Sustainable development means a constant and controlled process of societal change taking place globally, regionally and locally in cities and municipalities, the objective being to secure good living conditions for the current and future generations. Development cannot be sustainable if the finiteness and sensible use of natural resources are not taken into consideration in the process.
A sustainable city secures opportunities for a good life for the current and future generations equally, while also taking the finiteness of natural resources and the carrying capacity of our entire planet into account. Economic activity should be restricted so that biodiversity does not suffer while residents’ influencing opportunities and social justice are supported.
The core of social sustainability is built on justice and participation, which cities implement in their own operations. In a socially sustainable city, the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages is prevented and inequality is reduced through means such as diverse services. Cultural sustainability means securing everyone’s right to express their own culture and facilitating a life worth living for all.
The challenge of combining a high level of well-being with environmental sustainability
In Helsinki, the themes of sustainable development include low emissions, a smart city, healthiness and social sustainability.
The challenge of sustainable development lies in the fact that cities have been unsuccessful in achieving a high level of well-being in an environmentally sustainable manner. Operators are trying to improve the sustainability of cities by developing new solutions, changing old modes of operation to make them more sustainable, multiplying good practices and strengthening international cooperation.
The challenges of a sustainable environment are urgent, as global warming is an enormous crisis that already requires quick action. However, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social sustainability can also be fragile, as many people’s everyday lives are thrown off balance as a result of a global health crisis.
2030 Agenda
The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serves as a guiding framework for sustainable development. In September 2015, the UN member states agreed at a summit in New York on sustainable development goals and an action plan, the purpose of which is to guide global development efforts until 2030. The agreement contains 17 different goals focusing on sustainable development. The shared action plan sets shared goals for all countries for the next 15 years. Finland is strongly committed to the Agenda goals and has already published two Voluntary National Reviews.
Sustainable development is part of the City of Helsinki’s core operations
As regards the actual implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a significant share is conducted at the local level. As such, cities play an important role in ensuring the successful achievement of the goals. The role of municipalities is particularly significant in Finland, where they are responsible for many functions and services related to social, ecological and economic sustainability.
Helsinki is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and wants to promote the achievement of these goals and highlight the role of cities in this effort. Helsinki was the second city in the world to publish its first Voluntary Local Review back in 2019.
Helsinki is doing well in comparisons
By many international indicators, Helsinki is doing well in the field of sustainable development. One of Helsinki’s strengths is that the spirit of the SDGs in terms of respecting the environment, well-being, equality and cooperation can already be seen relatively well in the City’s values and operations. For example, the starting point in arranging basic public services is that the services must be open and available to all.
Accordingly, sustainable development is in many ways part of the City’s core operations, and its connection with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is not always something that people even think about. Helsinki has an enormous amount of know-how, motivation and ability to put the SDGs into practice, as the many examples of the City’s actions in this review show.
From the perspective of sustainable development, examples of Helsinki’s strengths include high-quality and equal educational, cultural and leisure-time services, good health care, functional infrastructure and clean nature, as well as the development of a functional and smart city.
Climate change and increasing inequality as challenges
Despite its good starting position, Helsinki has a lot left to do to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda. The City’s challenges have particularly to do with combating climate change, consumption and securing biodiversity.
In terms of social sustainability, the challenges are related to increasing inequality, health differences between income classes and residential areas, and mental well-being. Challenges with economic sustainability have to do with increasing perceived income differences and housing costs, a declining employment situation and transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy.
In general, challenges to the promotion of sustainability arise from the fragmentation of measures through operational and economic planning into several separate programmes and measures carried out by the City’s different organisations. The SDG framework of the 2030 Agenda challenges the City to engage in broader examinations of sustainability across council periods of office and perceive larger wholes and their connections. However, during the current council period of office, the City has developed better coordination of strategic wholes, e.g. through the broad and cross-cutting Welfare Plan and Carbon-neutral Helsinki Action Plan, and by giving thought to how the City’s occasionally conflicting objectives could be coordinated sustainably.