Today, Oslo is a modern, busy capital, yet more than two-thirds of the municipality’s acreage is protected forest, waterways, and agricultural land. This means 95% of inhabitants have a park or open green space within 300 metres of their homes, many of them linked by convenient paths. Notable green spaces include the Slottsparken, a 54-acre park surrounding the Royal Palace, the Botanical garden in Tøyen and the Medieval Park in Oslo’s medieval neighbourhood.

Oslo’s aim, put simply, is to be the most sustainable city in the world—and to inspire others to follow in its footsteps. The city has implemented some of the most effective climate and environmental measures in Europe. In 2016, Oslo set itself some highly ambitious goals, including an emission reduction of 95% by 2030. This is being done not by offsetting, but by implementing actual emissions cuts. In just one year, from 2016 to 2017, emissions were reduced by 9%.

In 2017, the city’s first, ground-breaking Climate Budget was implemented, requiring authorities to "count carbon the way we count money." It shows municipal agencies where emissions must be cut and who is responsible for implementing adopted measures. That budget includes education, and in spring 2020, the ‘Climate House’ will open at the Natural History Museum in the Botanical Gardens at Tøyen, just part of Oslo’s funding for educating the next generation about climate change and emission reduction.

The city’s Business for Climate network was founded in 2010 and currently consists of over 100 business partners working towards the achievement of Oslo's climate goals. The partners actively participate in the creation of strategies, measures and instruments within the field of emission reduction and adaption. The network also acts as an arena for dialogue, where the Climate Agency can inform the business community about priorities and policies, and best practice can be shared.

A city with a green vision

Oslo has been working towards the ambitious goals of its 2016 Climate Strategy. However, a new strategy for 2020-2030 was launched in August 2019 and it’s likely to be adopted by the end of this year, so let’s look at what the city is working on now, and its plans for an even greener future.

Green Mobility

The mobility sector is the main source of emissions in Oslo, so green mobility solutions are key to its efforts to become a zero emission city. Oslo claims to be ‘the electric vehicle capital of the world’ and with the highest number of electric vehicles in the world per capita, that seems fair! The city has become a laboratory for the testing of new electric transport solutions as it transforms into a city where pedestrians and cyclists take precedence over private cars. As this happens, the Car-free Liveability Programme is repurposing parking spaces into areas and facilities that benefit the community, such as bike lanes and stands, benches and green lungs.

The government has ensured electric vehicles are cheap to buy, offering exemption from purchase tax and VAT, while city authorities have offered incentives such as free parking in the city centre, access to taxi lanes, a rapidly developing free charging infrastructure and reductions or exemptions from toll fees. One in five private cars here is now electric and when it comes to new car sales, two out of three new private purchases have been electric so far this year, proving that Oslo truly leads the way on electric vehicles.

From 2023 onwards, all taxis in Oslo will have to be zero emission and soon, Oslo will be the first city in the world to install wireless charging systems for electric taxis, hoping to make recharging quick and efficient enough to increase the take-up of non-polluting cabs. The project will use induction technology, with charging plates installed in the road at taxi ranks. This is more energy efficient and will be much quicker and more convenient than conventional charging, enabling taxis to charge while they’re in slow-moving queues at taxi ranks.

Public transport is steadily going green and already, most public transport journeys are powered by renewable energy. The target is for all public transport to run on renewable energy by 2020 (such as biogas produced from household food waste) and to be totally emission free by 2028. As of this year, 10% of the city’s 1200- strong bus fleet, run by public transport company Ruter, is electric.

Oslo established its first Metro line in 1966 and today, its Metro is one of the largest in Europe. New investment and expansion are planned, including a new line to the Fornebu peninsula in Bærum. A new fleet of modern trams is planned for 2020-21 too. They will be more spacious and accessible than much of Oslo’s older stock, with step-on at street level.

