The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development releases a planetary-boundaries‑based government programme vision for Finland

17.4.2026 If everyone on Earth lived like Finns, we would need the natural resources of four planets every year. The well-being and security of the Finnish nation can only be guaranteed if society’s activities are adapted to the limits of the planet. The government programme vision published by the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development is a science-based framework designed to support decision-making beyond individual government terms. You can read …

The Heart of Christmas Is Somewhere Else Than in Shopping Carts

18.12.2025 In this blogpost, Merja Turpeinen, the Communications Specialist of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development, discusses the overconsumption aspects of our Christmas habits. In early December, we shared a statement prepared by Sustainability Panel members Lassi Linnanen and Niko Soininen for the Finnish Parliament’s Future Committee Working Group on Overconsumption. The statement addressed structural overconsumption and possible solutions. Structural overconsumption means that institutional and cultural frameworks in society …

Sufficiency Policies Offer Solutions to Finland’s Structural Overconsumption

1.12.2025 Structural overconsumption, driven by institutional and cultural frameworks that promote unsustainable consumption, is one of Finland’s greatest obstacles to sustainability. The Finnish Parliament’s Committee for the Future’s Overconsumption Steering Group requested a specialist statement on this issue from members of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development: Professor Lassi Linnanen (Environmental Economics, LUT University) and Professor Niko Soininen (Environmental Law, University of Eastern Finland). Their conclusion: Finland needs a …

What if the narratives we read about the future inspired hope instead of fear?

14.11.2025 The media has a powerful role in shaping how we imagine the future. Too often, public conversations about the future are dominated by crises and uncertainty, dystopias and techno optimism. But what if we flipped the script and created positive future narratives that spark action and build trust? On Thursday November 13th, 2025, the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development hosted a futures design workshop at Puistokatu 4, together …

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development gets a term extension until the end of 2027

5.6.2025 The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development was appointed for an extended term until the end of 2027 at the Government Plenary Session on the June 5th. According to the original timetable, the term of the Expert Panel would only have lasted until the end of 2025. With this government decision, the term of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development coincides with other Finnish science panels. The Finnish …

Over 250 visitors looked into a sustainable future in the Room 2050 by the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development

30.5.2025 On May 25–26, the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development hosted a Room 2050 event at Helsinki Central Library Oodi, offering visitors a chance to experience and imagine what life might look like in a post-sustainability transformation future in the year 2050. The event was organised in collaboration with the Falay Transition Design collective. Some photos and materials of Room 2050 (photos by Savannah Vize, Falay Transition Design): Room …

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development invites citizens to participate Room 2050 at Oodi, May 25th–26th!

13.5.25 The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development invites everyone to visit the Room of Future, where it is possible to experience and imagine what a post-sustainability transformation future looks and feels like. Room 2050 is organised in collaboration with the Falay Transition Design collective at Helsinki Central Library Oodi from Sunday to Monday, May 25th–26th. The Room of Future is based on three positive images of futures created in …

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development has created three positive images of futures and invites citizens to vision a sustainable tomorrow

15.4.2025 The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development has developed three outlines of parallel, complementary, positive and realistic images of futures for a sustainable future: The True-cost Economy, Planetary Rules and Sustainability Awareness Revolution. The outlines were created in collaboration with Demos Helsinki to facilitate societal discussion on visioning sustainable futures in Finland. The outlines are based on a comprehensive data analysis and the gaps in the existing images of …

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development presented its policy brief at the world’s largest sustainability conference in Helsinki

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development presented its new policy brief at two events in the second week of June at the world’s largest sustainability conference (Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress, SRI) held in Helsinki. This was the first time the SRI Congress was held in Europe. On Tuesday 11.6. the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development organised its own session, for which it had invited members of the …

Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development publishes a new policy brief 

The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development publishes a policy brief for central government titled Towards successful sustainability transition for Finland: Boundaries from nature, power from the people.  In the policy brief the Expert Panel proposes a dual strategy to save the Finnish welfare society. The policy brief includes concrete proposals for action, a proposal for a key set of indicators that link economic, social and ecological sustainability, and examples …