SUSTAINABLE EVERYDAY LIFE

The way we live, travel and eat and what we buy has a significant impact on the environment. To make sustainable everyday life easier we need more attractive products and services.

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Want to involve people on sustainable lifestyles and accelerate action on climate?
Find out more about our Shift 1.5 community and join!

What is it about?

We promote the change towards a more sustainable life by inspiring Finns to make sustainable choices in their everyday life and by helping organisations, communities / local authorities and businesses discover viable ways to drive the transition to sustainable lifestyles. Our goal is a good life lived within the earth’s carrying capacity The earth’s ecological carrying capacity The extent to which the planet and its natural environment can cope with levels of human consumption, production, waste and other activities. If this limit is exceeded, environmental disasters will follow, which will soon be reflected in our well-being and businesses. Open term page The earth’s ecological carrying capacity . By 2030 our average carbon footprint Carbon footprint Emissions caused by human activity. It can apply to that of a company, an organisation, an activity, a product or an individual. In addition to carbon dioxide emissions, it also takes into account other significant greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and nitrous oxide. Open term page Carbon footprint should be significantly lower to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Up to 68 per cent of Finland’s total greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to the choices we, ordinary people, make every day. How we choose to live and move around and what we eat and buy is the key to reducing the emissions we are responsible for. We are all part of the solution.

What are we doing?

Since 2016, we have encouraged Finns to live good and more sustainable lives. We have conducted surveys to establish the sustainability of the Finnish way of life and how we feel about climate change. We have collated information on the environmental impact of our daily life choices and made this easily available.

Sitra’s lifestyle test has already been taken more than a million times, and thousands of Finns have prepared a personal plan to reduce their carbon footprint. These services will help us all encourage people close to us make more sustainable choices. More sustainable everyday life should never be difficult; it should be a good life that is inspiring and desirable.

We have helped small and large companies develop their sustainable consumer business and tap into the latest trends in consumer behaviour while assisting them in finding each other in order to launch new kinds of co-operation. Our Smart Everyday Living initiatives have produced products and services that mitigate the environmental burden of everyday life in Finland and globally while answering consumer needs.

We have worked with many different types of grass-roots organisations and NGOs to mainstream sustainable everyday choices. By incorporating their choices and actions into daily life, active communities can create a new norm and can engage with others to help them do the same through various initiatives, such as the Globe League.

Where are we now?

We Finns have learned to better understand the connection between our lifestyles and sustainability, and this shows in the choices we make. According to the climate barometer, as many as 41 per cent of us are making more sustainable choices than before to contribute to the climate change efforts. Globally, the situation is not quite as promising and, therefore, many countries are interested in what Finland has done to achieve this.

We are currently scaling up practices and tools that have been developed and tested in Finland for international application through Shift 1.5 community of practice. The first pilot countries have already started work, and together we will be building a community that promotes sustainable everyday living on a global scale. Sitra is leading an EU Green Deal project to create an inspiring tool European citizens can use to build sustainable lifestyles. The PSLifestyle project, launched in autumn 2021, will deliver a locally customisable online service for eight countries. The online service will allow people to find their own way of living well within the 1.5-degree global warming limit and to make their own plan to do so.

Read the latest in the News section.

Who is involved?

We wish to inspire people around the world to join us on a journey to sustainable lifestyles together with organisations, social movements, companies, public organisations and individual visionaries. Together we can all succeed!

Publications

Dive in deep.

publications

Tackling root causes

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WCEF2021 summary report

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Motivation profiles of a sustainable lifestyle

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Lifestyles after lockdown

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WCEFonline Summary

Four social and value positions devided between: life guided by belief in meritocracy versus human-centrism and life guided by global versus local technologies and lifestyle patterns.
publications

Pathways to 1.5-degree lifestyles by 2030

publications

1.5-degree lifestyles

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What motivates smart consumption? – Using motivation profiles to support business planning

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Exponential climate action roadmap

publications

SHIFT workbook

publications

SHIFT

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Consumption choices to decrease personal carbon footprints of Finns

The changing relationship between people and goods
publications

The changing relationship between people and goods

PROJECTS

Shift 1.5
projects

Shift 1.5

PROJECTS

Smart everyday living goes China

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Test yourself and find out whether you are a threat or an opportunity

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“Smart everyday living” competition for companies

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100 smart ways to live sustainably

EVENTS

Live and online.

Workshop

Developing tools for good and sustainable life – workshops in Lappeenranta

Lappeenranta, Wednesday – Friday, May 18 – May 20
WCEF 2021 Kanada
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World Circular Economy Forum 2021

Monday – Wednesday, Sep 13 – Sep 15
WCEF plus climate
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WCEF+Climate

Thursday – Friday, Apr 15 – Apr 16
Launch event

Impact on sustainable behaviour: Case COVID-19

Tuesday, Dec 15
live watch recording
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WCEFonline Programme

Tuesday – Wednesday, Sep 29 – Sep 30
Children surrounding a laptop that depicts Earth School videos
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Earth School: a 30 days adventure!

Online, Wednesday – Friday, Apr 22 – Jun 05
Photo of a hand browsing the Climate Aid website.
events

Climate Aid Finland concert

Helsinki, Saturday, Nov 23
Seminar

Workplace menu on sustainable lifestyles

Helsinki, Wednesday, Feb 06
watch live live watch recording
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The Club of Rome 50th anniversary seminar in Helsinki

Helsinki, Thursday, Sep 20
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Peloton Club Night presents: Stuff goes circular

Helsinki, Tuesday, Nov 07
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New directions in consumption: from too much stuff to the hunt for the perfect object

Helsinki, Tuesday, May 09

CONTACT US

Want to join us? Give us a call!

people
Markus Terho
Director, Nature and daily life & PSLifestyle
people
Sari Laine
Senior Lead, Nature and daily life
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Emma Hietaniemi
people
Saara Rimon
Senior Lead, Nature and daily life & PSLifestyle
people
Salla Nurminen
Specialist, Sustainable Everyday Life
people
Tiina Nyfors
Assistant, Sustainability solutions

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