Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
THE CITY OF THE FUTURE
Copenhagen has set the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025. Its innovative ways of achieving that target offer tourists an immersive experience as well, finds
is not a city of superlatives. It isn’t looking to draw tourists with the world’s largest ferris wheel, tallest observation deck, or largest mall. Instead, it’s looking to grow sustainably and get tourists to move away from the crowded centre of the city (after they’ve taken that selfie at the colourful Nyhavn waterfront) and explore the other offerings of the Danish capital. But at its unique waste-to-energy plant, CopenHill, you will find the world’s tallest climbing wall, which rises up the facade of the world’s first waste burning plant to be capped with a U-shaped ski slope. On a tour, the plant’s communication consultant, Sune Scheibye, said, “We wanted to make something that was the cleanest, most energy-efficient plant in the world.”
When I visited in August 2019, there were still a few months to go before Amager Bakke, as it’s locally known, would open (in October that year), but there was more than enough greenery—grass and flowers, bees, and according to Scheibye, even a late-night wandering fox captured on CCTV—to portend its popularity as a ski slope and hiking track in the city. Standing atop CopenHill, it didn’t take an imaginative mind to see how the roof could come alive with skiers, hikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts. An added bonus is its height, which offers breathtaking views of the city—Frederik’s Church (marmorkirken.dk), The Royal Danish Playhouse (kglteater.dk), the fastchanging neighbourhood of Nordhavnen, and even Noma (noma.dk) are some of the landmarks one can spot. But for tourists (and locals), what matters is the ability to try their hand at skiing down an urban, man-made mountain, complete with ski lifts. This past summer, the building hosted a jazz and cocktail event, giving residents ample room to maintain social distancing while enjoying the summer sun.
It is only the latest salvo in the Danish capital’s goal to show the world that sustainability can be built into the fabric of a city, instead of being shoehorned into design, urban planning, and even food systems after the fact. Using cuttingedge sensors and particle capture technology in its single towering chimney, the waste-to-energy plant emits just 15 per cent of the emissions that other comparable energy producers release.
This is a city that, pre-COVID, saw 62 per cent of its inhabitants commuting on cycles and that has invested in a new metro line to make shuttling around the city a breeze. For tourists, Donkey Republic (donkey.bike) offers hasslefree bike rentals, but that’s for when you’re familiar with the city. If you’re looking to get acquainted, consider one of Cycling Copenhagen’s tour, which will introduce you to the city’s bike-only infrastructure, from bridges like the Brygge and Circle to ‘highways’ that sometimes soar high and offer bird’s-eye views of traffic-filled roads to parks where summertime picnics are the norm. I didn’t realise that over the course of my three-hour tour, I had covered almost 13 kilometres in a closed loop, which served as a confidence boost to make the cycles an integral part of the rest of my trip. Along the way, we stopped to see Hans Christian Anderson’s grave, the food-filled Meatpacking District, and of course, the procession of buildings along the waterfront— from BLOX (blox.dk), the modern culture centre, to the postcard-perfect, rainbow-hued buildings of Nyhavn. Transiting through the harbour, we pedalled past swimmers at the harbour baths, diving into the water and making the most of the summer sun. Older residents remember not being able to swim in the water, polluted thanks to the city’s port and the cargo ships that regularly anchored on the coast. Over time, though, the port has moved further away from the centre of the city.