Nokem Hotel
Without chemicals, society slides back to the Stone Age. A life with no comforts at all.
People are widely worried about chemicals, and just as widely unaware of how much we actually need them. That goes for the general public and, more worryingly, for the politicians making the decisions. The political conversation runs on a single track: avoid, regulate, ban. Almost nobody talks about what chemicals make possible or the good they do for society. But regulate them too hard and the trade-offs get real. We’d have to give up things that matter, from pharmaceutical production to the everyday comforts we never stop to think about.
IKEM, the trade association for Sweden’s innovation and chemical industries, wanted to take the heat out of that worry and get more people to see the upside: politicians first, the public second.
As it happens, comfort in the form of somewhere to sleep is exactly what politicians scramble for during their annual high mass, Almedalen Week in Visby. Every year the same refrain: where do we find a place to stay during Almedalen? That handed IKEM the perfect opening to show blinkered politicians what chemicals actually do for them, in the one week when the whole country turns its attention to politics.
So ahead of Almedalen 2024, we opened NOKEM Hotel: a chemical-free hotel stripped of every comfort people take for granted.
