Midsummer fever

Now that Lucas had been for a longer time unemployed, he had become more and more annoyed with his friend´s comments about working times, difficult boss and too many tasks. It seemed like everyone was living only to have vacation. And once they were on the vacation, they still were not enjoying the moment as something was still missing. Sometimes it was the good weather, fancier place or nicer people around. He wondered - when were they truly happy anymore?

Especially Lucas felt, that things got even worse around the Midsummer time. All the expectations that had been piled up during the winter time, his friends assumed to be filled during the Midsummer. And if something was wrong, he sure got to know about it, as "he was the one who had time" since he was unemployed. This year, Lucas had decided to do differently. Instead of having a Midsummer with friends and relatives, he had hired a cottage and escaped there with only his family. It was the most sustainable solution that he could think of, without being reminded of not having the work from which he could be on vacation.

Great sustainable Midsummer to you!

Competition on practical solutions

It is very often that we have come up with a very good and practical solution in our own daily work and we do not even think of marketing it to others. This is partly because we are too shy or modest, but also we do not want to see the trouble of going out with it. To address this situation, a competition on practical solutions is organized. The competition’s goal is to bring together the solution providers and new customers in the Baltic and Nordic countries.

Practical solutions to climate change -competition is targeted at the Baltic Sea Region and the Nordic countries is searching for new or as yet unestablished business concepts, practices and technologies to assist municipalities and other local and regional actors to better control the effects of climate change. The competition winners will gain publicity, customer contacts, and concrete expert assistance in the marketing of their own solutions.

The competition is looking for projects that would

• combat climate change,
• support local and regional economics, employment and general well-being,
• lead to concrete changes in the practices of the municipalities and their residents, and
• can be broadly implemented as a successful measure.

Competition entries do not have to meet all of the criteria. The competition is part of the ‘Solutions local, together’ Conference. Do not hesitate to take part in it!

Degrowth for my family?

Encouraged by couple of friends, Lucas had started to read about degrowth.fi -project. It sounded so interesting. After getting into the topic, Lucas was all mixed up, as he was thinking of how to create well-being and employment for himself without thinking of economic growth? He knew that the mega trends of the future are expected to be environmental, wellness and security sectors. And what ever he was to start should use minimal resources. Following this logic, would the service sector be the only one that would answer to the limitations ahead?

Lucas became aware that the family consumption follows mostly the wishes of children. The entire taxation policy of Finland over the last years has guided people to consume more. This had also raised children and youngsters as a key focus group of marketing. Lucas noticed that his children have been truly influenced by the media. Also the peer pressure his children experienced daily at school guided their consumption in many cases. "Something has to be done to that or otherwise we are just fooling ourselves without changing our consumption patterns at all", thought Lucas. The double standards that he noticed in his family had to be changed, but how?

It is one thing to say that you are supporting sustainable development, but still you are saving for a trip to South, as your kids and friends expect you to do so. Lucas was not an exception yet, was anyone really?

Hey you - solution hero!

Tomorrow on the World Environmental day 5.6. - the world is in need of not only climate heroes, but also exceptional individuals advocating solutions for all environmental issues. We are all challenged to change our habits and make a difference. For this plenty of events are organized around the globe.

But where are the heroes that have true solutions in their pockets? We have gone through many proposals for the programme of the Solutions local, together Conference. Everyone has their own idea of what is a solution and this makes the selection of the presentations even harder. It is our utmost aim to be solution focused and require more than before. We need to be able to reach another level of discussion and be very practical. I am sure we are ready for that in the Baltic Sea Region.

Very soon we are able to reveal some of the side events of our conference. So stay tuned - meanwhile look for the solution hero inside yourself!