Annapolis and Anne Arundel County elected officials will travel to Sweden at the end of September to study sustainable infrastructure, alternative transportation solutions and environmental research.

The 17-person delegation, composed of representatives from the state departments of commerce and natural resources, Anne Arundel County, the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corporation, Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County, and the Resilience Authority, will leave Sept. 28, making stops in Stockholm and Gothenburg before returning Oct. 5, according to Matt Fleming, executive director of the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman and County Council member Lisa Rodvien, who represents Annapolis, along with Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and city Aldermen Rob Savidge, representing Ward 7, and DaJuan Gay, representing Ward 6 — all of whom are Democrats — will join the international trip.

The delegation plans to look at alternative transportation methods, including electric ferries, focusing on their economic potential and contribution to climate goals as outlined in the Climate Solutions Now Act — legislation passed in 2022 that sets a target to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60% below 2006 levels.

Plans to add ferries in and around the Annapolis area have come into the spotlight recently.

Last year, the City of Annapolis received a $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for an electric ferry that will run between Annapolis City Dock and Fifth Street in Eastport. Progress on the electric ferry is still in its preliminary stages, according to city officials, and there is no set completion date.

An August report evaluating the feasibility of a passenger ferry in Anne Arundel and other waterfront jurisdictions looked at potential routes, ridership estimates and vessel requirements, among other things. The study says the ferry could stimulate economic growth across the region, and almost half of potential riders surveyed indicated they would be interested in using it.

The weeklong trip will include site visits and discussions with manufacturers, transportation experts, urban planners and government leaders, giving the delegation opportunities to learn about sustainable infrastructure and urban design, resilient solutions, funding mechanisms and environmental research programs, according to Fleming.

Sweden is “a leader in combining sustainability with human well-being” both in science and action, Fleming said in an email Thursday. The country is “leading the way” on “climate-smart cities” and redeveloping old industrial areas as “efficient low-energy affordable housing connected with electric public transportation.”

“Building climate resilience and sustainability requires us to rethink the systems that supply our energy, transportation, food, water, and housing,” he said. “It requires practitioners to work across disciplines and sectors, something that has been historically difficult to achieve. Through this study tour and direct conversation and knowledge exchange, we seek to bring ideas, lessons learned and pitfalls to those who can turn them into action.”

Funding for the trip comes through private donations from the MHE Foundation and the Denker Foundation, both of which have a history of “stimulating and shaping ideas locally around complex challenges such as climate change and resource conservation and forging partnerships and sparking thinking across traditional disciplines and sectors,” Fleming said.

The trip to Sweden comes nearly a year after Annapolis officials went to the Netherlands to study resilience infrastructure, flood defenses and alternative transportation methods to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Just two months after city officials learned about different methods for stormwater management and flood protection technology, the city put some of those practices to the test when they deployed new flood mitigation barriers at the end of Newman Street ahead of a January storm that brought historic floodwaters to Annapolis. The storm marked the third-worst flooding event in the city’s history, Kevin Simmons, director of the Office of Emergency Management said in January.