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Location Finland, Europe

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Finland.

  • News Why Europe is dismantling its dams, BBC Future (Mar 05, 2024)
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Networks and sustainability initiatives[edit | edit source]

Events[edit | edit source]

Regular events

Restaurant Day 2015, Visit Helsinki, approximately once every three months

Community involvement[edit | edit source]

Yhteismaa (Common Ground), a Finnish non-profit dedicated to participatory city culture and placemaking

Community resources[edit | edit source]

Sompasauna, wood burning self-service public sauna in Helsinki built and maintained by a group of volunteers.

Community energy[edit | edit source]

Finland's Renewable Energy

Wikipedia: Renewable energy in Finland, Finland National Renewable Energy Action Plan, Solar energy in Finland

Climate action[edit | edit source]

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Climate change has far reaching impacts on the natural environment and people of Finland. Finland was among the top five greenhouse gas emitters in 2001, on a per capita basis. Emissions increased to 58.8 million tonnes in 2016. Finland needs to triple its current cuts to emissions in order to be carbon neutral by 2035. Finland relies on coal and peat for its energy, but plans to phase out coal by 2029. Finland has a target of carbon neutrality by the year 2035 without carbon credits. The policies include nature conservation, more investments in trains, changes in taxation and more sustainable wood burning. After 2035 Finland will be carbon negative, meaning soaking more carbon than emitting.

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Police estimate that 10,000 people attended the April 2019 climate peace march in Helsinki. In January 2020 99% of Finns said action must be taken to stop climate change.

Ethical consumerism[edit | edit source]

Buy Nothing Day

Sustainable transport activism[edit | edit source]

Train schedules: VR.fi EN

Bus timetables and routes in Helsinki region: HSL.fi EN

Open spaces[edit | edit source]

Green Hearts, Park Walks in Helsinki

Food activism[edit | edit source]

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Restaurant Day

In big cities, people of many different cultures live in close proximity. However, there often aren't enough chances for them to intermingle and experience the diverse traditions within their city. In an effort to bring people together and foster cross cultural interaction, local organizers in Helsinki, Finland, created "Ravintolapäivä," or Restaurant Day. Initiated in 2011, it began as a food carnival where anyone with a passion for food was encouraged to run a "restaurant" in their private home or in public spaces for a single day. Even though the pop-up restaurants charge money for the meals, the emphasis is not on profit, but rather on community teamwork and cultural exchange. During the event, Helsinki is transformed by hundreds of these informal restaurants serving a wide range of cuisines in this city-wide street festival. The event is put on through distributed organization — individual volunteer restaurateurs are responsible for finding a location, managing the menu and invitations, and setting the meal prices. Now, Restaurant Day has become a global movement, with over 27,000 pop-up restaurants having served over 3 million community members across 75 countries. —Khushboo Balwani[1]

Other initiatives

Cottages and Allotments, City of Helsinki

Towards sustainable economies[edit | edit source]

The federal government of Finland is currently (Oct 2017) conducting an experiment of the effects of a basic income on unemployed citizens, which began in January 2017 and will conclude in December 2018.[2]

Basic Income Experiment 2017–2018

wikipedia:Cleantech Finland

Citizens data initiative[edit | edit source]

Urban Facts, open data at the City of Helsinki.

Maps[edit | edit source]

Helsinki Region Transport - Vehicles, bus and tram (English)

Google Maps Location

Research[edit | edit source]

wikipedia:Finnish Environment Institute

Apps for sustainability[edit | edit source]

Täsä, city of Turku. Mobile app, which helps capture citizens' ideas regarding urban development sites.

About Finland[edit | edit source]

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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers a total area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi), including a land area of 303,815 square kilometres (117,304 sq mi), and has a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish; 84.9 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue and 5.1 percent the latter. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.

Finland was first settled around 9000 BC after the last Ice Age. During the Stone Age, various cultures emerged, distinguished by different styles of ceramics. The Bronze Age and Iron Ages were marked by contacts with other cultures in Fennoscandia and the Baltic region. From the late 13th century, Finland became part of Sweden as a result of the Northern Crusades. In 1809, as a result of the Finnish War, Finland was captured from Sweden and became an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire. During this period, Finnish art flourished and the independence movement began to take hold. Finland became the first territory in Europe to grant universal suffrage in 1906, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Finland declared its independence. A civil war was fought in Finland the following year, with the Whites emerging victorious. Finland's status as a republic was confirmed in 1919. During World War II, Finland fought against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and later against Nazi Germany in the Lapland War. As a result, it lost parts of its territory but retained its independence.

Finland remained a largely agricultural country until the 1950s. After World War II, it industrialised quickly and established an advanced economy, with a welfare state built on the Nordic model. This allowed the country to experience overall prosperity and high per capita income. During the Cold War, Finland officially embraced a policy of neutrality. Since then, it has become a member of the European Union in 1995, the Eurozone in 1999, and NATO in 2023. Finland is a member of various international organisations, such as the Nordic Council, the Schengen Area, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The nation performs extremely well in national performance metrics, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development.

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External links

References

FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Keywords countries
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 3 pages link here
Aliases Finland
Impact 103 page views (more)
Created February 25, 2014 by Phil Green
Last modified September 19, 2024 by Phil Green
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