Thought I'd list some studies and surveys I've come across recently that give Sweden top grade in the various areas compared. You are allowed to be proud of your country, right!
- * Sweden among the world's best trade nations - Only Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Denmark score higher. Why? The answer is smooth border administration, efficient transportation and communication systems and a thriving business environment.
- * Northern Europe 'better' for SMEs - This includes Sweden among the top six or seven countries.
- * Stockholm, Europe's first green capital - The first "winner" of this new European award is Stockholm (for 2010). Stockholm is good at including environmental aspects in its city planning and have made much progress on problems such as air pollution, traffic, greenhouse gas emissions and waste management. (Although this work has been slowed down since the current local government came into power, in my view.)
- * Sweden promotes climate-smart food - Climate-smart food is the topic for one of the conferences held under the Swedish Presidency of the EU. Sweden has sent out guidelines for climate-friendly food choices - basically advice to reduce one's meat and rice consumption -, the first of their kind, for reactions and inspiration from other EU countries. According to Swedish statistics, Swedes eat an average of ten kilos per person more meat annually than ten years ago (making it 65 kilos a year). Ten kilos! That's a big change in only ten years! Did you know that one kilo of beef contributes up to 15-25 kilos of greenhouse gases - which is ten times more than the carbon footprint of the equivalent amount of chicken?! Think about this next time you go shopping! I'm not asking you to become a vegetarian - I'm not either - but I try to limit the amount of meat (any kind) I eat. A piece of meat gives you protein for four days so it's not like you have to eat meat every day.
- * Sweden most innovative country in the EU - Sweden is one of the "innovation leaders" together with Finland, Germany, Denmark and the UK (in that order). Sweden is especially strong when it comes to human resources, investments in R&D and measures to promote innovation in companies. Something that could still improve is commercialising discoveries and innovations, a general problem for Europe.
- * Sweden most sustainable society - The results is based on 2 indicators including air and water quality, health, renewable energy use, gender equality and education.
