From Agenda to Action

The Implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Helsinki 2019

Contents

2 From agenda to action 4 Introduction 5 Work process 7 Helsinki City Strategy 2017–2021: The Most Functional City in the World 8 Helsinki City Strategy Objectives 9 Helsinki City Strategy and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 10 The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Helsinki City Strategy 14 SDG4: Quality education 22 SDG8: Decent work and economic growth 36 SDG10: Reduced inequalities 52 SDG13: Climate action 62 SDG16: Peace, justice and strong institutions 75 Summary and conclusions From agenda to action

Implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals locally in Helsinki

In 2015, the UN member states agreed upon The Sustainable goals and an agenda for sustainable develop- Development Goals ment. The 2030 Agenda aims toward eliminating extreme poverty and facilitating sustainable turn from the agenda development that takes the environment, the into action especially economy and people into consideration in equal at the city level. measure. A significant portion of the actual implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is carried out at the local level. Cities play an important role in attaining the goals. The Sustain- able Development Goals turn from the agenda into action especially at the city level. Attaining in relation to the UN’s Sustainable Develop- the goals will require strong co-operation be- ment Goals, produce understandable and open tween countries and cities in the future. information about the City’s sustainable devel- Helsinki wants to be the most functional opment, promote dialogue and co-operation city in the world and stand out as a pioneer in with the international community, improve cities’ implementing global responsibility locally. Our opportunities to interact with the UN, and point strategy features several goals through which out any weaknesses that Helsinki has, which the City takes part in promoting the UN’s Sus- we can then address. The long-term vision is tainable Development Goals. The goals are a to produce solutions and information that can cross-cutting part of our City Strategy, but con- help cities around the world implement the UN’s cretizing their attainment also requires closer Sustainable Development Goals so that the 2030 examination. Agenda can be actually implemented. In May 2018, New York City became the first Over the past year, we have collaborated with city in the world to report to the UN on the New York City to encourage other cities to take development of the Sustainable Development part in the voluntary implementation reporting, Goals with a city-level model. In June 2018, the and this summer, many cities around the world City published its first voluntary implementation will submit their own reports to the UN. Our goal report, i.e., Voluntary Local Review. The report is to achieve concrete actions and results – not illustrates the development of New York City just to produce reports. The cities’ combined in a manner that facilitates comparisons with voice is now perhaps louder than ever, and its the UN’s metering and provides insight on the message is clear: achieving a permanent positive successfulness of the sustainable development change requires that we all do more than our program in relation to these meters. The pro- best. The special characteristics of cities make it gram has also given the City new co-operation possible to bring global responsibility to the level opportunities with various functions of the UN, of everyday life. as well as with the member states, other cities and stakeholders. It has also promoted interna- Helsinki’s report is the first stage in a long pro- tional discussion and brought the Sustainable cess, the ultimate goal of which is to realize the Development Goals to a concrete level. UN’s Sustainable Development Goals success- In September 2018, Helsinki decided to follow fully and productively in our city. The information New York City’s example and become the first and insight we produce form a basis for steering European city to commit to submitting Sustain- our resources and operations. able Development Goal implementation reports at the city level. The goal of the reporting is to Jan Vapaavuori illustrate how well Helsinki’s strategy succeeds Mayor of Helsinki

2 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 3 Introduction

Helsinki’s goal is to be one of the world’s leading The objective is local implementers of global responsibility. In to generate information this work, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals provide a globally relevant framework, the about the implementation realization of which will provide not only evidence of sustainable develop of Helsinki’s success, but also insight on areas of ment in Helsinki, development. This Voluntary Local Review describes how to promote cooperation the Helsinki City Strategy connects with the with the international UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and how community and the City promotes and monitors their implementation. The goal of the reporting is to produce to influence matters understandable and open information about the in order to increase City’s implementation of sustainable develop- the contribution of cities ment, promote co-operation with the international community and contribute to cities’ increasing in the implementation efforts in implementing the Sustainable Develop- of the sustainable ment Goals globally. development goals The Most Functional City in the World – Helsinki globally. City Strategy 2017–2021 was approved by the Helsinki City Council on September 27, 2017, and the strategy provides guidelines for the City’s operations. In this report, the City Strategy is summarized into three themes: securing sus- growth (SDG8), reduced inequalities (SDG10), tainable growth, developing services and re- climate action (SDG13) and peace, justice and sponsible financial management. These themes strong institutions (SDG16). The report chapters, cover 14 identifiable overall goals that are de- which have been named after the SDG goals, ex- signed to realize at least one of the UN’s goals at amine in depth what concrete procedures have the local level. been carried out over the course of this strategy The UN has defined a total of 17 Sustainable period. The meters with which the development Development Goals (SDG), which are divided is monitored are also reported in connection into 169 targets. The first stage of the reporting with the procedures. involved carrying out a cross tabulation analysis Finland was one of the first countries to set (so-called mapping), which compared the Hel- national focus points, procedures and a monitor- sinki City Strategy, key projects implementing ing and evaluation system for attaining the UN’s the strategy and the Carbon-neutral Helsinki goals. Helsinki’s local reporting complements 2035 action plan with the UN’s goals. Based on Finland’s national reporting, and the goal is for that, we formulated a perception of the linkage Helsinki’s example to encourage Finnish cities between Helsinki’s key strategic objectives and and other operators to take part in getting the UN goals SDG1–SDG16. There is a description of Sustainable Development Goals off the ground these linkages in the beginning of the report. locally. The UN’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) defines annual focus point goals, the progress of which is reported. This report for 2019 focuses on examining the following five goals: quality education (SDG4), decent work and economic

4 From Agenda to Action Work process

The first Voluntary Local Review (VLR) implemen- tors used by Eurostat and the national-level UN tation report by the City of Helsinki was carried Sustainable Development Indicators produced out by applying the model created by New York by Statistics Finland, where applicable. City, and it describes the Helsinki City Strategy The City’s procedures selected for the moni- 2017–2021 and the operations implementing it toring were compiled from key projects realizing within the SDG framework. the City Strategy, the Carbon-neutral Helsinki For the reporting, a so-called mapping was 2035 action plan and the action plans of the carried out by cross tabulating the goals of the City’s divisions. Furthermore, experts involved Helsinki City Strategy, the monitoring meters in the projects and programs realizing the City and the goals of the Carbon-neutral Helsinki Strategy complemented the report with other 2035 action plan against the UN’s Sustainable procedures realizing the UN’s Sustainable De- Development Goals. This stage also involved velopment Goals that have been promoted over charting the connections between the seven the course of the strategy period. key projects realizing the strategy and the Developing and coordinating the implementa- UN’s goals and compiling examples of concrete tion report within the City was under the respon- procedures that the City has carried out or is sibility of a work group consisting of experts currently carrying out. from the Helsinki City Executive Office and the The first stage of the modeling (mapping 1) Urban Environment Division. The texts describ- involved examining Helsinki’s goals, meters and ing the progress of the procedures detailed in procedures and presenting the connections the report were produced in collaboration by between the UN’s goals and Helsinki’s goals. several employees of the City from the Helsinki The second stage (mapping 2) involved fo- City Executive Office and the Urban Environ- cusing the examination on the UN’s goals and ment, Education, Culture and Leisure, and Social describing which of Helsinki’s goals were linked Services and Health Care Divisions. The work to which of the UN’s goals. was directed by a steering group led by the For more detailed reporting, a compilation Strategy Unit. Helsinki’s report was carried out was created of procedures that were linked to between November 2018 and May 2019. the following 2019 focus points defined by the UN’s HLPF: quality education (SDG4), decent work and economic growth (SDG8), reduced inequalities (SDG10), climate action (SDG13) and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG16). Descriptions of the progress of the procedures were collected from an extensive group of the City’s experts. The procedure descriptions were complemented with a selection of key indicators that best describe the development following the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in Helsinki. The key indicators were picked primarily from the monitoring meters of the Helsinki City Strat- egy. The whole was complemented with a few context-appropriate additional indicators with which Helsinki monitors the state and the development of the city. As regards the indicators, the aim was to achieve a presentation consistent with indicators such as the EU-level SDG indica-

