Copenhagen, Denmark's Amager Bakke Incinerator to Feature Ski Slope and Rooftop Picnic Area

Stroll along Copenhagen’s waterfront and the horizon is punctuated by the smokestacks from the power station at the tip of Amager island. Construction has just begun on a replacement that will run on fossil-fuel free biomass when it opens in 2020. Beside the power plant, the final touches are being put on the striking aluminium facade of Amager Bakke, an incinerator that will double as a recreational space for the city when it opens next year – complete with an artificial ski slope running down its wedge-shaped roof.

Both plants will be green totems for Copenhagen’s ambitions to be the first city in the world to go zero-carbon by 2025, with the incineration plant claiming to be the cleanest burning building of its kind in the world.

But they are also emblematic of something bigger: how industry is trying to transform into something cleaner and greener.