The Influence of Creative Sectors in Sustainability Transformation

In the sustainability transition, society must shift to a low-carbon circular and sharing economy, ecologically sustainable products, and new consumption habits. Implementing the sustainability transition requires environmentally conscious eco-social education, effective environmental communication and media, innovative thinking, and especially cultural change – all of which necessitate creativity.

Creative industries are socially influential and reach large audiences. In Finland, for example, the annual turnover of the gaming industry has grown to over three billion euros. In 2024, there were over 85 million library loans, more than six million cinema visits, and over two million people attended concerts or music festivals. Additionally, Finnish architecture and design are internationally renowned.

However, the impact of creative industries is not limited to numbers and statistics. For example, architecture affects the comfort of living environments, and quality design makes everyday life smoother. Art and culture are part of education, which guides societal thinking – our perception of Finland would be very different without the stories and depictions of art. The nationally accepted view of Finns as people with a special connection to forests is largely based on the views and ideals of artists representing national romanticism during the golden age of Finnish art from 1880 to 1910.

In the preliminary study (2022) and survey of the LuoTo project, the creative sectors considered societal transformative power as the most important means of impact of the field in the ecological sustainability transition. Creative industries influence – and could influence even more – people’s attitudes and practices regarding sustainability. Cultural change is an essential part of the sustainability transition. The expertise of creative industries would also be useful in other areas of society, such as increasing the impact of science and science communication.

Driving the Sustainability Transformation with Transformative Power

The role of creative sectors in the societal sustainability transition is twofold. Creative sectors must improve the sustainability of their own operations, but they also have cultural influence, making them actors larger than their size. Creative industries have the potential to accelerate cultural change through their content and the example they set, which can significantly influence the mainstreaming of more sustainable lifestyles. The transformative power of creative industries should be utilised more systematically to advance the sustainability transition.

The 1.5-Degree Lifestyles report commissioned by Sitra shows that replacing material consumption with leisure services does not necessarily significantly reduce the climate emissions of consumption. Leisure services also often consume electricity and materials, require transportation, heated spaces, and the use of equipment and devices. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that creative industries make their operations more sustainable, set ambitious climate and environmental goals, and implement them swiftly.

In general, creativity and creative activities are beneficial from the perspective of societal sustainability. The cultural dimension of sustainable development and its possibilities have been increasingly recognised in recent years. One of the most significant sustainability challenges in industrialised societies is lifestyles based on overconsumption, which require a lot of energy and materials, thus exceeding the planet’s carrying capacity.

The offerings of creative sectors often emphasise qualitative experiences instead of material consumption. As creative industries make their operations more sustainable, their offerings become increasingly sustainable. If people replace more environmentally burdensome consumption with the offerings of creative industries, the overall sustainability of consumption improves. This happens, for example, when a holiday flight is replaced by a festival trip by train within the country.

Art Can Make Environmental Crises Comprehensible

Societal governance of ecological sustainability and monitoring of climate and environmental crises depend on research knowledge. However, scientific knowledge does not automatically lead to changes in policy or human behaviour. Studies indicate that environmental problems easily remain distant, and many find science communication heavy and difficult to understand.

The mechanism of art’s impact is different: it touches human emotions and experiences, which is also supported by empirical evidence. For example, the film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), which draws on the climate crisis, was found to intensify viewers’ concerns about the consequences of the climate crisis and increase motivation for climate action. Another study found that artistically visualised climate information evokes strong emotions and improves learning compared to conventional science visualisations.

At its best, art serves as a tool for understanding and interpreting, for example, the relationship between humans and the surrounding world, where the roots of environmental crises lie. Art can offer new perspectives on familiar patterns or introduce new things. According to aesthetics researcher Sanna Lehtinen, art can provide a framework for addressing broad environmental crises, creating a connection between the individual and abstract phenomena that are difficult to grasp.

Creativity and the arts are also needed to imagine different futures. Art can create visions of a sustainable future, outline paths to it, and maintain hope. According to Kaarlo Hildén, Rector of the University of the Arts Helsinki, practising art and art education help address cultural change, which requires new frameworks of thinking and approaches to build a sustainable future. The guiding influence of futures visions has been recognised in sustainability transition research, where the concept of the imaginary is used to explain collectively shared and institutionalised visions of the future.

The transformative power of art could and should be utilised more in the pursuit of ecological sustainability. At the same time, it must be recognised that art is intrinsically valuable and independently evolving. However, it is beneficial for artists to weigh and be aware of the relationship between their artistic work and expression and the ecological sustainability crisis. For example, the UN communication guide Communicating on Climate Change advises avoiding the presentation of misinformation, seeking solutions, and encouraging action.

The Reach of Creative Sectors Offers Opportunities

Television, radio, events, as well as publishing and print media reach large audiences and are also significant industries in terms of business value. They have the potential to advance the ecological sustainability transition, but so far, their transformative power has been underutilised. The reach of these sectors would make them effective carriers of environmental messages, but it is crucial to ensure that communication does not slip into greenwashing. Communication must be open and fact-based, maintain proportions of impacts and measures, strive for a comprehensive picture, and use terms correctly.

