Boden is facing a historic green social transformation where H2 Green Steel’s planned investment in green hydrogen-based steel production is an important accelerator. In just two to three years, the municipality of Boden will grow and develop to a degree that corresponds to a step of 15–20 years.
The work is about everything from planning new sustainable housing areas to building infrastructure, schools and attracting skills to the region. It is the mayor Mats Berg who leads the conversion work via a tailored project group.
Mats Berg, municipal manager
– It is a long-term strategic work where we must be brave and persistent to be able to pursue this line that we believe in. It was important to get started quickly and develop the traditional municipal organization. Work environmentally controlled, but at the same time have a great deal of openness and transparency in the process, says Mats Berg.
Four important areas
In order to be able to change society, the project group has developed four focus areas: skills supply, infrastructure, business and living and living. Skills supply is about the fact that the ongoing green new industrialization will require a large influx of people, not only in Boden but in the entire region.
– We know that all the skills that will be needed are not in Sweden, so we look up and see the world as our recruitment base, says Mats Berg.
Boden is facing major infrastructure investments that involve everything from expanding the district heating network with waste heat from green steel production, to railways and roads that will meet the needs of industry. It should also give people the opportunity to make climate-smart and healthy choices when getting to and from work.
– We will create modern ways of commuting to work, find ways to smarter public transport. It should also provide increased safety, closeness, well-being and increased focus on the individual’s needs, says Mats Berg.
“Large unused electricity supply”
The business community in the Boden-Luleå region will be developed by attracting new large companies and helping to create new businesses in the wake of their establishment.
– We have a very large unused electricity supply that is good for energy-intensive companies. We look outwards and invest in attracting companies from all over the world. The establishment of H2 Green Steel is only a first step in the green industrialization of the future, says Mats Berg.
Living and living that is about building a sustainable society, both ecologically and socially.
– We will develop and offer attractive, sustainable living environments where people feel good and can develop both in the city and in the countryside, among other things by strengthening the range of leisure activities and making major investments in schools and care, says Mats Berg.
Illustration of how we think about the green social change. Circular, durable and close.
Boden is facing a historic green social transformation. It is about working with energy symbiosis and developing a circular industrial area where we take advantage of waste heat from data centers and hydrogen production that can be used in greenhouses to grow food.
– There are enormous amounts of waste heat that can be used for things that we can not really predict today and therefore research and development will be important in the transformation of society.
20 years of development in three years is a daring investment, how is that possible?
– It is a challenge but we will need to work in a new way in the municipal organization together with companies, civil society, associations and business. We are something very exciting on the tracks, what we see is a new way to organize, control and lead a municipality.
