Swedish companies in China are utilizing their clean-tech acumen to help drive eco-friendly growth in the world's second-largest economy.

China is Sweden's second-largest export market for environmental technology, namely renewable energy sources and sustainable urban planning services.

China had invested 354 billion yuan ($55.6 billion) in clean energy by the end of last year, the most of any country in the world. The nation's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) emphasizes sustainable growth amidst the challenges posed by intensive energy use, scarce resources and pollution.

Sweden and China have partnered on the sustainability front for nearly a decade. The two countries jointly presented SymbioCity - a concept that promotes eco-friendly urbanization - at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa. In 2008, the Swedish government appointed former State Secretary Mats Denninger as the Nordic country's special emissary for clean-tech cooperation with China. The Swedish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo last year was designed so that it could be dismantled and reassembled in another location after the fair ended.

Swedish firms can draw on a history of success in sustainable business to help China achieve its clean energy and environmental protection objectives, said Anita Jonsson, director of the Swedish Trade Council in Shanghai.

"Swedish companies have long had some of the world's highest standards for production, labor law and transparency," she said. "The world's first sustainability conference was held in Stockholm in 1972."

With a small domestic market, many Swedish companies venture abroad to attain sustainable growth, she added.

Jonsson heads an initiative at the Trade Council called Swedish Sustainable Business (SSB) that trains Chinese suppliers of Swedish companies in environmentally friendly best practices. The three-year program covers supply chain management, finance and corporate social responsibility and includes seminars, workshops and executive education courses provided by Swedish and Chinese universities. The Trade Council runs SSB together with the Consulate General of Sweden Shanghai and the Shanghai International Sourcing Promotion Center, a local government organization that provides trading services for buyers and suppliers.

"Every year, 1,500 Chinese suppliers to Swedish companies participating in the SSB program strengthen their competitiveness significantly," Jonsson said. "It opens doors for them both domestically and abroad."

It is essential for companies to operate at the highest international standards to enter the European market, she added.

Sweden had the largest pavilion with 25 companies at a three-day environmental protection exhibition held in Nanjing in late November, Jonsson said. The Nanjing exhibition is a major event supported by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection. Swedish exhibitors were focused in the areas of air purification and waste-to-energy conversion.

The Environmental Protection Department of Jiangsu province and Sweden's Östergötland province signed an agreement at the exhibition to facilitate clean-tech training for Chinese delegations to Sweden.

"Our experience in clean-tech provides an opportunity to deepen cooperation with Jiangsu," said Elisabeth Nilsson, governor of Östergötland.

Paramount among Sweden's sustainability projects in China are low carbon eco-cities in Tangshan, Hebei province, and Wuxi, Jiangsu province, said Bengt Johansson, consul general of Sweden in Shanghai.

Both cities are intended to serve as models for urban development in China, with a focus on clean energy and design that facilitates eco-friendly transportation.

The Swedish sustainable engineering and design consultancy Sweco was commissioned to create the conceptual plan for the first phase of the Caofeidian International Eco-city in Tengshan, covering an area of 30 square kilometers. Caofeidian has been designed to house a population of 1 million people.

Caofeidian came about after China studied the sustainable technological solutions used in the Swedish eco-cities of Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm and Bo01 in Malmö, a sister city of Tangshan.

The Tangshan eco-city aims to be climate neutral, using up to 95 percent renewable energy, wrote Ulf Runhagen, chief architect at Sweco, in a research note. Plans are also in place to integrate accessibility, cost-effectiveness and aesthetics, he added.

Meanwhile, Tengbom, one of Sweden's leading architecture firms, has been commissioned to design an eco-city for 20,000 residents in a 2.4 sq km area of Wuxi's Taihu New City. Taihu is one of China's flagship sustainable urban areas, spanning 150 sq km with a planned population of 850,000. The eco-city's green technologies and systems can be used in the entire Taihu area, according to Vice-Mayor Fang Wei.

The Wuxi Sino-Swedish Low Carbon Eco-city will be constructed adjacent to a wetlands area north of Taihu Lake. Like Caofeidian, its design draws inspiration from Stockholm's Hammarby Sjöstad, an eco-city that lies on reclaimed industrial land south of Hammarby Lake.

"This project will bring the benefits of Swedish urban sustainable development to Wuxi," Swedish consul general Johansson said. "It will even be possible to drink the tap water there, which is far more energy-efficient than consuming bottled water."

Construction on the Wuxi eco-city will begin in early 2012 and require three years to complete.

"It takes time to build the water, heating, cooling and waste disposal systems in a sustainable way and integrate them into the overall concept," Johansson said.