City of Helsinki 5 6 From Agenda to Action Helsinki City Strategy 2017–2021: The Most Functional City in the World

The City Strategy 2017–2021 has been connected to the reporting rhythm of the City’s created in accordance with the City’s operations and economy. new management system Helsinki’s new City Council began its strategy Objectives of the Helsinki City Strategy work by gathering for a seminar on June 15–16, Helsinki’s goal is to be the most functional city in 2017. At the seminar, the Council assessed the the world. The Strategy sets ambitious and clear current state of and changes to the operational goals indicating that the City wants to get better environment of the City as the starting point for every day in the future. The goal is to create a preparing the City Strategy for the council term more international, agile, service-oriented and of 2017–2021. Analyses required by the Local attractive Helsinki. Government Act were prepared for the seminar Above all, Helsinki is a place and a community. to serve as the basis for the Council’s strategy The City is made by the residents themselves. work. The materials of the council seminar con- The City’s attractiveness comes from a clean sisted of an operational environment report, and safe environment, a unique urban culture scenario and vision work carried out in connec- and the residents’ participation in building good tion with the renewal of the City’s management and functional everyday life. system and a summary report on interviews with The Strategy acknowledges that the sig- businesses. The materials have been published nificance of cities as solvers of current major on the City’s website. global challenges will inevitably increase. Cities In early August 2017, the new division com- are solution-oriented, pragmatic and agile as mittees gathered for strategy seminars that they seek solutions to the challenges of social involved identifying the City’s common and segregation, climate change, energy efficiency, division-specific goals and themes for the coun- participation and digitalization alike. cil period. The Education Committee’s seminar The Helsinki City Strategy features several was held on August 8, 2017, the Urban Environ- identifiable goals through which the City takes ment Committee’s seminar on August 10, 2017, part in promoting the UN’s Sustainable Develop- the Culture and Leisure Committee’s seminar ment Goals. The Helsinki City Strategy is summa- on August 9–10, 2017 and the Social and Health rized into three main themes: securing sustaina- Committee’s seminar on August 9, 2017. Addi- ble growth, developing services and responsible tionally, the City Board’s Economic Development financial management. These themes cover 14 Sub-committee discussed the strategy’s eco- overall goals that are designed to realize at least nomic development policy related issues at its one of the UN’s goals at the local level. seminar on August 21, 2017. After the committee seminars, the Mayor and Deputy Mayors worked on a vision regarding the central themes of the City Strategy. The Mayor and Deputy Mayors also collaborated with the office holder management in order to utilize the planning and preparation work carried out in connection with the management reform in the spring of 2017 in creating the guidelines of the City Strategy. The City Council decided on the Strategy on September 27, 2017, and the Strategy can be read in its entirety on the City’s website. The Strategy will be monitored and reported on with a set of meters, and the monitoring is

City of Helsinki 7 Helsinki City Strategy Objectives

Pleasant and safe Carbon neutral We will make Helsinki We will develop Helsinki to safer and more pleasant. become an ecologically sustainable and carbon-neutral city.

Sound and healthy Resident-oriented Well-being and health and engaging for all Helsinki residents. Helsinki will be developed in a resident-focused and open manner.

Minds the wellbeing of children and Digital young people We will take advan- We will take care of the tage of digitalization well-being of children and opportunities. youth, as well as prevent marginalization. Learning We will enable Athletic and active lifelong learning. The physical activity of residents will be promoted. Business-friendly Helsinki’s focus on busi- Functional ness will be developed. urban structure The development of the City structure will take Responsible leadership accessibility and function- Helsinki will be managed ality into account. responsibly, and the well-being of staff will be looked after. Vital The appeal and vitality of Helsinki will be Financially sustainable increased The economy of Helsinki will be managed responsibly, sustainably and profitably. Diverse nature We will secure the diversity of urban nature and sea nature.

8 From Agenda to Action Helsinki City Strategy and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

The first stage of Helsinki’s reporting (map- In connection with the goals, the report brings ping 1), The Most Functional City in the World up concrete procedures with which the City – Sustainable Development Goals, First Part realizes its strategy while also promoting the of the City-level Implementation Reporting was UN’s goals. The following image illustrates which published in April 2019 in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals are linked to the Helsinki Symposium. It presents the themes and three themes of the Helsinki City Strategy: se- objectives of the Helsinki City Strategy, as well curing sustainable growth, developing services as the meters used for monitoring the strategy. ja responsible financial management.

Securing sustainable growth

Responsible financial Developing services management

City of Helsinki 9 The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Helsinki City Strategy

In the second stage of the reporting (mapping 2), the examination was reversed so that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals served as the starting point. Below is a presentation of the Helsinki City Strategy objectives that are linked to each UN Sustainable Development Goal.

Sustainable Development Goals and the Helsinki City Strategy

Sound and Minds the Digital Learning Financially healthy wellbeing of sustainable children and young people

Sound and healthy

Pleasant Sound and Minds the Athletic Carbon Responsible and safe healthy wellbeing of and active neutral leadership children and young people

Sound and Minds the Carbon Learning healthy wellbeing of neutral children and young people

10 From Agenda to Action Pleasant Resident Learning Responsible and safe oriented and leadership engaging

Diverse nature

Carbon neutral

Sound and Minds the Functional Vital Carbon Digital Learning healthy wellbeing of urban neutral children and structure young people

Business Responsible Financially friendly leadership sustainable

Pleasant Functional Carbon Digital Business and safe urban neutral friendly structure

Pleasant Sound and Minds the Athletic Functional Resident and safe healthy wellbeing of and active urban oriented and children and structure engaging young people

Digital Learning Responsible leadership

City of Helsinki 11 Pleasant Minds the Functional Carbon Resident Digital and safe wellbeing of urban neutral oriented and children and structure engaging young people

Carbon neutral

Carbon Diverse neutral nature

Diverse Carbon nature neutral

Pleasant Minds the Resident Digital Responsible Financially and safe wellbeing of oriented and leadership sustainable children and engaging young people

12 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 13 Quality education

Helsinki wants to be the world’s most effective place to learn.

