IN BRIEF

A new feature in the landscape

An icon of sustainability

Copenhagen Towers, a landmark commercial building under construction in the capital’s Ørestad district, will feature not only the largest integrated solar panel system in Denmark but also the largest groundwater cooling plant. The design meets EU Green Building as well as Danish Low Energy Class II requirements.

The 2,500 integrated solar panels will generate enough electricity to supply the equivalent of 35 family homes, providing significant energy savings as well as substantially reducing CO2 emissions. The groundwater cooling plant will power an ultra-modern air conditioning system for the entire complex, delivering energy savings of 88% compared to conventional cooling plants.

Copenhagen Towers will comprise 180,000 m² of office space and an international hotel.

photo: Cph Towers

Worth knowing about

Womenomics

Men and women are different. Not just in the obvious ways, but in more subtle ways, like when they buy consumer electronics. Danish marketing and advertising agency Stoic and CE giant Samsung have been studying how women approach the task of buying a TV, and have discovered the potential in developing a shopping experience uniquely tailored to them.

Samsung chose Denmark for a very good reason – Danish women are known for their heightened skills in assessing design, quality and price. And by applying the science of womenomics, Stoic has provided valuable insight into the female market which will be translated not only into marketing directly purely at women, but also rethinking the retail space to create a new in-store shopping experience for women.

 http://www.stoic.dk

photo: Scanpix

... either as a point of contact for business or to add to your knowledge of what goes on in Denmark.

INDEX: AWARD

What is it?

INDEX: is a Danish non-profit organisation founded in 2002 with a mission to inspire design worldwide which improves life by responding to the needs of people in societies, both developed and developing. Every two years, INDEX: presents the world’s largest award – an EUR 500,000 purse financed by the Danish State – to winners in five design categories: Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.

How can it be useful to you?

The website is packed with information and ideas for design to improve life. Visitors can explore the calendar of events that take place all over the world, see the award exhibition, design cases, photo gallery and programmes, and read expert views on all aspects of design for improving life.

What is the web address?

http://www.indexaward.dk

Helping Chile learn English

The globalised world has chosen English as its common business language. And in Chile, where currently only 6% of the population speaks English, the government has chosen Danish company Mingoville to help the entire nation learn English through the medium
of internet-based teaching, reports financial daily newspaper Børsen.

The Chilean government’s decision to use Mingoville’s online English lessons forms part of a campaign “Chile habla inglés” (Chile speaks English) launched by the Chilean president, Michele Bachelet, who has spoken of the great urgency for Chileans to learn English since it is the language used by all international companies, not least for contracts and agreements.

Mingoville’s English tuition system, based on a colourful cartoon family of talking flamingos, will be used as a platform for all Chilean children and youngsters, while parents and even grandparents are being urged to join in, so that they can support the English education of their offspring.

http://www.mingoville.dk

Denmark in the news

Hero of the Environment 2009

Danish vegetable farmer Thomas Harttung, who in a decade has built the world’s largest doorstep delivery scheme for organic produce, has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment 2009.

In 1999, Harttung founded the company Aarstiderne – which means “The Seasons” in Danish – and began regular deliveries of organic produce grown on his farm in Jutland to 100 customers around the country. 10 years on, Aarstiderne is delivering to 40,000 Danish customers, and thousands more in Sweden and Germany.

The returnable wooden boxes used to deliver the chemical-free fruit and vegetables have a further function back at the farm. At
the end of their service lives they become fuel for a pyrolysis plant which supplies 60% of the farm’s energy needs, and the biochar serves as a valuable fertilizer with the ability to sequester CO2.

Photo: Thomas Harttung

Danes who made a difference

Photo: Scanpix

Arne Jacobsen

1902 - 1971

Arne Jacobsen was one of Denmark’s most influential architects and designers.

He created notable buildings both in Denmark and abroad, including the Danish National Bank, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and Mainz City Hall. He also excelled at furniture design. Many of his chairs are now classics, such as the Ant, the Swan, and the Egg.

But chair 3107 became his best known – because a copy of it featured in the iconic portrait of call girl Christine Keeler, taken at the height of a government scandal that rocked Britain in the 1960s.

Keep colds away – with yogurt

Danish ingredients concern Danisco has developed yogurt cultures that according to recent research reduce the risk of colds and influenza in young children, writes professional journal Ingeniøren (The Engineer).

Danisco is planning to launch cultures containing the new bacterial strains which reportedly produce the protective effect. But before it can go to market in the EU with the promotional claim, approval has to be obtained from the European Food Safety Authority.

This process can take several years, but Danisco doesn’t rule out the possibility of yogurts with the new cultures appearing on supermarket shelves as early as next year.

It just means they can’t be advertised as a means of fending off colds and flu.

The research study that produced the favourable results involved 326 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, and was conducted in the US and China.

http://www.danisco.com

A revolution in concrete

Photo: DTU

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has developed patented new construction principles for concrete that could halve material use and energy consumption, slash construction costs and make possible hitherto undreamed-of architectural expressions, reports financial daily newspaper Børsen.

Super-light structures, as the new concept is called, has been developed at DTU’s Department of Civil Engineering. Besides material and energy savings compared to traditional concrete and steel constructions, super-light structures

provide better thermal insulation and have greater resistance to fire, earthquakes and explosions. CO2 emissions associated with transport and construction are also significantly reduced.

DTU’s new technology can be used for buildings, bridges, offshore installations, tunnels and even ships. The October 2009 issue of the highly respected Magazine of Concrete Research featured DTU’s super-light structures.

http://www.super-light.dk

Did you know...

... that Denmark’s national flag, the 13th century Dannebrog, is the oldest state flag still in use?

Denmark in surveys

This autumn’s harvest of international surveys has seen Denmark gain the accolade of the world’s least corrupt country, the biggest proportional spender on education among OECD member states, and one of the world’s top 10 places for doing business.

Denmark consistently achieves high rankings in surveys of transparency and proper practice, and has done so again in Transparency International’s latest Global Corruption Report. The top three least corrupt countries in the latest ranking are Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden.

OECD’s report Education at a Glance 2009 also puts Denmark top of the class. The country invests an unrivalled 8% of GDP in education, compared to the OECD average of 5.3% and EU19 average of 5.4%. Even so, students recently blockaded schools across Denmark and marched on parliament to protest over classroom conditions and alleged cuts in state funding.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 report places Denmark 6th of 183 economies assessed for ease of doing business. Factors helping Denmark in the ranking included its flexible hiring and firing procedures, and speed of establishing a presence. It can take as little as six days to start up a company, and there is no fee.

Bookmark Denmark

If there’s an event in your interest area, why not bookmark it to attend? Denmark is a great place to visit!

Tourist niche for electric cars

Photo: Scanpix

Electric cars as mass transport in Denmark may be some way off yet, but an early niche market is appearing which could become quite a hit – hiring them out to holidaymakers for island touring.

The map of Denmark is dotted with small islands – around 400 of them – and several have become popular with tourists. Island tourist agencies eager to promote their green image have seized on electric car hire as a novel promotional vehicle.

A tourism spokesman for the Danish island of Ærø told financial newspaper Børsen: “In an island society electric cars are an obvious transport solution, and we want to be among the first. The environmental protection signal that an electric car sends, is one that we want to support.”

A full circuit of Ærø is comfortably within the range of the electric hire cars on offer, which can cover around 80 km on a full charge. The vehicles can be rented by the day or half-day.