The EU adopted a directive prohibiting greenwashing in all sectors in spring 2024. The directive prohibits general environmental claims that cannot be substantiated, such as ecological, sustainable, green, or climate-friendly. Claims of carbon neutrality are also banned if so-called zero emissions are based even partially on offsetting. The directive will come into force at the end of the transition period in September 2026.

Creative sectors should consider how and to what extent ecological sustainability could be reflected in their content. People naturally seek group belonging and social acceptance, so highlighted examples, such as plant-based eating or litter-free spaces, have been shown to effectively influence environmental behaviour. People also tend to internalise common behavioural patterns, leading to environmentally friendly actions in private life as well. Conversely, it is advisable to avoid showing bad examples. If waste is not sorted at an event, it can significantly reduce the motivation to sort a much smaller amount of waste at home.

Creative sectors are connected to various other businesses. For example, a significant part of the economic impact of events is generated in restaurant and tourism services, and many media business models utilise advertising. Creative sector actors should demand commitment to sustainability goals from businesses linked to their operations and actively strive to influence the environmental responsibility of stakeholders.

For example, the results of the Finnish music festival, Flow Festival, have shown that setting sustainability criteria can have a significant impact. When the festival restricted the offering of red meat and poultry in 2022, the carbon footprint of food portions nearly halved. In 2024, about 84 percent of all portions sold at the festival area were vegan or vegetarian. In 2025, the emphasis is even more on plant-based food, and only domestic fish is used.

Architecture and Design to Support the Sustainability Transition

Design and architecture are widely utilised in industry and construction, where reducing climate and environmental impacts is essential for a more sustainable future. Additionally, design and architecture can support sustainable lifestyles and accelerate the societal sustainability transition – creative sectors have the power to influence societal development.

Architecture constructs the spatial dimension of society and culture, thus indirectly participating in almost all human activities. Building and spatial design affect emissions from lifestyles such as housing, transportation, food, and consumption, which should be a fundamental consideration for architecture aiming for ecological sustainability. For example, pleasant and safe pedestrian and cycling paths, electric vehicle charging points, and bicycle parking promote the transition to low-emission transportation. Zero-energy buildings that produce their own energy from renewable sources reduce the need for energy production elsewhere. Spatial design that maximises utilisation and multifunctionality can, in turn, reduce the need for additional construction.

Architecture offers significant opportunities for so-called nudging, where spatial design is used to consciously influence people’s behaviour. A classic example of nudging is product placement in store architecture. Nudging can be used equally to increase candy sales or to guide sustainable choices. Through spatial design, for example, people can be guided to choose stairs and exercise instead of electricity-consuming lifts.

Additionally, architecture plays an important role in adapting to the climate crisis. A changing climate increases extreme weather events, such as precipitation and windiness, even in Finland. Architecture sector must start to adapt for heatwaves, storms, floods, winter slipperiness, changes in soil moisture, and groundwater conditions.

The impact of design in promoting the sustainability transition emphasises the utilisation of design expertise in society. In its publication Design Policy Recommendations 2019–2024 the Ornamo Art and Design Finland association hopes that Finland will strengthen the significance of design in life cycle thinking and the circular economy.

Design can be considered a human-centred and solution-oriented field that systematically seeks to develop new things. Design could be used to improve the social acceptability of actions promoting ecological sustainability. For example, products that replace animal-based foods have helped many transition to a more plant-based diet. An organisation can use concept design to create a roadmap for implementing its sustainability strategy or use scenario design to outline paths to the future.

Architecture and design face some familiar questions: practitioners should weigh up and explore the relationship between aesthetic values and environmental sustainability in their field. It is also essential to consider how the expertise of the field could increase the appreciation of nature and the environment and support the construction of a relationship with nature in an urbanising world. Could, for example, landscape architecture that preserves biodiversity offer nature experiences to city dwellers – and at the same time promote adaptation to the climate crisis?

The Whole Society Needs Creative Sustainability Expertise

Creative sectors possess the knowledge and skills to build cultural sustainability that supports ecological sustainability. In the sustainability transition, other sectors and society as a whole would benefit from the skills familiar to creative sectors, such as designing new solutions, bold experimentation, experiential learning, storytelling, gamification, and visualisation. For example, design expertise has been found to increase companies’ courage in problem-solving.

Marketing has long understood the ability of creative sectors to influence people’s purchasing decisions, consumption behaviour, and the perceptions associated with products. The same ability and partly the same mechanisms should be utilised in solving the sustainability crisis. In the publication Suomeen luovaa potentiaalia – ratkaisuja ilmastokriisin aikakaudelle (Creative Potential for Finland – Solutions for the Era of the Climate Crisis) by the Finnish Parliament Committee for the Future, creative sector actors propose building new forms of cooperation with the private, public, and third sectors to share creative expertise.

The sustainability expertise of creative sectors can be strengthened by building cooperation with climate and environmental sciences and environmental organisations. Educational institutions play a significant role in increasing interdisciplinary expertise. In Finland, for example, the Creative Sustainability Master’s Programme at Aalto University’s Department of Design includes design, business, and material development. The department also hosts the NODUS research group, which focuses on system change, sustainability sciences, design theory, co-design, and futures studies.