14 From Agenda to Action Sound and Minds the Carbon healthy wellbeing of neutral children and young people

SDG 4: Ensure inclusive Learning and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Helsinki wants to be the world’s most effective place education in which daycare centers, schools, educational to learn. The City already provides its residents with institutions and adult education centers are instructed to high-quality and attractive local services for early child- promote a climate-friendly lifestyle. hood and comprehensive education. However, the grow- The City promotes education, employment and partici- ing Helsinki is in constant need of active procedures and pation among immigrants with several projects. The goals investments in order to be able to provide everyone with include improving the conditions for learning and support open, equal and high-quality education and lifelong learn- for immigrants, as well as developing their competence ing opportunities. and recruitment. The goal of the teaching is that the learners are pro- Helsinki grants schools appropriations for positive vided with the support they need in their local school and discrimination, which are targeted toward some of the study with the other learners of their neighboring area. schools with specific criteria. Positive discrimination The City aims to provide all of its young residents with promotes the realization of equal early childhood, com- secondary education opportunities, as well as profes- prehensive and secondary education services. sional know-how for the needs of adults and working life. Since the fall of 2018, the teaching of the first foreign Partnership networks, such as those between business- language has started in the first grade of comprehensive es and various operators of the City, make studying more school. Foreign-language teaching in Helsinki schools versatile. One example of such co-operation is the cur- has been increased in pre-school and comprehensive rently developed competence cluster for the construction education, general upper secondary education and at the industry in Myllypuro. Helsinki Vocational College. Language immersion teach- Helsinki utilizes the entire city area as a learning space ing and education have been increased as well. for people of all ages. The phenomena being studied are examined as wholes, and digital technology enriches Children aged 5 are provided learning and facilitates learning that is independent with free-of-charge early childhood education 4 of time and place. The goal is for every learner to have hours a day access to a modern digital learning environment and In August 2018, Helsinki began to provide its residents materials, as well as appropriate equipment. The goal aged 5 with free-of-charge early childhood education (4 of information system development for teaching and h/day). High-quality early childhood education and teach- learning is to develop an environment and system that ing reduce inequality. The goal of providing the education provides open interfaces with other systems, including free of charge has been to increase the participation rate national systems and information resources. in early childhood education, which has been attained. The Carbon-neutral Helsinki action plan includes education-related procedures, the goal of which is to in- Inclusive schools provide learners crease climate change and circular economy know-how at with the support they need in their local school all education levels. The environmental management and Learners and their families have greatly varying situa- curricula of the Education Division include environmental tions. Flexible teaching arrangements and groupings and

City of Helsinki 15 An inclusive school project has involved charting shared use of the facilities is equal, and it teaches between the upper secondary school, the sports hall and the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region diversity and everyone’s (HOAS). The implementation of the project has begun. right to comprehensive operations. A competence cluster for the construction industry to be established in Myllypuro The Helsinki Vocational College operates in collaboration with Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, businesses in the industry and the surrounding community in the competence cluster for the construction industry in Myl- lypuro. The spatial arrangement is based on the co-operation agreed upon with Metropolia and shared use of the facilities. The facilities will be established in 2020–2022, and the project will be carried out as a leasehold project.

Developing learning environments promotes the development of extensive know-how Authentic learning environments promote the development of extensive know-how required in the future. The learning environment will be made more versatile, and teaching will utilize the entire city area. Learners can connect their learning to actual everyday environments and problems. The phenomena being studied are examined co-teachership implement individual learning paths and as wholes, which in turn promotes the development of respond to the learners’ support needs. The goal is to thinking and problem-solving skills. Since the beginning enable as many learners as possible to study in their local of 2019, learners have been able to use public transpor- school or close to their home. tation free of charge during school days, which promotes In an inclusive school, the learners are provided with the expansion of the learning environment to cover the the support they need in their local school and study entire Helsinki metropolitan area. with the other learners of their neighboring area. The Communality and communal learning have been distances between home and school are reduced and the strengthened. According to assessments by the schools, amount of learning path transfers decreases. An inclusive learners are working together more, producing informa- school is equal, and it teaches diversity and everyone’s tion and solving problems together. These are essential right to comprehensive operations. When a learner has skills in future know-how. Communal working also rein- a significant need for support and the teaching cannot forces the development of socio-emotional skills needed be carried out in an integrated manner, it is arranged in in the future. The learners’ active role and participation in a small group as class-format special needs education. planning, implementing and evaluating their own learning Special schools and special classes for demanding spe- has been reinforced. Electronic portfolios have made cial support serve at the level of the entire City. the learning process visible and facilitated individual progress. The City of Helsinki uses €2 million on a free-of-charge secondary education trial The City of Helsinki has launched several projects All learners graduating from comprehensive school are to promote the digitality of teaching given access to further education in Helsinki. In addition Teaching is being developed so that digital know-how is to this, the City of Helsinki targeted €2 million toward a up-to-date at every school in Helsinki and it supports the free-of-charge secondary education trial. The funding change in the school’s pedagogical operating culture. In is targeted toward new students at the City’s upper comprehensive education, the goal is for every learner secondary schools and the Helsinki Vocational College to to have access to a modern digital learning environment be used on education materials available for a loan, HSL and materials, as well as appropriate equipment. This travel cards inside Helsinki and cultural visits. enables everyone to have access to new teaching technology and digital learning materials and guarantees The City of Helsinki has begun establishing equal treatment. a competence cluster for sports, Laptop computers make it possible to expand the the Urhea campus teaching environment and monitor learning regardless The Urhea campus is being promoted as a competence of time and place. Learner computer procurements have cluster for sports. The Urhea campus consists of an been made in accordance with the teaching digitalization expansion to the Mäkelänrinne upper secondary school, program of the City of Helsinki, and the presentation a sports hall and student apartment buildings. The joint technology and wireless networks of schools have been

16 From Agenda to Action Day care participation rate in 2018

Ages 0–2 Ages 3–5 Age 5 Age 6

32% 90% 94% 95%

the same as +1 percentage point +2 percentage point +2 percentage point in 2017 more than in 2017 more than in 2017 more than in 2017

Quality of public day care 2018 21% 4.3%

Percentage of non-eligible kindergar- Departure turnover rate of kindergarten ten teachers (kindergarten teachers teachers (Jan 1 – Oct 31, 2018) without training corresponding with the task) of all kindergarten teachers.

Percentage of families who chose the local school in comprehensive education

100%

80%

60%

40%

20% 2018 2017 0 1st grade 1st grade 7th grade 7th grade Finnish- Swedish- Finnish- Swedish- speaking speaking speaking speaking

Source: City of Helsinki, Education division

City of Helsinki 17 People who have completed comprehensive school but have not been accepted into further education For the 2018 application period, the system did not include those who were accepted from a reserve 2017 2018 list for a place in preparatory training in the calculation. For the 2019 application period, the system will % % be made comparable with 4 5.6 the 2017 information.

Source: Finnish National Agency for Education

Percentage of non-Finnish-speaking Results of matriculation students graduating examinations from Helsinki upper secondary schools 10.8% 12.4% 4.3/ 7 Average matriculation exam grades at Helsinki upper secondary schools in 2017

2017 2018 / 7 Source: City of Helsinki, Education division 4.2 Average matriculation exam grades at all Finnish upper secondary schools in 2017

Higher education graduates Source: Vipunen, Education Statistics Finland (percentage of population aged 30–34 in 2017)

Helsinki

EU*

Helsinki men

Helsinki women

20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 % Source: Statistics Finland, *Eurostat

