The project "Brommaplan - a good environmental choice" was initiated in the autumn 1995 when the district shop keepers applied for funds from the Stockholm City Environment Fund for Agenda21, having the vision to boost the Center's image in a cost-effective and innovative way.

Brommaplan, a typical town center from the 1950s, is surrounded by around 60 businesses of all kinds, shapes and sizes. "When we, the members of the local business association, searched for new ideas to make our market place the automatic choice of shopping centre for people in the area, it was natural for me, with my background as an environmental co-ordinator, to choose the idea of an environmental project," said Jan Peter Bergkvist, Hotel Manager of Scandic Hotel Bromma at that time, Hotel Manager of Scandic Hotel Hasselbacken today.

In 1995 Scandic was the first hotel chain in the world to install a completely recycable and environment friendly system for soap and shampoo. Through this, the hotels have been able to reduce the shampoo emissions by 25 tons per year and reduce waste by 8,5 tons.

"We formed a project group including representatives of the companies, institutions and associations in the area and the municipality," Mr Bergkvist explained. "And we engaged an environmental co-ordinator on a part-time basis. The project group held a short meeting every month, discussed strategies and drew up guidelines, while our co-ordinator worked with the purely practical side; collected facts, trained the members and documented the project."

Since the project start up, the Agenda21 concept has become familiar to all who work at Brommaplan and to the customers. Today, among other things, one of the city's waste recycling depots is located at Brommaplan. An eco-map has been distributed to 42,000 local residents and several of the companies now have an Environmental Manager.