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A sustainable destination
It should be easy to make sustainable choices in Gothenburg. When the destination’s offering is developed through broad collaboration, with shared responsibility and commitment, we strengthen both its attractiveness and its long-term sustainability.
The regional public transport provider, Västtrafik, has reduced CO₂ emissions per passenger kilometre by 72% between 2006 and 2024. The target is a 90% reduction by 2030, primarily through the electrification of buses. Trams have been electrified since 1902, and an increasing number of commuter ferries are now hybrid-electric.
Most of the public transport system is adapted to be accessible for people with physical disabilities. In 2024, 100% of buses, 90% of trams and 66% of all stops were fully accessible.
With more than 3,600 public charging points for electric vehicles, Gothenburg is one of the most accessible cities in Scandinavia when it comes to public charging.
Gothenburg is Sweden’s seventh greenest city, with 48% vegetation within the urban area, according to HUGSI – Husqvarna Urban Green Space Insights. There are several parks in the city centre, large nature reserves in the surrounding districts, and an archipelago stretching out to sea. The city’s green space amounts to approximately 171 m² per person, and the tree canopy cover in Gothenburg is 41%.
In 2021, Liseberg became the first amusement park in the world to receive the international sustainability certification ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management Systems. The park is powered entirely by wind energy and has its own wind turbine. As the first amusement park in the world, Liseberg implemented technology in 2017 to generate electricity from a ride. Visitors drink Fairtrade coffee, win eco-labelled chocolate and enjoy environmentally certified candy floss. Several of the park’s restaurants are “tap water” certified, meaning they offer fresh tap water and do not sell bottled water. The restaurants are also in the process of phasing out single-use plastics.
Gothenburg’s largest meeting venue, the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre, is certified under ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management Systems and is powered by 100% wind energy. The certification covers the hotel, spa, food and beverage, exhibitions, meetings and events.
96% of all hotel rooms (across hotels with more than 50 rooms) are environmentally certified.
The City of Gothenburg’s event and arena company, Got Event, has been environmentally certified under Svensk Miljöbas since 2004. The company operates nine arenas and works actively to use these venues and events as drivers of sustainable development. Its own event, the Gothenburg Horse Show, is sustainability-certified and used as a platform for several development projects.
A strong focus is placed on encouraging and making it easy to travel to the arenas in a climate-smart way, offering interpretation services through the in-house app “Got Event Tillgänglighet” (Got Event Accessibility), and improving energy efficiency. The energy used in the arenas comes from renewable sources. In the company’s own restaurants, all draught beer and coffee are organically certified.
The Port of Gothenburg was the first in the world to introduce shore power connections for ferries, reducing both climate impact and harmful air pollutants. Since 2022, tankers have also been able to use shore power.
Göteborg & Co, in collaboration with, among others, the University of Gothenburg/Centre for Tourism and Chalmers University of Technology, has developed the public tool “Travel and Climate”. It is used by visitors to calculate the climate impact of their own trips based on parameters such as transport, accommodation and food. The tool also provides tips on sustainable tourism and alternatives for reducing climate impact.
Landvetter Airport holds the highest possible certification level within the international Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) framework.
Vy Flygbussarna operates on HVO, a biofuel produced from residues from the agricultural and food industries.
There are 813 kilometres of cycle paths, more than 11,500 bicycle parking spaces, and dedicated cycle lanes where motorists must give way to cyclists. More than 100,000 journeys within the city are made by bicycle each day, and the goal is for 75% of residents to perceive Gothenburg as a good city for cycling by 2025.
In addition, the public bike-sharing system Styr & Ställ includes 1,750 bicycles across more than 130 pick-up and drop-off locations in Gothenburg and the neighbouring city of Mölndal.
To make the city more inclusive, Gothenburg is part of the innovation project European Citiverses Uniting for Inclusiveness.
Together with eleven partners from five European countries, and using new technology, the project will develop a digital solution based on Gothenburg’s digital twin, enabling everyone to explore the city in advance, for example via mobile devices. The project primarily focuses on families and children with special needs.