18 From Agenda to Action overhauled. Schools and educational institutions have work and at nature and camp schools. Helsinki’s local carried out learning technology trials and charted and school principle facilitates commuting to school on foot tried robot technologies, technology kits and sensors (In- and by bike. Travel support for longer school commutes ternet of Things). The trials involve testing the pedagogi- directs learners toward using public transportation. cal and technological usability of the new opportunities. A comprehensive teaching and learning informa- Immigrant education is supported tion system development process has been launched by means such as increasing multilingual guidance to replace outdated systems. The goal is to create an in early childhood education, in secondary environment and system that provides open interfaces education and during educational transition with other systems, including national systems and phases information resources. The overall process covers the On May 29, 2018, the Education Division of the City of development of a customer information system, AI-based Helsinki approved the Development Plan for Immigrant learning analytics and the learning environment. Education 2018–2021. The goal of the plan is to provide The customer information system project involves everyone with equal access to care, education and developing an administrative whole related to core op- employment. The main themes of the development plan erations in order to develop the operations of different are suitable conditions and support for learning, guid- target areas and user groups. The development of the ance, advice and transfers, and skill improvement and AI-based learning analytics is targeted toward areas such recruitment. as the following: personalizing learning and study paths The plan is implemented through 28 procedures. The (early childhood education, comprehensive education, procedures involve actions such as piloting the Multilin- upper secondary and vocational education, vocational gual Instructor model in early childhood education, sec- adult education and liberal adult education), supporting ondary education and educational transition phases and information management (by developing visualization and creating an integration support model for early childhood prediction methods utilizing school and student data, education, pre-school education and comprehensive etc.), preventing social exclusion, promoting graduation education. The different language versions of the services from vocational education and guiding the learning pro- will be updated and the learning of Finnish at workplaces cess pedagogically in real time (so-called scaffolding). will be developed. Additionally, staff training courses The project has involved collaboration with the Growing on language awareness, competence identification and Mind research project of the University of Helsinki. identifying and addressing racism will be launched. Technologies by Microsoft and Google serve as the technical basis for the learning environment development Positive discrimination to promote work. The project also involves charting other learning the realization of equal early childhood education platform and tool needs. and later education and prevent segregation development Environmental education steering Helsinki Since 1999, the City of Helsinki has granted additional residents toward a climate-friendly and funding to schools in need of special support. The appro- sustainable lifestyle priation is granted based on the education and income Finnish people’s consumption behavior must become level of the population of the school admission areas considerably more sustainable. It is especially important and the immigrant background rate of the schools. This to introduce new courses of action as part of everyday so-called positive discrimination model is used to pro- life in early childhood education and at schools and edu- mote the realization of equal early childhood education cational institutions. and later education services and prevent segregation The Carbon-neutral Helsinki action plan includes development. education-related procedures, the goal of which is to The funding of positive discrimination will continue in increase climate change and circular economy know-how Finnish and Swedish-language comprehensive education at all education levels from comprehensive education to and upper secondary education, as well as Finnish-lan- vocational education and the course selections of adult guage early childhood education, and it has been expand- education centers. The environmental management and ed to cover Swedish-language early childhood education curricula of the Education Division include environmental and vocational education. education in which daycare centers, schools, educational According to the study Targeted Funding, Immigrant institutions and adult education centers are instructed to Background, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from promote a climate-friendly lifestyle. The themes include Helsinki’s “Positive Discrimination” conducted by the but are not limited to securing biodiversity, an ecological VATT Institute for Economic Research in 2017, the target- lifestyle, energy conservation, waste sorting, renewable ed positive discrimination appropriation granted by the energy production methods and people’s own opportu- City of Helsinki increases learners’ motivation to apply nities to contribute to climate change mitigation. These for secondary education and thus prevents educational themes are brought up in the environmental education exclusion. Based on the study, more learners from the portions of different subjects, environmental programs schools receiving the positive discrimination appropria- and sustainable development programs, eco-supporter tion also choose upper secondary over vocational educa-

City of Helsinki 19 20 From Agenda to Action The positive discrimination ers starting in bilingual Finnish-English education. Private model is used to promote education providers have also increased the number of places in English-language education. equal early childhood As regards upper secondary education, the number education and later of places in the IB line of Ressu Upper Secondary School education services has been doubled. The total number of students will be doubled by 2021 compared to 2017, i.e., the beginning of and prevent segregation the strategy period. The City of Helsinki is ready to begin development. English-language upper secondary education. It has not begun yet, as the national legislation process regarding English-language Matriculation Examinations is still in progress. The Helsinki Vocational College has launched an Eng- lish-language tourism industry upper secondary qualification program. The program has a constantly open application period, which facilitates flexible starting of the studies. The need for education and the number of ap- plicants are monitored as part of the normal application stage reporting. The permit for organizing English-language education has been granted to also cover upper secondary qualification in the media industry and visual expression and in the restaurant and catering industry starting from January 1, 2019. tion than before, which also contributes to the realization Language skills to be made more versatile of equal education opportunities. The study indicates that by increasing the teaching of language the positive discrimination appropriation is an effective In the fall of 2018, a Swedish-language immersion teach- and efficient way to affect segregation. ing program was launched by the early childhood education services of the north-eastern Helsinki area, and a The teaching of the first foreign language new language immersion class will start in the fall of 2019 starts in the first grade (Hiidenkivi Comprehensive School). In the fall of 2019, Day In accordance with the Helsinki City Strategy, the teach- care Veräjämäki will start a language immersion group, ing of the first foreign or second native language, i.e., the which will later be continued at the Oulunkylä Lower A1 language, has started in the first grade at comprehen- Stage Comprehensive School. sive schools since the fall of 2018. Previously, comprehen- Language-enriched pre-school education was contin- sive schools in Helsinki started teaching the A1 language ued in the fall of 2018 in four areas and four languages: in the third grade. The most popular A1 language is Eng- Russian, French, English and Spanish. Furthermore, lish, and the other languages available are Spanish, Chi- language-enriched teaching of English was started at nese, French, Swedish, German, Russian and Estonian. four schools. (Taivallahti and Jätkäsaari Comprehensive Schools, Ruoholahti and Kaisaniemi Lower Stage Com- The number of places prehensive Schools). In 2019, the language-enriched in English-language early childhood education teaching of English will be expanded to cover four new and later education to be doubled schools (Itäkeskus, Merilahti and Kannelmäki Compre- The City of Helsinki invests in developing English-lan- hensive Schools and the Siltamäki Lower Stage Compre- guage operations in early childhood education and later hensive School). education. The organization of early childhood education The teaching of Chinese has been expanded by start- is still in its early stages in Helsinki, but e.g., extensive ing the teaching of Chinese as the A1 language in the Finnish–English pre-school education was introduced in first grade at Itäkeskus Comprehensive School in the the fall of 2018. As regards comprehensive education, fall of 2018. The selection of Chinese studies has been extensive Finnish–English education was introduced at increased at the Helsinki Upper Secondary School of Malmi Comprehensive School in the fall of 2018. This Languages. education system will be expanded to cover the Vesala and Laajasalo Comprehensive Schools in the fall of 2019. In the school year of 2019–2020, there are 50 places in English-language first-grade education and 100 places in bilingual Finnish-English education. The amount of places will be increased so that in the school year of 2020–2021, there will be 100 places for learners starting in Eng- lish-language education and another 100 places for learn-

City of Helsinki 21 Decent work and economic growth

Helsinki wants to create a functional and enjoyable urban environment that provides a good growth platform for businesses’ innovation operations and promotes sustainable economic growth and employment.

22 From Agenda to Action Sound and Minds the wellbe- Functional Vital Carbon healthy ing of children and urban neutral young people structure

SDG 8: Promote sustained, Digital Learning Business-friendly Responsible inclusive and sustainable leadership economic growth, full and productive employement and decent work for all.

