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Creative Sectors as a Catalyst for Sustainability Transformation

Tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss requires a redefinition of what constitutes a good life, as well as a shift in cultural values. This transformation calls for creative thinking, action, and experimentation that can open up new perspectives on living well within planetary boundaries.

Autumn foliage, the silhouette of Linnanmäki, and a swan swimming in Töölönlahti in the evening glow. Tapio Haaja

The creative sectors can serve as trailblazers in society’s sustainability transformation. Architecture, music, visual arts, audiovisual media, performing arts, literature, gaming, events, design, and fashion hold exceptional power to influence behavior and accelerate the cultural shift toward ecologically sustainable lifestyles. The creative fields have the capacity to construct both utopian and dystopian visions of the future, helping people grasp the scale of climate and ecological crises—and reminding us of the urgency of change. They can also spotlight models of good life and propose new ways of being and consuming that respect the planet’s carrying capacity.

The role of the creative sectors in advancing society’s sustainability transformation is multifaceted. At their best, the arts inspire, bring together people from diverse backgrounds, and build bridges toward shared understanding. Creative fields can contribute to constructing a common situational awareness and understanding of the actions required for a sustainability transition. Solving the climate and biodiversity crises demands large-scale public engagement and commitment to a future that respects planetary boundaries.

Safeguarding the vitality and accessibility of arts and culture can be seen as an effective sustainability measure. The network-like operating model typical of cultural fields and dynamically formed groups with diverse backgrounds also create readiness for broader cooperation in society.

The sustainability work within the creative industries is progressing rapidly. These sectors lead with bold initiatives, developing new tools and practices to improve sustainability through experimentation. Once proven effective, these tools and methods are quickly adopted by practitioners in the field.

The LuoTo project—supporting the sustainability transformation in the creative sectors—has laid out concrete steps toward an ecologically sustainable future. The action plan “Fostering Sustainability – Action plan for ecological transition in cultural and creative sectors” was published in 2023. During the 2024–2025 continuation project, professionals in the creative sectors have been offered training and events, a sustainability network has been built, and this sustainability portal has been compiled.

The Luoto portal for the creative industries provides, among other resources, sector-specific sustainability overviews accompanied by recommendations and examples, a resource bank, and cross-sectoral articles on topics such as carbon accounting. Luoto serves as a shared platform for the creative sector, offering inspiration, information, and practical tools to support sustainability efforts.

The LuoTo project has included a wide range of different types of actors. The project has examined the creative industries according to the classification used by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Creative content fields include literature, music, the game industry, and film and audiovisual media, while architecture, design, and fashion design represent creative services. The category of creative products and culture includes events, performing arts, visual arts, as well as museums and cultural heritage. The Luoto articles offer insight into sustainability work, tools, and best practices across these fields.

Sustainability Is a Shared Goal

Sustainability initiatives within the creative industries have led to the development of more sustainable practices that reduce the carbon footprint of the sector and adapt the ways in which art and culture are produced to align with planetary boundaries. Ecological innovations emerging from the creative fields have the potential to accelerate broader societal sustainability transformations. As bold and curious experimenters, the creative industries are at the forefront of adopting sustainable models and adjusting to an evolving reality. At their best, they act as a catalyst, pushing other sectors of society forward in meeting sustainability goals.

While the focus of sustainability efforts within the creative industries has largely been on the climate crisis and carbon neutrality targets, biodiversity loss and circular economy themes have also gained prominence in recent years. Work to make operations more sustainable is underway in all creative fields: sector-specific guides and carbon calculators are both widely used and in development. Tools tailored to domestic needs include Elma.live, a sustainability platform for live music and performing arts; Vihreä Taide, a site dedicated to sustainability in visual arts; and Goodstock, a circular economy marketplace for the performing arts. The Luoto project has served as an umbrella initiative, bringing together and coordinating sustainability projects across the creative industries.

In creative fields, it remains important to strengthen the sustainability skills of organizations, various groups, and individuals alike. Ongoing sustainability efforts must become an embedded and permanent part of operational cultures so that the creative industries can effectively respond to multiple, overlapping crises and retain their role as leaders in sustainability transformation. In the future, public support for art and culture will increasingly be linked to the fulfilment of sustainability criteria. Actors who have already adopted sustainable practices will be in a stronger position when this shift occurs.

