Joensuu 19.3.2025

Carelia building lobby, and online

9:00 Morning coffee (for 50 first ones)

9:30 Opening of the Event, Vice dean Minna Tanskanen

9.45 – 10.15 UEF kestävän tulevaisuuden tekijänä Euroopan biotalousyliopistojen allianssin johdossa, Teppo Hujala (Finnish)

10.15 – 10.30 UEF Kestävän kehityksen edistäjänä, Maiju Eskelinen (Finnish)

11:00 – 12:00 Lunch break (at your own expense)

Short Info Sessions:

 12:00 – 12:20 Akkuteollisuuden kehitys ja kestävyys Suomessa, Juha Kotilainen (Finnish, in Teams)

12:20 – 12:40 Tuuli– ja aurinkovoiman maankäyttö ja siihen liittyvät jännitteet, Tuulia Puustinen (Finnish)

12:40 – 13:00 Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Under Environmental and Social Concerns (Case: Lithium), Diana Arbelaez Ruiz 

13:00 – 13:20 Nature-based solutions, Oskari Ylikoski

• Introducing the basic idea of Nature-Based Solutions through case examples. Also presenting the eNaBlS project and a new self-study course about Nature-Based Solutions.

13:20 – 13:40 The impact of sustainability reporting practices on strategic decision-making, Krista Leppänen

• Presenting ongoing research on how new European Union sustainability reporting legislation shapes internal organizational practices and influences management’s perception of sustainability’s strategic role, as more information and data are gathered and published under the new reporting standards.

13:40 – 14:00 EU Law and Post-Growth Transformation: How to Make them Compatible, Myele Rouxel

• Ecological economics research on limits to growth has demonstrated that we are unlikely to succeed in making growth green, or in other words, in decoupling economic growth from ecological impacts fast enough to return within planetary boundaries. For this reason, they argue that economic growth should cease to be the primary objective of economic policy. Instead, they envision a post-growth economy based on the implementation of sufficiency strategies to secure enough for human well-being within ecological limits regardless of economic growth. Myele Rouxel’s research investigates the under-researched topic of the compatibility of this new paradigm with the existing EU legal framework. So far, she has particularly examined the relationship between the EU founding treaties and the growth dependence of the EU socioeconomic system.

14:00 – 14:20 Kestävyyden edistämistä tutkimusyhteistyöllä biosfäärialueella, Niko Nesterinen & Vilma Lehtovaara (Finnish)

14:20 – 14:40 ECHO: Kansalaisten osallistaminen maaperätieteeseen: tie terveempään maaperään, Virpi Virjamo ja Hannes Pasanen (Finnish)

9:00 – 15:00 Presentation of Sustainability transition from the margins project (Emmi Salmivuori and Anna Mustonen)

9:00 – 15:00 Presentation of Biodiversity and Nature-Based Solutions education and UEF NBS Living Lab (Tiina Ynnilä, Oskari Ylikoski ja Elina Oksanen)

9:00 – 15:00 Presentation of Sustainability education of UEF Center for Continuous Learning, for example Metsien monimuotoisuus -osaamismerkki, Circular economy skill development for working life (CE4ALL), Sustainability Ambassodors and other courses of ReguVa project (Tiina Ynnilä, Heli Kaarniemi)

9:00 – 15:00 Presentation of Campus Farming

9:00 – 15:00 Sustainability in education. Presentation of the Sustainable Future minor, the Sustainability Studies Network, Climate University and the Sustainability Transformation Doctoral Training Pilot (SusTra)

9:00 – 15:00 Painting for Future (Sustainable Lifestyle Club)

• This event combines a cozy café atmosphere with an interactive painting activity to encourage participants to reflect on the importance of protecting our planet. Participants will enjoy snacks and drinks while contributing to a collaborative artwork created using fabric. The activity focuses on the questions: “Why should we protect planet earth?” and “How can we protect it?”

12:00 – 15:00 Crafts & Wellbeing – participatory exhibition

• This project displays a tree made of recycled materials, such as cardboard egg cartons that resemble the roots; milk, juice or yoghurt cartons to make the trunk. The leaves will be placed by the people who participate to form the complete tree together. The tree consists of being able to express yourself anonymously in writing or reading the messages that other people have left.
  Students will be guiding practice from 12-15. Welcome to take part!

15:00 – 16:30 Sufficiency dialogue, Rasmus Sihvonen. Paikka CK216

• What’s enough? Addressing overconsumption and overworking with sufficiency
• People and the rest of nature are burning out as we overwork and overconsume. Yet, the grand narratives around human well-being and solving the ecological crisis seems prescribe more work, efficiency, productivity and material things. One question that often goes ignored in public discussion is: “What is enough – what is sufficient?” Sufficiency thinking is crucial in tackling overconsumption, but what if it also makes life better and more meaningful? How could we make sufficiency an integral aspect of our culture and the society?
• Doctoral researcher Rasmus Sihvonen invites you to a constructive group discussion, dialogue, that explores sufficiency, insufficiency and the change needed for a more sufficient future from your perspective – through your experiences.
• You are warmly welcome to discuss and learn together! You only need your own experiences to be able to take part, and you can prepare by thinking about how sufficiency or insufficiency has shown in your life, possibly in a concrete situation. What are the reasons for and the consequences of this experience?
• Max. participants 8 people – first come first served. The dialogue can be held either in English or Finnish, depending on the participants’ preferences.

During the event, the Globe in Trouble photo exhibition will be on display in the lobby of Snellmania. The exhibition consists of photographs taken by upper secondary school students, through which young people observe the causes and consequences of climate change in their everyday lives.