Sustainability & Responsibility : Planning for a Sustainable Consumption in Sweden, within the Image of a Lively City

Urban planning in the 21st Century has a desire to create and plan for a lively city, where its public meeting places and consumption ensure a social and economic sustainability. In a lively city, commerce and retail has a significant role to attract residents and tourists. The latest Living Planet Report from 2016 shows that Sweden has one of the highest Ecological Footprint in the world, that illustrates the unsustainable behaviour of consumption. There is a significant conflict in planning for a lively city with commerce as attraction, when the consumption behaviour in Sweden has gone out of control. This study will investigate this conflict and examine how the discussion of commerce and consumption can proceed towards a discussion of a sustainable consumption, without changing the image of a lively city. The thesis applies a case study of Eskilstuna, an eco-friendly municipality in Sweden where sustainable consumption is on the local agenda. In 2015, the reuse galleria ReTuna was opened with an aim to change consumption patterns and behaviour and reduce our waste. The study will examine how a municipality of Sweden and spatial planning can handle these issues, in theory and practice, to take the sustainable responsibility