A Green Port

Oslo Port is taking a lead in developing emission free solutions, aiming to reduce its emissions by 85% by 2030 and become emission free by 2050. Traditionally, ships use their own fossil powered generators for lighting, ventilation, heating and technological equipment, but the Port provides shore-based electrical power from the onshore, hydro-powered grid. By 2020, all ferries going from Oslo to Denmark and Germany will use shore-based power, reducing the port’s annual CO2 emissions by 5000 tonnes.

Carbon Capture and Storage

At the waste incineration and energy recovery plant at Klemetsrud, the City of Oslo and Fortum are testing ground breaking technology to capture and store carbon (CCS), supported by the national government. CCS in waste incineration plants solves two problems in one: waste management and emissions. The aim is to develop a full scale facility at Klemetsrud and build the most world's most advanced facility for CCS, which could remove atmospheric pollution equivalent to that produced by 60,000 cars every year!

Greener Blue Space: Reviving Oslo’s Waterways

Oslo has ten main waterways, equating to 354 km of rivers and streams. Once covered due to issues with pollution, sewage leakages, and convenience for urban development, they are now being reopened. This will help prevent flooding and is increasing biodiversity, water quality and recreational opportunities for residents. In the past decade, 2,810 metres of waterways have been reopened and the City plans to open up 30 more stretches, including an additional eight kilometres in the next decade.

Several of the projects are planned and developed as natural cleaning systems. Sedimentation basins, water rapids and shallow waters with dense vegetation for the uptake of excess nutrients provide a sustainable solution for water management and pollution control. The City endeavours to make the aquatic habitat and surrounding environment as natural as possible and create natural bottom substrates for invertebrates and fish. This has restored migration paths for fish, enabling breeding and population growth of migratory fish in the region—and where there are fish, there are people fishing! The Aker river offers urban fishing alongside swimming, salmon spotting and great riverside cafés when it’s time for a break, and even Alna Park in the middle of Oslo offers trout fishing in the river.

The bee highway

Another scheme helping the city’s pollinators is the bee highway. In 2014, the urban guild of beekeepers ByBi began designing a project to create a bee highway through the city, ensuring that bees had a place to rest and eat as they travelled or migrated. Working alongside state bodies, businesses, associations, residents and school children, the guild created a ‘pollinator passage’ that includes parks, rooftop gardens, urban gardening projects and strategically placed beehives, stretching from Holmenkollen in the north-west, to Lake Nøkkelvann in the south-east.

Residents continue to support and expand the project by planting flowers on their balconies and erecting bug hotels, with some even getting their own beehives, so that there are now very few places in Oslo where a bee cannot get a meal and have a nap!

There are two particularly impressive beehives to be found on top of Dansens Hus in the Vulkan neighbourhood, near by the river Akerselva. These beehives were designed by Snøhetta, who also designed the Oslo Opera House. Nothing is too good for the bees!

The city's municipal government has established more than 10 meadows, and support workshops taught by botanists on scything and planting the bee zones. They’re also taken the bee highway into account when considering city planning. Vice Mayor for Environment and Transport, Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, says that Oslo wants to share what they've learned while establishing these projects with other cities.

“We know that we need to protect and restore biodiversity even as we build new homes. In a city that is growing fast, it’s also important to make it nice to live. That means good quality green areas,” she says. “We’d like to transfer the knowledge that we have to other cities.”

Green hospitality and green events in Oslo

As you’d expect, Oslo offers plenty of green event options. Oslo Congress centre has a total capacity of 1,400 people and years of experience at hosting a variety of events. The centre is Eco-Lighthouse certified and offers 25 well-equipped conference rooms and an exhibition area.

Norway Congress Centre, otherwise known as Norway Trade Fairs, is Norway’s biggest conference centre and its largest hall can seat 6,000 people. This Eco-Lighthouse certified venue is ideally located by the train station in Lillestrøm, between Oslo Central Station and Oslo Airport, offering easy access by public transport or car.

For something a little different, you could hold your event at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, which offers 14 conference rooms, or Popsenteret, Oslo’s pop music museum, which has 3 conference rooms and banqueting capacity for 220 people. Both venues are Eco-Lighthouse certified.

