We Make Transition! – innovative collaboration towards sustainability transition

We Make Transition! is a project gathering a large group of regional and local authorities, actors of the civil society and small companies to meet the sustainability challenges of our time.

Financial, social and ecological factors are intricately intertwined in sustainability challenges. When it comes to meeting the challenges locally, cities and municipalities have a decisive role. To strengthen the societal resilience, the views and knowledge of various civil society actors should be better utilized. Such actors are organisations, social companies, small cooperatives.

Transition arena and change agents making transition

We Make Transition! – the project partners come from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany and Norway; they collaborate and implement so called transition arena processes in 12 areas altogether.

A transition arena means bringing together different actors and views into a series of workshops, creating a shared vision as a base for the development of concrete actions and initiatives on the way to the envisioned future.

The project focuses especially on getting the voice of civil society actors and small companies heard, for instance, in relation to these following themes:

Sustainable consumption and way of living
Agriculture & food
Biodiversity
Circular and sharing economy

The project partners have chosen 30 change agents to create a shared sustainability vision for the Baltic Region. The vision will focus on the views, challenges and collaboration needs of civil society actors. The international group has representatives from the civil society, small companies and local administration.

Pragmatic handbook as result

The local will is strengthened as a result of the transition arena and actions that have been developed together for a more sustainable future, are started. The goal is to spread forward the participation method used in the project – to other municipalities and cities.

As a result of the transition arena in Helsinki-Uusimaa, we now have a Transition Arena Report: Helsinki-Uusimaa Transition Arena advancing shared economy and sustainable use of premises (pdf, in Finnish).

Uudenmaan kiertotalousmurros – jakamistalouden ja tilojen kestävän käytön edistaminen (pdf) Download

A result of this project will be a pragmatic handbook with a description of the visioning and co-developing process of the transition arena method. The book contains the stories and learnings from all 12 regions.

Many partners in the Baltic Sea Region

We Make Transition! – Towards sustainable and resilient societies through empowered civil society and collaborative innovation receives funding from the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme.

The Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council is a partner, whereas the Baltic Institute of Finland in Tampere is the lead partner. Other partners from Finland are the Council of Tampere Region and the Regional Council of Southwest Finland. The project has 12 partners from six states in the Baltic Sea Region.

The total budget of the entire project is 2.2 million euros, of which the share of the Helsinki-Uusimaa Region is 320,000 euros. The project is ongoing from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025.

Check out the project’s website

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Smart Specialisation Strategy for Helsinki-Uusimaa Region

Sustainable development goals, ambitious climate targets and a sustainable growth are the basis for our overall research and innovation activities in the region.

For more information, please contact:

Miranda Sundholm

Project Manager

+358 40 658 3384

miranda.sundholm@uudenmaanliitto.fi

We Make Transition project, Baltic Sea Region programme national communications

Venla Virkamäki

Innovation Manager

+358 40 619 4133

venla.virkamaki@uudenmaanliitto.fi

Development of R&I and international marketing, Strategy for smart specialisation, EU cooperation. Deputy for Director of Regional Development Eero Venäläinen.

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Stories from the Circular Hub – Helsinki-Uusimaa on the road to circular economy

More and more sectors are now furthering a transition to circular economy. The Helsinki-Uusimaa Circular Hub was an import cooperation platform for circular economy solutions in the Helsinki-Uusimaa Region, founded in 2023. Highlights from the first project years of the Circular Hub have now been put together in the publication Stories from the Circular Hub, raising both the updates of the sectors and the actors of the regional Hub.