Financially sustainable

An attractive center is the calling card of of traffic. The willingness of the companies to Helsinki, and vital to the entire Helsinki Met- cooperate with the City is extremely high. ropolitan Area. The objective is to ensure the Despite the good employment development, attractiveness and international competitive- over 30,000 people remain unemployed in ness of the center as a location and investment Helsinki (March 2019). At the same time, the site for companies, as well as a place to live in number of vacancies listed at the Employment or to visit. The center of Helsinki is to be made and Economic Development Office has reached one of the most attractive economic locations a record-breaking 12,800 jobs. In the Helsinki in the world. region, fields such as construction, Horeca, The measures of the Economic Development and ICT expert assignments suffer from a lack Division of the Helsinki City Executive Office for of workforce. The City’s employment services promoting scaleup entrepreneurship, develop- participate actively in the development of oper- ing innovation and business ecosystems and ations on such fields. university campuses, and creating experiment In addition to service production, the City’s areas and platforms aim to create an attractive employment services participate in many investment environment. ways in the development of the operation of The City of Helsinki is responsible for the employment ecosystem. Examples of such and participates in dozens of projects and development include affecting the service other actions developing and testing new acquisitions of the Employment and Economic innovations and promoting their utilization in Development Office, promoting new and inno- the business operations of companies. Such vative experiments, and activating companies innovations may be related to smart traffic, to corporate responsibility. digital learning solutions, health and well- Based on the preparation work, the voca- being, clean and smart solutions (e.g., energy tional education offering has been designed efficiency,construction, measurement of air so that its quality and quantity both meet the quality, circular economy), and the utilization of employment needs and enable completing a new technologies in the service development part of a degree in addition to entire degrees. of companies and other actors (5G, AI, IoT, Together with the other cities in the Helsinki VR/AR/XR). Metropolitan Area and Lahti, Helsinki has set The City examined the views of 1,000 com- an ambitious goal to be the best test region panies in Helsinki on the business-friendliness, in the world for smart and clean solutions. economic development policy, and corporate Implementing the solutions and proving their services of the City. Companies are increas- functionality in Helsinki first creates referenc- ingly satisfied with Helsinki as their location, es and export business operations. The new but critical about the price level and fluency city solutions which improve the quality of life

City of Helsinki 23 of the residents and decrease emissions act as Helsinki has successfully attracted a showcase to the world, increasing the inter- Smart & Clean investments national attractiveness of the city. According to the strategy of the Helsinki Busi- The new transport services offered in addi- ness Hub, the company actively promotes direct tion to or as a part of traditional forms of public foreign investments in the Helsinki Metropolitan transport can improve the fluency and energy area which produce Smart & Clean solutions. efficiency of traffic, decreasing the greenhouse According to the strategy, particularly solutions gas emissions per passenger-kilometer. Such for smart mobility and smart buildings have been services include various ride share, shared use, concentrated on. The greenfield and growth and peer rental services, demand responsive capital investments for these sectors are also public transport services, as well as service monitored annually in the operations of the packages according to the Mobility as a Service company. Of the jobs the company promoted for (MaaS) concept in general. They combine various the area in 2018, 16% were in this sector. 24% of forms of transport flexibly in order to offer the the growth capital for startups in this field was entire journey from door to door through one targeted at smart mobility. During early 2019, centralized user interface using a single ticket or two greenfield investments in this sector have monthly fee, for example. been brought to Helsinki, as well as one foreign New business activities accordant with the capital investment in a startup in the field. sharing and circular economy are being created in the cities at an increasing pace. The role of the The Services for Companies unit cities is to act as a platform for new and poten- to develop Helsinki into tial sharing and circular economy experiments, a more business-friendly direction and to support their strengthening. In addition, In fall 2018, a Services for Companies unit was there is a lot of unused potential for promoting founded for the City of Helsinki Economic Devel- circular economy in the City’s operations. opment Division to develop the operations relat- Helsinki will be marketed internationally, ed to the City’s businesses into an increasingly and Helsinki-themed events focusing on select client-friendly, predictable, and well-known direc- topics will be implemented in important target tion, and to improve the operational precondi- cites. Tourism is developed according to the tions of the companies. The objective of the unit sustainable tourism program, and an interna- is to improve the interaction between businesses tional Helsinki Biennale for public art utilizing the and the City in many ways, particularly in terms archipelago area will be organized. In addition, of the location and operating environment of the large events are invited in the city. businesses, the labor needs of the businesses, and maritime and tourism business operations. Surveying the expansion At the same time, the unit aims to strengthen the to the pedestrian center understanding of the needs and operational pre- According to its strategy, the City will survey a conditions of businesses throughout the City of significant expansion to the pedestrian center, Helsinki organization. Business liaisons working which will increase the appeal and functionality with small entrepreneurs and regional business of the City center, as well as the requirements communities, as well as business coordinators for a collector street which would reduce the assisting businesses in acquiring labor, were thoroughfare in the center and the heavy traf- among those centralized into this unit. fic to and from the harbors on the streets. If implemented, the collector street will largely be Employment in the private sector promoted funded through street tolls. According to the through business coordinator operations project program, the survey will be completed in The business coordinators contact, meet with, spring 2020. and listen to businesses of all sizes and their la- The effects of the project are targeted at an bor needs in order to create new job opportuni- area with Finland’s most significant center of ties. They aim to help businesses find competent real property, and which will produce significant employees, allow their sustainable growth, and agglomeration benefits for the national economy. help solve the problem of the mismatch of labor The combined effects of the expansion of the and labor demand through their own operations. pedestrian center and the underground collector In addition, business coordinators promote street on the traffic in Helsinki and the economic awareness of the Helsinki benefit and instruct life in the area are assessed as a whole. The businesses in making use of the financial sup- aim is to develop a comfortable pedestrian and ports for employing people. The business coordi- bicycle environment and to promote walking nator operations also help businesses carry out as the primary mode of transport in the city their social corporate responsibility by offering environment. work opportunities to those in a challenging

24 From Agenda to Action Helsinki has offered emphasizing the business perspective as part an extensive range of the City’s operations and decision-making of experimentation processes. platforms for Business consultants supporting the development the growth of new companies The City of Helsinki’s business guidance and of new solutions growth center NewCo Helsinki offers free-of- with business potential. charge business services to everyone in Helsinki. It has changed its operating model to systematically utilize the capacity of the ecosystem. As part of this change, vertical-specific business consultants have been hired in the fields of health, functional foods, the gaming industry, augmented reality, education, and Smart & Clean solutions. The main assignment of these field-specific business consultants is to promote the functionality and profitability of their own vertical ecosystem, particularly for startup and scaleup companies. Travel allowance is also granted to young businesses (less than 7 years in operation) in Helsinki aiming for growth. Investor meetings where startup and scaleup companies labor market situation, such as young people, can meet international investors, distributors, immigrants, and the long-term unemployed. corporations, and media are also organized, as The business coordinator operations are well as events themed in a way that is interesting aimed at fulfilling the needs for labor of busi- from a vertical perspective. The themes of the nesses in fields which suffer from a lack of most significant single event, Helsinki Startup workforce. The aim is to facilitate meetings and Day (HSD2019), are the gaming industry and develop efficient connections between employ- health. ers and people seeking a job. The service range The business advisory services have intro- of the business coordinators includes various duced new services, allowing them to serve an job seeking events, recruitment and orienta- increased number of clients and making the tion education programs aiming for work, and services more readily available. In addition, one various information and sparring events. The business consultant who speaks Russian has effectiveness of the services is under continuous been hired with project funding. Even French development in cooperation with the businesses and Spanish have been added to the service and other interest groups. languages. The employment in the private sector and in In 2018, the clients of the NewCo Helsinki organizations of Helsinki residents in a difficult services founded a record-breaking number labor market position was supported by granting of 1,180 new companies. This was an increase Helsinki benefits for alleviating employer costs of 20% compared to the previous year. The for employing 540 clients. availability of the services for startup clients has been improved by opening an email address and Business liaisons increase interaction promising to reply to all messages within one between the City and the businesses day of the contact, for example. Business liaisons started their operations in In 2018–2020, the Services for companies autumn 2018 by establishing relationships with of the Economic Development Division of the the essential external and internal interest Helsinki City Executive Office participates as a groups. Between September 2018 and the end partner in the 6Aika ‘CircVol – Utilisation of side of March 2019, the business liaisons have met a streams and masses of soil in cities’ project. total of 1,500 businesses, instructed and guided Helsinki’s share is developing a new industrial 50 businesses based on being contacted by the bio and circular economy business center in the business, and promoted the regional vitality by Östersundom city plan area. The aim is also to developing cooperation between entrepreneurs, strengthen the business ecosystem based on according to the City’s participation model. In biological resources in the area and the core addition to businesses, the business liaisons clusters among those utilizing food production, have served interest groups within the City by meal services, and biowaste, for example.

