Sour Dough Hotel

One of my plans for my maternity leave is to bake sour dough bread. Or it was my plan. I haven't started yet but with 4½ months to go so there's still time I guess!

If I already had started a sour dough batch I wouldn't have to worry (?) about who'd take care of it - as you probably know it has to be constantly "fed" flour and water - if we went on holiday, as I could just have it check into the world's first sour dough hotel! At only 200 SEK per week.

According to the owners the "guests" are treated really well during their stay and checking out fat and content, so maybe I should start one and have let it go on vacation right away?!

A Bit of Sweden Promotion

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.

Your Carbon Footprint and How to Offset It

Wondering how you can save energy - and limit your carbon emission - in your home? These are the most energy thirsty machines in your home:

* Laser printer
* Plasma TV
* Projector
* LCD TV
* Playstation 3
* XBox 360
* Amplifier
* Ink writer
* PC
* Media PC

Turn them off - don't leave them on stand-by - and use them sparingly if you can!

And how you can offset not just your energy use in your home but also car journeys, air flight, etc? Here's a list of companies and organisations that offer reduction units, i.e. ways to climate compensate, that the Swedish Energy Agency recommends (NB! The list will be updated regularly):

Tricorona
Uwab (only companies)
Klimatneutral (only companies)
Atmosfair
Klimat Statoil
Miljobörsen
Svenska naturskyddsförening (Swedish Nature Conservation Society)
Utsläppsrätt (starting later this year

The organisations are recommended by either/both the UN and the EU.

I can tell you that I compensated the carbon emissions caused by my trip to London this past week! Although I didn't use of these sites but did it directly through British Airways. Hopefully the money goes to a useful project!

Still A Long Way to Go

Sweden may be one of the most gender equal countries in the world, but in some areas we are far from reaching the goal. Some stats:

Women in the 20 biggest stock-listed companies' boards
2005: 16.1%
2006: 18.1%
2007: 18.3%

Swedish stock exhange companies completely lacking women on their boards
Industrivärden
Handelsbanken
Skanska
Volvo
SCA
Nordea
Telia
Sonera

The share of newly appointed board members who are women
2005: 20.6%
2006: 26.9%
2007: 16.8%

Share of female chairs
2005: 0%
2006: 0.7%
2007: 2.7%

Board election committees
Women: 18
Men: 84

7 election committees completely lacked women

(Source: Svenska dagbladet)