Eco in Denmark: The 100% Renewable Energy Island

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: 

Samsoe (Samsø / Samso) is an island between island Sjaelland and the Jylland in Denmark, 114 square kilometres and 4000 inhabitants. We took a local ferry to find an island with top technology from both worlds! The farmers, the scientists, the locals and the top technical equipment for becoming a leading flagship of energy. Today, after 10 years of developement, Samsoe is hosting lots of "energy tourists" and curious energy enthusiasts from all over the world. How they made it happen, is a nice story itself. The key is participation. This trip was done August 9th to discover how this island is 100% self-sustained from renewable energy, and managed to get a guided tour around the wonderful island:

Above: Air heating and conditioning system

Eco in Denmark: Copenhagen eco city

I'm in Copenhagen. Because of the ecovillage development, unfortunately city developers think that the bunch of conscious consumers are moving out of the city and that there is no need for green market in the biggest cities. That is wrong. Green implementation can be done anywhere, and eco cities are starting to see the light - with China as a frontier so far (ShannonMay's projects etc). In Scandinavia, the leading eco city is by far Copenhagen. These few days of mine here, just confirms this by walking the streets. Above is an english presentation video and here are some great articles in norwegian language from norwegian tourist information centres about Copenhagen eco city:
Budstikka.no - "øko-Køben" (in norwegian)
http://www.visitkoebenhavn.no/content/turist-norsk/se_og_gjore/inspirasjon/gronne_kobenhavn/en_miljobevisst_by

Eco in Denmark: Motivation campaigns everywhere

The danish people, from private institutes and businesses -to governmental plans, are very good at public attitude campaigns through posters,products labels and commercials about global changes and personal growth, which we do not have this much in Norway.

It came as a shock to me to discover how well organized this informal arts-campaign works all over the region! In norwegian stores, the most common bag is a plastic bag when you buy something.

In a danish store, the most common bag is a recycled bag, and it is for the same amount of cost as a backwards-plastic bag in Norway, just alittle less than 1 DKK/1 NOK almost. Whereas recycled bags in Norways would cost 1,70 DKK/NOK almost and bags of other material than plastic - about 17 DKK/NOK.
I will post some examples of the messages printed. Even on the Coke bottle, which is made of recycled plant material by the way, one has a message. 

 And every train has a garbage bag with message, as well as every station has a poster with one. Shops and retails have recommended products with HUGE signs "Ecological" on the front row in the stores, and not hidden in the back of the store. I can name examples: Superbest, Super Brugsen, Lidl, and also the smaller ones.

CORE VALUES IN CULTURE: Without glorifying the danish people as one, it is something special of danish cultural spirit to do information like this, and few people complain about the informal arts because the individuals of danes have something rare in common; to develope common ground at the bottom-up philosophy. As it is not only governmental information, it shows that private businesses care just as much about core values of the people as any rural person does.

The danish people are very proud people of their core and stable social culture, so they keep feeding it to their citizens. If things like this happened in Norway, I think people would immediately start saying there are some few leaders trying to put an idealistic view into some peoples' minds. Instead in Denmark, it is a part of their culture to motivate and engage people in social core values.