The Bumle Bee is changing the planet!

Two years ago I was invited as a guest of honour and key-note speaker to Övertorneå and their 25 year anniversary as an Eco-Municipality.

This was the beginning of a new partnership between me and the first Eco-Municipality in Sweden, where I among other things have hold so called "Process Leader Trainings".

To be back in my home town where I was in charge of the initial development process during the 1980's, has been very much of a nostalgic journey for me personally. Although I always have had some kind of contact and visited it every now and then, I was astonished to discover how Övertorneå has matured as an Eco-Municipality. Despite all challenges they have to face, and the fact that the transition process moves much slower than it did during the 1980's, "eco-thinking" and a strong identity and pride in being an Eco-Municipality is broadly spread in the community. And they have come very far in the transition to become a fossil free municipality.

Övertorneå was the "Bumble Bee" who changed the world as we describe it in Sarah James' and my book "The Natural Step for communities". Övertorneå got a national award during the 1980's. And it was the honourable man who gave us the prize who called us the Bumble Bee. In theory the Bumble Bee can't fly. But, the Bumble Bee doesn't care. It just fly. This was the attitude of the establishment at that time. They didn't understand what we were doing. But they saw the results in terms of new jobs and new companies. By doing what we did during the 1980's we become a role model for others to do the same. In the Agenda 21 document från the UN summit in Rio 1992 it's proclaimed that every local authority world wide must start up similar processes as the Bumble Bee in the very north of Sweden had done. Övertorneå was the first one, but considering all the challenges humanity has to face we need Bumble Bees all over the world!

Ever since I had to leave my hometown in the end of the 1980's, I have been convinced that the global transition to a sustainable world must be driven by a global grass root movement where the local and regional authorities play an essential role. Two years ago I was invited to the first international Eco-Municipality Conference ever in Helsingborg in southern Sweden. Almost 100 participators from 14 countries from 6 continents came together to form the first global network of Eco-Municipalities. A twenty year dream was realized!