City of Helsinki 25 Helsinki has promoted in several development projects carried out through the the development of Smart & Clean foundation in the Helsinki metropolitan region. Projects carried out through the city’s inno- business ecosystems vation fund are also significant. In addition, the 6Aika and clusters based strategy by the six largest cities in Finland has promoted on location as well as the development of experimentation platform operations in Helsinki significantly. European cooperation is network-like co-operation carried out and Helsinki’s competence and international in many ways. visibility is promoted through international projects and coordination, such as Horizon 2020 projects and participation in the operations of the European Institute of Technology (EIT), including Climate KIC, Urban Mobility KIC, and Digital KIC.

Versatile location alternatives offered to companies Helsinki has promoted the development of business ecosystems and clusters based on location as well as network-like cooperation in many ways. Maria 01 offers an attractive environment for growth-oriented startups. The campus areas are developed to facilitate even more business operations in the future, and to allow them to create increasing amounts of information and competence-based business operations. The development Helsinki as the experimentation platform areas have included the Viikki and Arabia campuses, for new innovations among others. The Health Capital Helsinki (HCH) project The City has offered an extensive range of experimen- has developed the Meilahti university campus as a hub tation platforms for the development of new solutions for new business operations based on research in the with business potential. The road network, the social life science fields. services and health care service units, the districts and neighborhoods, and schools, for example, have been The Maria 01 area to be made used as development environments and experimenta- the largest scaleup campus in Northern Europe tion platforms. A more expansive city-wide operating The development of the Maria 01 scaleup center was model for using the city as an experimentation platform continued, introducing new buildings for scaleups and is currently being prepared. the operators offering services to them. At the turn of Kalasatama, which is currently being built, has served the year, all of the facilities completed so far were used as a versatile Smart City neighborhood, and Jätkäsaari, by a total of some 130 startup and scaleup companies similarly under construction, offers an environment for and other operators promoting scaleup entrepreneur- the development of new travel solutions and the meas- ship. The Campus Maria project, aiming to create a urement of air quality using 5G technology, for example. more extensive scaleup campus around Maria 01, was The Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab combines a significant launched in 2018. Toward the end of the year, a land use business and research ecosystem of travel. The entire planning partnership and cooperation for the further city has been developed as a learning environment as development of the concept were started with a select- part of the Smart Learning Environments for the Future ed consortium. An extensive range of businesses and project. Within the scope of the project, schools in Hel- other partners participated in the work. sinki and the Helsinki City Museum and the Oodi central library have been used as development platforms for The Meilahti campus to become new solutions: schools, for example, have carried out 20 an internationally significant innovation experiments during fall 2018 and spring 2019. and business environment in the health field The Wholesale Market and Teurastamo region has Helsinki has several university campuses and hubs of been used as the platform for new food, cleantech, and expertise whose industrial political utilization is being circular economy solutions. The City’s construction ser- systematically strengthened. The second largest hospi- vice Stara also offers opportunities for new commercial tal in Northern Europe, the Helsinki University Central operations through its innovation program. Hospital (HUS) in the Meilahti campus of the University Helsinki’s own innovation company Forum Virium is of Helsinki, has created over 700 innovations for the specialized in the shared development of the smart city. care sector within the past ten years. The area also It has approximately 30 current projects, most of which hosts the research and education center Biomedicum focus on developing the city as a platform for creative Helsinki. commercial operations. In addition, Helsinki participates

26 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 27 There were

388,005 jobs in Helsinki in 2016 Source: Statistics Finland, Employment Statistics

Starting 5,647 6,701 businesses starting businesses starting businesses in 2017 in 2018 Source: Statistics Finland

Amount of 774 828 information systems information systems open APIs in 2018 in 2019

Source: City of Helsinki

24 information systems 23 information systems with an open API with an open API

Greenhouse gas emissions from traffic increased between 2017 and 2018 7,000 t CO₂ eqv. Greenhouse gas emissions from traffic (total emissions) amounted to 647,000 t CO₂ eqv. in 2017 and 654,000 t CO₂ eqv. in 2018. Source: HSY

28 From Agenda to Action In 2016, the City, the University of Helsinki, Aalto In spring 2018, the Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) University, and the Hospital District of Helsinki and launched the open retail interface of mobile tickets, Uusimaa (HUS) founded the Health Capital Helsinki the OpenMaaS, one of the first of its kind in the world. alliance, aiming to make Helsinki into one of the most Throughout the year, the retail interface was developed, significant places in Northern Europe for innovations, and by the end of the year, mobile single tickets, daily research, and business development in the life science tickets, and personal season tickets were available and health technology field. In 2019, the other cities through the interface. The OpenMaaS interface allows in the Helsinki Metropolitan area and universities of operators who follow the Mobility as a Service concept applied sciences joined the alliance. The Biomedicum and others interested in the retail of public transport innovation space and the Terkko Health Hub, for ex- tickets to integrate the tickets as part of their services, ample, have been launched within the scope of the and thereby offers opportunities for the servicification cooperation in order to promote university-oriented of traffic. entrepreneurship and new innovations and to combine The new transport services offered in addition to or research with business operations. Over 100 business- as a part of traditional forms of public transport can es have so far sought cooperation and help, 16 new improve the fluency and energy efficiency of traffic. startups have been established, and over 17 million In the future, robotic cars and automated traffic are euros in capital investments have been received. In parts of the range of new traffic services, and experi- addition, research, development, and innovation agreements have already been made in Helsinki. Innovative, ments have been made with over ten large companies, low-carbon traffic solutions have been experimented in and the attitudes and service promise toward innova- station areas, in Kalasatama, and in Jätkäsaari, among tion operations and business cooperation in Meilahti other places, and the City must continue to develop its have improved significantly. operations as an experiment platform. In addition, the In summer 2019, the Health incubator will be opened developing route planner and journey planner services in the Meilahti campus for research-based early-stage and dynamic traffic control systems based on real-time teams and businesses to support their innovations and data support the improvement of the energy efficien- growth. The incubator will offer a development environ- cy of transport. Services which reduce the need for ment and services for the development of products and transport, such as possibilities for telecommuting business ideas. The aim is to create a larger network of and nearby recreational activities, online shopping, early-stage businesses and incubation alumni around or remote health care services, reduce the emissions the incubator for participation in events and operations from transport. even after the incubation program. The City has started to update the smart traffic development program, which recognizes the Open data enables business activities development trends and changes in the operating Supported by the Helsinki Region Infoshare (HRI) ser- environment of smart transport, and define the de- vice, the City of Helsinki will open data valuable as raw velopment procedures and the role of Helsinki in the material for several businesses in the event, traffic, and digitalization of transport. The objective year for the location information fields, for example. In municipal digitalization of transport is defined in the develop- cooperation, HRI has promoted the opening of data in ment program as 2030. The actions for 2019–2024 are a standardized and harmonious manner, promoting programed into approximately ten tangible actions the scaling of business operations utilizing open data. carried out in cooperation with other operators in the HRI has also organized several developer meetings and field. hackathons for businesses, which have for their part facilitated the creation and development of business Improved management and utilization of masses operations. of soil have produced significant savings Circular economy is becoming a significant factor in Helsinki experiments innovative the construction field. In Helsinki during the past years, low-carbon travel services and solutions this has been particularly visible in the systematic The share of sustainable forms of transport are in- coordination of masses of soil left over in construction creased according to the City strategy, and Helsinki projects. Utilizing masses off soil in construction pro- is made a forerunner in smart comprehensive trans- jects reduces the emissions and costs from transport. port systems. The emissions of traffic are reduced by The development program for utilizing spoil, carried out increasing the popularity of cycling and walking, and in Helsinki since 2014, aims to find a use for all masses by increasing the share of electric cars, buses, and of soil dug and quarried on the City’s sites. Improved rail transport. Helsinki promotes the transfer toward management and utilization of masses of soil have saved a demand responsive transport system and acts as 5–10 million euros annually in Helsinki alone. By 2018, the an experiment platform for the commercialization of City of Helsinki had saved 36 million euros, 5.3 million new smart mobility services (e.g. Mobility as a Service, litres of fuel and 13,400 tons of carbon dioxide emis- MaaS) enabled by the Act on Transport Services and for sions through the actions of the development program promoting future technologies. for utilizing spoil.

