Count your blessings

Lucas lifted the oars and let the boat glide on the shore. The surface of the lake was totally calm, only movement was made by the night flyes that were flying around. He had been fishing together with his children on a nearby little island. They had got some coarse fish but also one big sander. It must weigh over 1 kg, Lucas thought. It will make a good dinner for tomorrow, or for today actually, Lucas said to the children while they were walking back to the cottage.

It had been a good holiday; warm weather (occasional rainy days were just welcomed as they encouraged to do some reading or playing games), loads of swimming and sauna, making good simple food with fresh ingredients bought from the little village market and shops, making day visits to friends, and staying a bit longer with the grandparents. The whole family had gone and picked strawberries as his daughter had wished for it. They had chosen a local farm that had advertised that they only have organically grown berries.

They had spent a good time together as a family. Everybody had decided on one activity and the others had followed that desicion without a murmur. The rest of the time was spent at the cottage with no big plans or timetables. Lucas felt relaxed and content, and that made him realise how lucky he actually is, after all. He knew that future holidays would be more hectic, especially once the children got older, but right now this was enough. "I must remember to count my blessings more often", he promised to himself.

Sustainable holiday solutions

After a cold winter it's time to enjoy the summer holidays!
It's easy to forget the environment during the holidays, but a more sustainable holiday may not be as difficult as we think.

Whether we're heading to a summer cottage, a nearby lake to pitch a tent, taking a citybreak or boating, there are numerous ways to keep our eco-impact to a minimum while also supporting the locals. Instead of bringing all the food with us, why not buy it when we arrive at the holiday destination? Instead of taking the car everywhere, why not enjoy the weather and excercise by biking or hiking?

The solutions are small things done repeatedly like shopping locally for local products, reduce, reuse and recycle!

Steps towards local food!

I am happy to tell that we have 7 restaurants committed on advancing local food in Turku and more are welcomed! These restaurants are ready to launch local food menus on 1.2.2011 during the conference and also offer it during the entire year 2011. They have committed that the food offered with a special symbol, for which there is a competition ongoing until 31.8.2010, minimum of 80% of the food is locally produced. This is really high on Finnish standards. More information in Finnish.

The initiative for local food started in 2009, when while analyzing the selection in Turku, it was realized that so far Turku does not have restaurants, that would be able to answer to the requirements of the Solutions local, together - conference. The process got speeded up, once we decided to create synergy with Valonia´s Kelaa- project and Lounafood -project of the University of Turku, Brahea Centre for Training and Development. The organized workshops for producers, restaurants and logistical organizatins enabled a fruitful cooperation to speed up.

Already now it can be said that open cooperation focusing on the interests of the producers and restaurants has been a key. The approach used is bottom up. It is vital that this is not a project, but a common commitment, which hopefully carries a long way into the future.

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!