Aarhus was just voted the Cultural Capital of Europe 2017 by the European Union. My host dad is a native of this city, situated on the east coast of Jutland (mainland Denmark). He and the rest of the family lived there for some years before moving to Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on). This weekend I got a "speed tour" of the city. Going alone, I never would have been able to see much of the city, but my host family knew exactly where to go and how to get around. Here are some essential places to hit up in Aarhus. Aarhus Botanical GardensJust a quick walk from the Old Town (Den Gamle By), and it's free! Great architecture, awesome treehouse, lots of exotic plants, and fish that eat your dead skin. Den Gamle By (Old Town)A quick walk down the hill through the outdoor botanical gardens takes you to the Old Town. There is an entrance fee for adults, but students get a discount. This part of the city is split into sections from different eras, including the 17th century, the 1920s, and the 1970s, as if everything was frozen in time. Warning: there are some wax figures in a few buildings that scared me to death, so be on your toes. Dokk1 (Aarhus Public Library)The new public library and culture center is built mostly in concrete, yet it doesn't have the same cold feeling as its brutalist cousins. It really feels designed for people, and is meant for doing a lot for than just reading. There are playgrounds inside and out, an air hockey table, an electronic soccer court, great ramps for accessibility, and lots of natural light. Every corner of the place has something to play with or climb on. ARoS Kunstmuseum (Art Museum)Aarhus was once called Aros during the early Viking era. Now, Aros is the name of the contemporary art museum. The building has a famous circular rainbow walkway, "Your Rainbow Panorama" on the roof, an incredible experience to walk through. The lower level exhibition features huge sculptures: a helicopter, a chandelier, a gun, an armchair, all scaled up and constructed from common items like plastic cutlery, feathers, rotary phones, clothes irons, and pills. Åboulevarden (Canal Boulevard)In the city center is a quaint walking street called Åboulevard running along the canal, with foot bridges, nice public spaces, and bars, restaurants, and cafes all over. The area is cozy during summer, I hear, when it's warmer and livelier. I still thought it was worth a few photos, and I enjoyed the Italian food and beer we had there. Moesgaard Museum As we drove out of Aarhus and to the south, we entered a hilly forest. My host family calls this forest their old back yard, because they used to live right at the edge of it. As we drove on, a clearing of grass emerged, exposing a tall hill. Built into the hill is a concrete building, blending in to the surroundings with its grassy, sloped roof. The Moesgaard Museum is a newly built museum of human archaeology and ethnography. It's all about humans and our evolution over time. The main hall inside features a staircase with a progression of human ancestors, with Lucy the Australopithecus at the top, and Homo sapiens (us) at the bottom. The exhibits included one on the Stone Age, the Vikings, war, and one of the world's best preserved bog bodies.
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Sometimes learning theory in class can leave me needing something more. It's hard for things to really make an impression on me if I can't visualize it. Renewable energy was one of those things I've heard about and learned about over the last few years, but there was still a lot left to the imagination. Last week while our Core Course visited Ærø, we got up close and personal with renewable energy projects, including a wind farm and district heating plants that use solar energy and biomass. The wind farm was my favorite part. I've only seen wind turbines in pictures or from a distance in a car or plane. This time we drove right up to the base of the turbine and went inside. Ærø is a windy island, and these turbines were placed on the coastline where wind speeds allow the turbines to reach their max capacity. Being beneath one as it turns is both intimidating and incredible. The three wings of the turbine are each 40 meters (over 120 feet) long and they make hauntingly muted whoosh as the wind pushes them around. What I found most interesting about this particular wind farm is that they are owned by citizens of the island. When the farm was developed, community members could invest in the idea by buying shares of the farm. Electricity consumers pay their bills to a local utility, and the utility pays the shareholders each month for as long as the windmill is standing (expected to be at least 20 years). The project pays back in 8 years, so for the next 12+ years shareholders receive a profit. It was also amazing to see solar energy being used to heat homes. This was done via district heating, a system employed in dense areas where a single, large community furnace supplies hot water to its its customers for use in radiators and water heaters. District heating is very common in Denmark, especially in cities. About 60% of home have district heating. It also exists in the US, but almost exclusively for large commercial buildings in urban centers.
This district heating plant is special because it heats water with solar radiation, through a vast array of solar collectors. Solar collectors look at first like electric solar panels, but instead of producing electricity, they pass water through heated plates to make it warm. This heat is then transferred to homes and other buildings across the nearby town through underground pipes. Since Denmark doesn't receive that much sun in the winter, hot water collected in the summer is stored in HUGE tanks (tens of millions of liters), and the heat is used throughout the year. Even now in February, water in these tanks is still warm from summer! Heat loss is about 25%. Solar covers around 50-55% of total heat demand throughout the year. The rest of the demand is supplied by burning wood chips (see the mountain of wood chips in the photo above), and a small proportion is created using a geothermal heat pump, which transfers heat from the ground. Last week was Core Course Week. That means instead of having class like usual, we spent the entire week with our primary course. My core course is Sustainable Development in Northern Europe. Fittingly, we experienced examples of sustainable development across Copenhagen. Later in the week we travelled to Ærø, a beautiful island in the Southwest of Denmark. Ærø has some inspiring projects and initiatives, not to mention amazing landscapes. There, we toured an Organic Farm and saw a number of renewable energy projects. But back to Copenhagen. Here are a few quick takeaways:
So each Wednesday at DIS, we don't have class. Well, not in the classroom, at least. Wednesday is Field Visit day, which means our classes take visits to relevant sites around the Copenhagen area.
One of my classes is called Business Strategies in the Transition towards a Sustainable Economy. In class, we discuss what it would take to grow the economy without exploiting the environment beyond its boundaries. We talk about opportunities for businesses to create value with less environmental impact. This week our class visited Unilever Danmark AS, the Danish branch of Unilever, a global company with a huge number of brands, including Dove, Axe, Lipton, Hellman's, Ben & Jerry's, Knorr, and the list goes on. The company has a good environmental track record, many thanks to CEO Paul Polman, who has put sustainability at the center of the company's strategy. The company has set high standards for its many suppliers across the world, and is working on initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use all while continuing to deliver growth. During our visit, we heard a presentation from Henrico Drent, Managing Director at Unilever Denmark A/S. Here are some interesting points that came out of the presentation and our Q&A session with Henrico:
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