City of Helsinki 29 A roadmap being created for circular New kinds of solutions and sharing economy are being built for The concepts of circular economy and sharing economy support each other, and they both require a new the themes of air quality, kind of perspective on economic operations. An objec- renovation construction, tive defined in the Helsinki City Strategy 2017–2021 is traffic, stormwater to carry out emission reductions and circular economy projects in cooperation with businesses and citizens. management and circular Helsinki hopes to be an ever more active platform for economy for plastic interesting and profitable innovations which also cre- products. ate new export possibilities. The main possibilities for circular economy in Helsinki are found in construction, sharing economy, and sustainable biological circulation in the food chain and energy production. A roadmap will be created for promoting circular and sharing economy during 2019.

Smart & Clean projects create business activities, control climate change, and improve the quality of life of the residents The Smart & Clean foundation is a five-year (2016–2021) change project by companies, cities, and research facilities in the Helsinki region, as well as the state. By 2018, the foundation has launched seven effective change projects which engage 100 businesses. New been expedited by over two weeks. IHH provides foreign kinds of solutions are being built for the themes of air employees with a Finnish personal identity code and quality, renovation construction, traffic, stormwater the other necessary early-stage information and au- quality management, and circular economy for plastic thority services easily and effortlessly during one visit. products. The projects have two objectives: to increase During its first year of operations, 2018, the IHH service the carbon handprint on a global level, and to reduce registered over 31,000 client relationships. In addition, the carbon footprint in the Helsinki region and in Fin- IHH serves companies and employers with questions land. At the same time, new business activities are being related to the international workforce and their recruit- created for businesses, and Helsinki is being made into ment. In addition to the cities of Helsinki and Espoo, a place where business helps to control climate change the Local Register Office of Uusimaa, the Finnish Tax and improve the quality of life of the residents. Administration, Kela, the Finnish Immigration Service, One example of the Smart & Clean projects is the the Employment and Economic Development Office of Helsinki Metropolitan Air Quality Testbed (HAQT), Uusimaa, the Finnish Centre for Pensions, the Helsinki which creates a frequent and exact air quality meas- Region Chamber of Commerce, and the Central Organ- urement system for the Helsinki Metropolitan area. isation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) participate in the The more details there are available on air quality, the operations. easier it will be to improve it. The new measurement In connection with the International House Helsinki and modeling methods allow modeling the air quality at service, a legal service offering employment guidance an accuracy of up to 15 meters, and to forecast the de- for immigrants was launched in December 2017 to velopment of air quality. The accurate information and help foreign employees with legal questions related to forecasts allow the development of health services, employment and employment contracts, for example. for example. Accurate information about air quality will The service is offered in Finnish and English via email also help to redirect traffic from areas where pollution and phone. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade accumulates easily. Unions (SAK) is responsible for providing the service. By September 2018, the service was contacted a total of The International House Helsinki 922 times. operating model made permanent The International House Helsinki service (IHH) offers Employment services focus on the unemployed most of the guidance and official services required in a difficult labor market position by newly arrived immigrants under one roof. The IHH The City organizes support and services in addition to introduced its new facilities on April 3, 2019 with an statutory services particularly to the long-term unem- expanded range of services. The service has been able ployed, young people, those with partial work ability, to expedite and facilitate the settling in the area and and immigrants. Services to promote employment are employment of immigrants. The access to a personal produced for approximately 10,000 unemployed people identity code of a foreign employee, for example, has in Helsinki every year. Information and advice, guidance,

30 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 31 Employment rate (ages 15–64)

2017 72.4%

Source: Statistics Finland, 2018 74.0% Labor Force Survey

Unemployment rate

2017 2018

Source: Statistics Finland, 8.4 % 7.9 % Labor Force Survey

Long-term unemployment Youth not in employment, education or training (% of all unemployed) (ages 16–29)

2015 35.6% 33.3% 6.8 % 2016 2017 2018 Source: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 6.6 % People who have completed comprehensive school but have not Source: Statistics Finland been accepted into further education

4.0% 5.6%

For the 2018 application period, the system did not include those who were accepted from a reserve list for a place in preparatory training in the calculation. For the 2019 application Source: period, the system will be made com- Finnish National Agency 2017 2018 parable with the 2017 information. for Education

32 From Agenda to Action and multi-sectoral shared service are available for younger ones and gain valuable experience as well as unemployed people in Helsinki to support their employ- a certificate for their work. The younger students who ment. Within the Ohjaamo operations, the instruction have no existing hobby get a free hobby with safe and services are targeted particularly at Helsinki residents committed coaches. Quiet breaks offer an opportunity under 30. During 2019, a similar service is piloted for to relax in the middle of a hectic school day. The tran- those over 30 in cooperation with the Uusimaa Employ- sition phase support allows older students to support ment and Economic Development Office. The service younger ones in the transition to the upper stage com- aims to provide the clients with information they can use prehensive school through grouping. The aim is to have to promote their own employment. older students, who are safe and exemplary ones who The objective of the instruction service and the take responsibility, make the transition meaningful, and multi-sectoral shared service is to find employment to alleviate fears related to moving to another school. on the open labor market either directly or through We Schools also strengthen regional network cooper- training. This takes place in cooperation with the client ation and develop a so-called multi-functional school and their network by organizing employment services as a platform for the various services for families with and coordinating them into a whole which promotes children. Making the school into an increasingly diversi- employment. fied learning environment offers the children and young To support employment, the City also organizes people the opportunity to form a connection with an career services on its own workplaces as well as other increasing number of safe adults. employers using the Helsinki benefit. Career services include work training, pay subsidy work, and pay subsidy Brygga by Helsinki Vocational College combines apprenticeship. The career services have approximately alternatives for young people before degree 3,500 clients annually. During 2019, the criteria for studies granting the Helsinki benefit will be renewed to increase The reform of vocational education took effect in the low threshold employment opportunities. beginning of 2018. The essential changes include carry- The City of Helsinki employment services will pilot ing out education for young people and adults according cooperation in the Horeca field to improve the meeting to the same regulations. Seeking education is contin- of available jobs and job seekers in 2019. The intention is uous, and students only study what they don’t already to expand the pilot to other fields as a functional coop- have knowledge in. Their studies proceed according to eration model. The City of Helsinki employment services a personal skills development plan, which causes the are also carrying out a pilot for coder training in cooper- methods and times of completing degrees to vary. The ation with the service provider. existing competence and the acquisition of lacking competence are registered into the plan. In addition, compe- We School improves cooperation tence-based qualifications and, if necessary, support for between home and school learning are included in the plan. This change requires a The We School development is used to find solutions new kind of pedagogic model and working life oriented with which schools can strengthen students’ coping in learning environments. life after school. The experiment will start in Mellunmäki, Brygga by the Helsinki Vocational College combines Malmi, and Kannelmäki. alternatives for young people and young adults before Practical experiments aiming to ensure inclusive degree studies. Brygga enables a path to degree educa- and equitable quality education and promote lifelong tion and an apprenticeship. It also offers an alternative learning opportunities for all have been launched in the to those already studying at the Helsinki Vocational We School development. The experiments all share the College and in danger of interrupting their studies. objective of strengthening communality throughout the The education and services fulfil the education school and with the home. The following experiments guarantee, and offer a suitable and flexible alternative have been piloted during the first spring. We Class is a for all young people and young adults. The work takes weekly class for exercises in the development of human place in close cooperation with the Ohjaamo service relations, friendship, and interaction skills in the pres- and outreach youth work in order to refer young peo- ence of a safe adult. In addition, targeted small group ple and young adults outside of other education to the activities can be organized for children who have caused services. concerns at the school for developing their social and Preparatory education for vocational training (VAL- cooperation skills. MA), youth workshops, additional basic education, and The We School development strengthens the co- open studies are offered at Brygga. At VALMA, the stu- operation between home and school through shared dent can improve their preparedness for studying and evenings, for example. The first events organized drew try out various education alternatives in order to find 92 participants. The aim is to improve communality and their own field. The youth workshops facilitate a func- to enable true meetings and an education partnership. tional learning environment using the means of work Through doing things together, the parents can also training. The workshop operations reach young people get to know each other, which prevents conflicts and who face challenges in the transition to education or bullying. In the We Coaching, older students coach have a challenging life situation. Carrying out additional