Hotel groups known for their solid sustainability policies are well-represented in Oslo. The Scandic group has nine hotels here, including the historic Holmenkollen Park, just a few minutes from the famous Holmenkollen Ski Jump and offering fantastic views of the city and the fjord. The hotel holds the Swan eco-label and offers a spa and fitness centre, a gourmet restaurant and a café and pizzeria for more relaxed dining. There are numerous meeting rooms and event spaces, with the largest accommodating up to 800 people, and a total conference capacity of 1,500 participants.

Radisson Blu has two hotels in Oslo, and the Scandinavia has a cocktail bar on its 21st floor that offers great views of the city. It can accommodate a total of 1,000 conference participants, and its largest meeting room has capacity for 750 people.

The Thon group has 13 Oslo hotels. The Eco-Lighthouse-certified Hotel Opera is conveniently located next to Oslo Central Station with the Airport Express Train and great public transport links on its doorstep. Its largest meeting room accommodates 220 people and there’s capacity for 780 conference delegates in total.

For something a little different, Losby Manor is a beautiful manor house dating from 1850, situated on one of Norway's best golf courses. This hotel and conference centre holds the Eco-Lighthouse certification and offers a great activity programme (which obviously includes golf!). It can accommodate a maximum of 685 conference participants, with its largest meeting room accommodating 180 people.

Sustainable dining in Oslo

The saying, “You are what you eat” is literally true, and foodies looking to be as green as their environmental values are certainly spoilt for choice in Oslo. The Urban Farm of Losæter, with its therapeutic ‘sensory garden’, chickens and beehives, is open to visitors. The farm says it has “room for everyone who wants to participate in the continuous creation of a green urban space in what used to be a pile of gravel.”

If eating food is more to your taste than growing it, visit Vippa Food Hall, a reused wharf building at Vippetangen pier, where cultures are brought together through their cuisines and employment is offered to immigrants and food entrepreneurs. Here, you’ll find international street-food made with short-travelled ingredients.

Sagene is an up-and coming district with a green-themed square. Nearby is the Ekte Vare Café, where you can enjoy dishes made with organic, short-travelled ingredients and shop in its grocery and home goods store, where products are carefully selected for ecology and sustainability and the emphasis is on supporting Norwegian small scale producers. One of the company’s chief objectives is to ‘become a hub for knowledge of food, ecology and sustainability’ and they run regular organic cooking courses.

Between March and October, you can take a ferry to the Bygdøy peninsula. The ferry departs every 20/30 minutes from City Hall Pier 3, stopping first at Dronningen, where you can visit the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and the Viking Ship Museum and then on to Bygdøynes, where you can spend time at the (the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Fram Museum. While you’re there, you can walk through the lovely urban forest with its fairy-tale sights and stop off at Sæterhytten, its picturesque wooden café, for a meal or a snack.

If you’re still craving museum experiences, 2020 is going to see the opening of Oslo’s new Munch Museum, new Deichman library and new National Museum; all currently being built in an environmentally conscious manner with features that minimise their carbon footprints.

Hikers will find plenty to see along the Akerselva river’s eight-kilometre hiking trail. You can spot salmon, crayfish, frogs, and around a hundred species of birds. The river has 20 waterfalls and Hjulafossen is the mightiest, reaching its peak in springtime. If you want to be on the water, Oslo offers island-hopping trips or kayaking, but if you feel more at home on land, you could try horse-riding or visit Oslo Summer Park, the city’s Eco-Lighthouse-certified climbing park offering 12 trails of varying difficulty.

When your busy day has built up your appetite, enjoy dinner at the three Michelin star restaurant Maaemo, serving world-class gourmet meals based on local and organic produce, or at the Restaurant Rest ('leftover'). Here, dishes are concocted from ingredients that other eateries are unlikely to use. Strangely shaped carrots and the usually discarded parts of the crab are just some of the items likely to be on the menu.

To finish off your evening, head to Torggata Botaniske Bar for a tasty, botanical cocktail made with fresh herbs. One of their most popular drinks is ‘Miss Basil’, made of gin, lemon, simple syrup and, of course, basil.