Sustainable experiences in and outside Gothenburg

Go on a seafood safari in the Gothenburg archipelago

From April to October, you can join a seafood safari on the island Hönö in the Gothenburg archipelago. After the tour, you can either cook the catch yourself or have someone do it for you and enjoy a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in the harbour.

Kastor Boat trips use sustainably built boats with fuel efficient engines and use a yarn that opens the traps and releases the catch if they should be lost. The local diving club, Divers Against Ghost Nets, help the fishing boats to relocate lost traps.

The island Hönö is easily accessible by bus or car and ferry, about 30 minutes from central Gothenburg.

Paddle in and around Gothenburg

Kayaking, canoeing or stand-up paddleboarding is a close-to-nature and low-impact way to explore Gothenburg from the water. You can follow the city’s canals, head out along the coast, paddle in the archipelago or choose calmer lakes for a shorter nature outing. In and around Gothenburg, you’ll find staffed rental centres, guided tours and self-service stations where you book digitally and collect the equipment yourself.

Go camping in a tree

Want to get really close to nature? Try tree camping at Björsjöås in the nature reserve Vättlefjäll, 15 kilometers north of the city centre. Pevon Ecotourism offer unique outdoor experiences in cooperation with local stakeholders.

Try the tree tent as an adventure in its own right, or use it as a stop on the stretch Storås–Jennylund on the hiking trail Pilgrimsleden. You can also book guided outdoor tours or learn how to cook your own dinner over an open flame.

Discover new public art

Gothenburg overflows with art in the public space, including around a hundred large murals of various kinds. You can, among other things, experience the art with the map Gothenburg art by bike, which guides you on a 23 kilometers art tour. The map can be picked up from the Gothenburg Visitor Center at Kungsportsplatsen 2.

Visit Liseberg, the sustainable amusement park

Liseberg is finally open again, and there are lots of news in the Rabbit land and on the restaurant scene. Liseberg amusement park is not only the largest of its kind in the Nordics, they’re also aiming to be world leaders among sustainable amusement parks by the year 2025.

All the park’s attractions are run by 100 percent renewable energy, some of it from their own wind turbines, but also by reusing the energy created by certain rides and attractions. At Liseberg, you can eat sustainably at KRAV-labelled restaurants, indulge in organic cotton candy and win eco-labelled chocolate at the lottery stands. Every year, around 2000 tons of waste is sorted and all food waste is turned into biogas.

Go second hand shopping

There are lots of great second hand shops in Gothenburg. Explore the vintage and thrift shops in the city’s different neighbourhoods and enjoy a meal or “Swedish fika” at one of the many sustainably-focussed eateries. Across the river from the central station, on the island Hisingen, you’ll find shops like Björkåfrihet, CG Antikmarknad, Goa tider and many more at the stop Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen. Head south for carefully selected vintage items at Kvillehyllan and Melins retro.

Or why not head to the cosy neighbourhood Majorna, in the west? Here you’ll find places like Majornas saker från förr, Fabriken, Gbg Deco and several others. There are also plenty of cafes and restaurant with a wide selection of vegan and vegetarian food, like Blackbird, Kafé Gapet and Hängmattan Kö & Bar. And at Stadsmissionen’s restaurant Restaurang Svinn next to Stigbergstorget you can have a sustainable lunch with saved ingredients!

Visit a sustainable event

In Gothenburg there are several sustainable events to visit. The music festival Way Out West, which is organized once a year in August in the public park Slottsskogen, for example, has worked on being sustainable for a long time, and was also the first festival in Sweden to be KRAV-certified. All food served during the festival is vegetarian, which it has been since 2012. Another event that works with sustainability is the city festival Gothenburg Culture Festival, which is also arranged once a year. The festival is free, and offers everything from popular artists to children’s theater, outdoor cinema and new dining experiences. The idea of Gothenburg Culture Festival is to create and inspire a positive change in society.

Stay in a sustainable hotel

Around 91 percent of the hotel rooms in Gothenburg are environmentally certified, which makes the city one of the world’s most sustainable hotel cities. Comfort Hotel Gothenburg challenges the hotel industry with the goal of becoming Gothenburg’s most sustainable, and at Clarions Hotel Post, located in the old post office on the square Drottningtorget, they grow their own vegetables on the hotel’s roof. At the five-star Upper House, which is one of Europe’s largest environmentally certified hotels according to BREEAM, 93% of all waste is recycled.

Enjoy good, sustainable, high-quality food

Many restaurants and cafes in and around Gothenburg are working daily with sustainable ingredients. Restaurang Vrå is an example, which you’ll find at Clarion Hotel Post. Here, all ingredients are sustainable and traceable, and all seafood comes from wild stocks or from farmers they know. At restaurant Natur, they focus on seasonal ingredients with a focus on vegetables, and the bakery Cum Pane, which you can find both in the neighborhood of Olskroken and in the neighborhood of Majorna, works exclusively with organic ingredients.