Across the creative industries, a shared commitment to developing sustainability through collaboration – rather than competition – has become evident. Stakeholders in the sector openly share best practices, knowledge, and the results of their experiments, and networking has proven to be an effective way to advance common goals. The climate and biodiversity crises demand swift action: the creative industries have joined forces to respond to the challenge and offer solutions to sustainability issues in their own fields as well as to the sustainability transition of society as a whole.

Recommendations for sustainability work:

The creative industries face shared sustainability challenges, despite significant differences between sectors. Common major sources of emissions typically include energy consumption in buildings, audience travel, transportation of artworks and structures, as well as emissions from materials and production methods.

One of the challenges in sustainability work is that implementing sustainable actions is not always within the operator’s own control – Properties: Premises in Own Ownershipfor example, when working as a tenant in a space. The recommendations include proposed measures for these types of situations as well, and they take into account not only the climate crisis but also the biodiversity crisis.

Properties: Ownership of Premises

Energy and Circular Economy Measures

  • Have you already conducted an energy audit? An energy audit reviews where energy is being consumed and how its use can be optimized.
  • Set up a monitoring system for lighting, water, heating, and electricity consumption.
  • Monitoring consumption allows you to understand baseline usage, detect changes, and identify causes.
  • Switch to electricity and heating generated from renewable sources. Explore the use of wind power, solar panels, and geothermal energy.
  • Have you already signed an energy efficiency agreement? Read more about energy efficiency agreements.
  • Avoid waste: reuse sets/structures, costumes, or their materials; repair and adapt items; avoid all disposable products, such as single-use tableware.
  • Ensure diverse recycling options are available. Read more at Hiilihelppi.
  • Instruct users to behave in environmentally friendly ways in the premises, such as by reducing energy use and sorting waste.
  • Are you planning a renovation project? Consider energy efficiency measures, circular materials, and recycling.
  • Determine the usage rate of your facilities and, where possible, promote multi-purpose use.
  • Is there a functional and safe solution for bicycle storage on-site?
  • Provide information about your energy and circular economy actions—advise and encourage others to do the same.

Biodiversity

  • If the premises include a courtyard, yard, or balcony, explore how these spaces could be used to promote biodiversity.
  • Consider whether the yard could be transformed into a natural oasis, and whether birdhouses could be placed in nearby trees. Instructions for building birdhouses can be found on the BirdLife Finland website.
  • Do not use pesticides and avoid unnecessary lawn mowing. Provide wintering places for insects, and prefer native and perennial plants.
  • Build a green roof or green wall using the guidelines provided by Hiilihelppi.

Tools

Improving Energy Efficiency in Properties and Renovation Projects

Properties: Permanent Tenant

Energy and Circular Economy Actions

  • Ask your landlord whether the property has undergone an energy audit and consumption monitoring, and if an energy efficiency agreement has been made.
  • Review the condition of the property together with the landlord using the recommendation list above, which applies to owner-occupied spaces.
  • If you sign your own contract for electricity and heating, choose energy produced from renewable sources.
  • Encourage your landlord to switch to electricity and heating produced from renewable energy.
  • Act in an environmentally friendly way in the premises and instruct other users to save energy and recycle waste.

Biodiversity

  • Take initiative to promote biodiversity.
  • Find out whether there is an inner courtyard, yard, or balcony where biodiversity could be supported. Prefer native plants and perennials.
  • Check with your landlord whether the yard could be turned into a natural oasis and whether birdhouses could be installed in nearby trees.
  • Offer to organize or participate in activities such as birdhouse-building, maintaining planter boxes, or constructing insect hotels.
  • Suggest building a green roof or wall.
  • Propose cooperation with a local environmental organization—for example, in meadow maintenance, invasive species removal, litter-picking, water restoration, or other local efforts.

Properties: Short-Term Tenant

Energy and Circular Economy Actions

  • Inquire whether the premises have been modified in accordance with the list of measures above intended for property owners. Where possible, choose more sustainable premises.
  • By asking questions and initiating dialogue, you can communicate the importance of sustainability issues to the landlord.
  • Request guidelines—such as waste sorting instructions—to help you operate in the space as sustainably as possible.

