pursues sustainability with a bunker hotel, food halls — and free kayaks.)
And that isn’t the most remarkable thing about it, either. The brain of the hotel, located deep in its basement, is an intelligent system. It recycles hot air and ensures heating, cooling and ventilation are climate-neutral.
“The system is a big part of our sustainability story,” says the Wood Hotel’s general manager, David Åberg. (Here’s our guide to planning a trip.)
Put it all together, and you have a massive, 205-room property that is effectively pointing the way toward a more sustainable future.
Robert Schmitz, the lead architect at White Arkitekter, the firm that designed the hotel, says that was the intent from the beginning: to create a landmark in the city that would be both sustainable and inspire others to consider wood as a construction material for future projects.
“The challenge was to reduce the amount of concrete in the structure and to basically create a climate-neutral building,” he says.
To the untrained eye, it looks like a domino effect — the green airport, flight academy, wood hotel and gigafactory. But it’s been more like a team effort.
Kristina Sundin Jonsson, chief executive for the municipality of Skellefteå, at a restored farmhouse in the city.
A “clear vision” of sustainability in Swedish Lappland
City planners say everyone started to think seriously about sustainability years ago. They did it because it was the right thing to do, not to become a green tourism destination.
“We have a really clear vision that we’re going to be a sustainable place in Skellefteå,” says Kristina Sundin Jonsson, chief executive for the municipality of Skellefteå. “Everyone in the industry and in the municipality and in the city sector, has joined together for this common goal.”
In other words, this part of Swedish Lappland didn’t set out to become a green destination. It pursued sustainability as a community, because it was the right thing to do.
And now visitors can benefit from that decision. They can stay in treehouses and kayak along a river or go electric snowmobiling during the winter. Soon, they may be able to fly to this remote part of Scandinavia in an electric plane. It will be powered by batteries created at Skellefteå’s’s gigafactory.
In northern Sweden, they’re not just pushing the limits of sustainability; they’re redefining the rules. With green flights, wood hotels, and gigafactories, it’s as if they’ve taken a page from a sci-fi novel and turned it into reality.
