Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

There is always room to improve efficiency, and Finland is no exception.Energy efficiency in the built environment and transportation are two sectorswhere there is still much work to be done. In addition, Finland reliesheavily on the EU for guidance on long-term energy policies and measures,even though it has a proven record of effective implementation of directives.In order to achieve the next level of efficiency gains, Finland will needa comprehensive long-term strategy that is bundled with broader publicpolicy objectives (i.e. mitigating climate change).Why not design a sustainability strategy for Finland?A sustainability strategy for Finland would provide the means for theeconomy and government to value social, economic and environmentalreturns without prejudice. This is the underlying goal of sustainable development.Relative to other nations, Finland has succeeded in promoting anddelivering high social, economic and environmental returns through policy.For instance, the Ministry of Environment has built and implementedan advanced Baltic ecosystem protection plan that utilises hundreds of regularmeasurements to inform regulation. The government has used effectivesocial welfare systems to ensure high rates of education, employment andproductivity that place Finland among the leading nations in the HumanDevelopment Index (12th, ahead of the United States and behind Norway(1), Iceland (3) and Sweden (7) in 2009).These examples suggest that the Finnish system of governance (andmore broadly, the Nordic Model) and its economy have already deliveredon many of the key metrics for sustainable development.However, the management and reduction of green house gas emissions,especially carbon dioxide has yet to be addressed by social, economic orenvironmental policies. Evidence points to a steep increase in Finland’stotal carbon emissions and carbon intensity per capita, in spite of a pledgeto maintain carbon emissions constant at 1990 levels.With the EU set to agree on ever increasing reduction directives forcarbon, Finland needs a well-calibrated and actionable de-carbonizationstrategy that can intervene productively in its economy and deliver realreductions.Sustainability captures a central challenge of our time, but carbon isoperable and provides focus where sustainability has been inadequate.211