Biodiversity

  • Take initiative in promoting biodiversity.
  • Offer to participate in activities such as birdhouse-building events or constructing insect hotels.

Mobility

  • Build partnerships with municipalities, venue providers, and public transport operators to ensure that audiences can easily arrive at events via public transportation, on foot, or by bicycle.
  • Whenever possible, promote studies and support mechanisms that enable a rapid shift to low-emission vehicles and travel by land.

My activities cause the same people to travel repeatedly

  • Does your activity involve air travel? Explore whether you can support or promote travel by land.
  • Assess whether travel is essential or if matters could be handled via digital connections.
  • Explore alternatives and set a goal for reducing air travel.
  • Consider whether flying multiple people is necessary or if fewer would suffice.
  • Find out whether your organization could offer shared-use bicycles, cargo bikes, e-bikes, or electric cars.
  • Encourage your work team or group of participants to cycle to the venue.
  • Ensure that there are functional bike parking facilities.
  • If necessary, map out safe routes with your group.
  • Provide training on winter cycling and organize a shared bicycle maintenance day.

My activities bring different people together for one-off travel

  • Clearly communicate to audiences how to reach the venue using public transport, bicycles, or on foot.
  • Indicate where the nearest bike racks and electric vehicle charging points are located.
  • When selecting the time and location for events, consider public transport access and schedules.
  • Explore opportunities for collaboration with local transport services—for example, could the event ticket include a discounted public transport fare?
  • If public transport options are limited, explore the possibility of organizing shared transport.
  • Consider partnering with a local cycling organization to arrange a group ride to the event.

I travel frequently alone or with a small group

  • Choose public transport, cycling, and walking whenever possible.
  • If your work involves air travel, set a concrete goal for reducing it, promote travel by land, and encourage using travel time for work when possible.
  • Create an information pack on land travel, including route planning, useful sources, and best practices.
  • Evaluate whether travel needs can be reduced by consolidating activities to one location or nearby areas.
  • Communicate about climate-friendly mobility, act as a role model, and promote cultural change by adopting sustainable practices within your organization.

Food

  • Switch to offering plant-based food: it’s an effective climate action, a nature-positive choice, and an ethical decision that requires no additional resources.
  • Develop a plant-based food policy for your organization.
  • Prioritize domestic options and locally sourced ingredients.
  • Introduce new Finnish plant-based food innovations as well as traditional vegetarian recipes.
  • Explore the recipe bank for climate-sustainable plant-based meals.
  • Reduce food waste preventively—sell or donate surplus food. Check out the Rural Women’s Advisory Organization’s tips for reducing food waste.
  • Encourage your food service provider to offer climate-sustainable plant-based meals.
  • Promote a positive cultural shift: plant-based food is the more ecological and ethical choice for the future.
  • Consider also how food is served: use reusable or edible dishes. For events, take advantage of dishwashing trolleys and deposit-return dish systems.

Circular Economy and Sharing Economy

  • Consider how to minimize material use in your activities.
  • Favour recycled materials, or borrow or rent from others.
  • Avoid single-use items and opt for durable, reusable, and repairable materials.
  • If you sell goods such as merchandise, reflect on their necessity, material choices, durability, and reparability.
  • If your organization has, for example, costume storage, props, or unused spaces, explore how you could share materials or lend or rent them to and from others.
  • Promote permanent operating models and digital platforms that enable the sharing of objects, sets, costumes, and spaces across sector boundaries.

Communication and Collaboration

  • Network and connect your field with other sustainability transition actors in society.
  • Communicate actively about your carbon footprint and the sustainability work you are doing.
  • Share knowledge, skills, and good sustainability practices beyond your own sector.
  • Co-create a shared model for ecologically sustainable practices within your field—one that is replicable and benefits others working in similar contexts.
  • Hire and share an environmental coordinator together with other organizations.
  • Build and coordinate collaboration to implement climate-smart practices.
  • Participate in sustainability training and, when possible, take an active role in organizing such trainings.
  • Host sustainability events where professionals in your field can access information, engage in discussion, share experiences, and build networks.
Sources: Creative Sectors as Catalysts for Sustainability Transformation