In a year-long climate cooperation project, the cities of Järvenpää, Kerava and Vantaa deepened climate cooperation between municipalities and businesses. Information on companies' expectations of business-city climate cooperation was first collected through a questionnaire, after which the cities piloted different approaches to climate cooperation with businesses.
- Climate cooperation means different things to different companies. The city cannot assume that all companies are interested in climate issues from the same perspective or at a particular time. Businesses are inherently a very heterogeneous group," says Heta Itämäki , project coordinator.
The expectations of businesses of different sizes, operating in different sectors and at different stages of their climate work vary widely in terms of their expectations of municipal cooperation, as revealed by the Climate Survey for Businesses in autumn 2021. Information on companies' expectations towards municipalities was also gathered in two prograduate theses during the project.
After identifying the expectations of businesses, Järvenpää, Kerava and Vantaa explored different means of climate cooperation and deepened their understanding of the most potential approaches by piloting them.
Highlighting good practice through pilots
During the project, pilot projects focused on urban climate cooperation platforms, making corporate responsibility visible, various possibilities for cooperation with educational institutions and sharing climate knowledge.
Cities still make little use of existing platforms and systems for climate cooperation. During the project, Vantaa tested a CRM system called Hakosalo, which compiled a list of companies interested in climate cooperation and the cooperation meetings that took place with them. Alongside Hakosalo, Vantaa tested the Vanu company database, which can be used in other cities to identify responsible companies and partners and to monitor the development of the number of responsible companies.
Responsible companies in the spotlight
To give visibility to the work of responsible companies, cities experimented with linking companies' environmental actions to the Environmental Guardian services, which aggregate the environmental actions of cities. During the pilot, the cities found that it was technically feasible, but that moderation and motivating companies to participate would require considerable effort. Vantaa also tried out the Sustainability Trap service run by the Finnish Environment Institute, which allows companies' sustainability actions to be embedded on the city's website.
To make corporate responsibility visible, Järvenpää and Kerava also explored how to add a responsibility criterion or filter to the list of companies maintained by the city. However, in cooperation with Metropolia students, it was found that defining a responsible company is challenging in the jungle of different indicators, eco-labels and environmental schemes. The results of the experiment are detailed in the final report of the Metropolia students.
- Work to make corporate responsibility visible continues. During the project, we learned that defining a responsible company is difficult for municipalities and that the amount of work compared to the impact can become excessive," Itämäki continues.
Institutional cooperation and climate information for businesses
The experiments in cooperation with educational institutions were found to be useful during the project. Coursework, project courses and theses need different assignments from real working life. In addition, there are countless opportunities for cooperation with experts from educational institutions and RDI projects.
- Cooperation between educational institutions and businesses does not require the involvement of the municipality, but the municipality can play a role in finding partners. This was also the case with Gasmet and Metropolia's carbon footprint cooperation," Itämäki says.
- Students have a lot of potential! However, for a successful collaboration, it is important to remember that a clear mandate will improve collaboration and increase the interest of students in the topic.
During the project, cities also experimented with a number of ways to target climate information to businesses. In spring 2022, Kerava, Vantaa and Järvenpää jointly organised a 7-part webinar series for businesses, which included information from sustainability experts, experiences from different businesses, a research perspective and contributions from the cities. The key lessons learned from the webinars were compiled into blog posts after the webinars.
The webinars were popular, with almost 300 participants in total. In addition to businesses, the series also attracted public actors, organisations, associations and educational institutions. The pilot has shown the value of regional cooperation in organising webinars across municipal boundaries. Read more about the webinar experience on the project blog.
Information for municipalities on the most effective practices
The aim of the pilots was to produce information that would benefit all Finnish municipalities and help them to choose the most effective ways of working together with businesses. During the project, the effectiveness of the policies was also evaluated, for example on climate emissions and the conditions for green business in the region. More on the results of the impact assessment will be presented at the Carbon Neutral webinar on Tuesday 14 June. The webinar will also present the results of business interviews for the project's pro-graduate theses.
During the project, the piloted and other different approaches to climate cooperation between municipalities and businesses were compiled on the Hiilineutraalisuomi.fi website, where they can be found and are already available to all interested parties.
See previous project news and materials on the project website.
For more information:
Heta Itämäki, Project Coordinator, City of Vantaa
tel. 040 631 5686, [email protected]
Photo by Pekka Turtiainen from the City of Vantaa, in the picture Heureka.