It's not easy being green.....or is it?

Urban ski slope at the waste-to-energy plant

Denmark is a leader in environmental sustainability, renewable energy, and overall green living.  The country has a goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050.  The City of Copenhagen's goal is to get there by 2025.  Green roofs -- roofs with vegetation -- are now mandatory.  Bicycles are ubiquitous.  We remember Amsterdam having a lot of bikes.  Copenhagen may have them beat.  We learned that 35,000 people commute to work each day in Copenhagen by bicycle.  The city has bicycle counters on the main bridge into the city center so this number is very accurate.

One of the more novel ideas we saw was the City's new waste-to-energy plant.  Waste-to-energy plants themselves are not new technology.  What Copenhagen did was to make their's dual purpose.  The city is at sea level and very flat.  Because of the necessary building height of 85 meters, they created a ski slope so resident's can ski in the winter.  They put an artificial surface on it so it can be used year round.