City of Helsinki 33 basic education at a vocational education institu- Making Helsinki a sustainable place to visit tion offers a motivating learning environment for A sustainable tourism program is drafted for the improving the preparedness for further educa- City of Helsinki in 2019. Helsinki is committed tion after basic education and for improving the to the World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) grades from basic education. Treaty of Lisbon, which includes 15 objectives for the development of sustainable city tourism. Operating culture of the city organization Helsinki is a pilot site in Visit Finland’s Sustain- developed from a perspective able Finland program, which guides tourism of competence, management companies and attractions toward sustainable and occupational well-being tourism. In summer 2019, Helsinki Marketing The City aims to develop its internal operating will launch the Think Sustainably service which culture by promoting a coaching perspective offers sustainable businesses, such as tourism in supervisory and expert work. This means businesses, increased visibility in Helsinki Mar- defining the principles of supervisory work and keting operations. acknowledging them in the development actions The City of Helsinki has founded a new tour- of supervisory and expert work throughout the ism infra development group in February 2019. city, including coaching programs, mentoring, The group focuses on comprehensive ideas and peer groups. The forms of on-the-job essential for allowing sustainable growth of learning are developed and their weighting tourism even in the future. The first objects of increased to a total of 70% of learning taking development include signs, tourist bus traffic, place through work. The increasing of mobile and public toilets. The European Commission working is supported by affecting attitudes also selected Helsinki the first European capital and supportive facility solutions. For example, of smart tourism of 2019. the lobby of the City Hall has been made into a space of interactive work between the staff and Sustainability considered in the residents of the city. international contemporary art event, The digital competence of the staff is devel- the Helsinki Biennale oped according to the digital plan, improving The Helsinki Biennale is an international event of their preparedness to control new digital tools, contemporary art, organized every other year. become familiar with the assignments and The first event will be organized in Vallisaari operating methods which change with digitali- in summer 2020. Helsinki Art Museum HAM is zation, prevent digital exclusion, and to promote responsible for the curation and production equality, eligibility on the labor market, occupa- of the exhibition. The Biennale is expected to tional well-being, and productivity. Digital events draw 300,000 guests. The exhibition is open themed around the management of the digital to everyone and free of charge. The Biennale transformation, as well as digital technologies was launched on May 2, 2019 in Helsinki, and and utilizing them, are organized for the man- internationally at the Venice Biennale on May 7, agement, supervisors, and experts. Trainings 2019. The exhibition program will be published in in the tool shared by the entire city, O365, are March 2020. arranged for the entire personnel. The Biennale is an essential part of the imple- Courses themed around development mentation of the marine strategy of Helsinki and methods and project work are organized for the increased utilization of the maritime nature supervisors and the developers of data manage- of the city in promoting sustainable tourism. ment and operations, as well as an ICT service Sustainability will be considered in the planning, management coaching program for supporting implementation, and reporting of the event by productivity and sustainable economic growth. using the EcoCompass environmental manage- The aim is to launch a project to support the ment system, for example. The Biennale increas- occupational well-being of young employees es the international familiarity of Finnish visual and those starting their career. Helsinki also arts and the appeal of Helsinki as a city of visual participates in the Deploying Competence in arts. The effects of the event on the arts and Finland project which aims to promote the em- culture field, economy, environment, archipelago, ployment of people moving to Finland in the early tourism, and other essential fields are assessed stages of their career, and supports the career as part of the final reporting. development, language skills, and recruitment of people who do not speak Finnish as their home The Roadmap for Events language. The participation project strengthens encourages to organize large events the participation possibilities of the City’s per- A coordination group for large events was sonnel and develops new participation methods founded for the City of Helsinki in spring 2018. and tools. Its assignments include the promotion of the

34 From Agenda to Action Amount of overnight stays European community. The conference will provide views on the role of cities in the prevention of climate change and as pioneers of socially sustainable development, among other things. 0 5,000,000 A year of winter sports with China and Finland was agreed on in connection with the meeting of the presidents of the two countries in spring 2017. Finland is the first country with which China has approved a winter sports partnership of this 2017 4,175,012 nature. The China–Finland winter sports theme year and the preparations for the Winter Olym- pics in 2022 are believed to increase Chinese interest in Finnish competence in winter sports. 2018 4,164,759 The theme year is carried out in cooperation with ministries, cities, and businesses. In addition to coaching and education, the essential contents and values of Finnish competence in the expert seminars, events, and meetings of the various areas of the theme year include sustainability, responsibility, equality, smart solutions, and legacy. Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office Helsinki made visible in other cities as well Helsinki also presents its competence around organization of large events in the city. A Roadm- the world. In fall 2018 and spring 2019, events ap for Events has been produced for the city, related to bringing the UN’s sustainable devel- aiming to clarify the City’s objectives and guiding opment objectives to the city level have been principles even regarding large events. The carried out in Buenos Aires, New York, and Los City is undergoing a Lean process which aims Angeles in cooperation with the City of New York. to streamline practices related to the renting The city has also participated as a significant co- of areas for events. The City has also strived operation partner in the Slush Small Talks events to promote the conditions for organizing major in Stockholm and New York. Helsinki has also international events by developing the Suvilahti been a partner in all international Slush events in region and in relation to the Garden Helsinki 2018 (Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo). construction project, for example. Finland holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union in fall 2019. The City’s plan notes that during the presidency, Helsinki functions as an interesting scene for meetings and a European pioneer in sustainable city development. The sustainable city development actions bring up solutions related to the functionality of an open and equal civic society and a balanced development of neighborhoods, focusing on ensuring the well-being and participation of children, young people, and Helsinki residents with an immigrant background. Helsinki produces the opening event of the Finnish presidency of the Council of the European Union as a city fest open to everyone. For the audience, the event serves as an invitation to shared acts for the climate and environment and to solving global challenges in the Union. The Helsinki Impact Conference organized in cooperation by the City of Helsinki and the Eurocities organization in October 2019 invites European decision-makers and change-makers of cities to closer cooperation, where cities act as the solution providers for global problems and the connectors of the

City of Helsinki 35 Reduced inequalities

Reducing inequality between population groups and areas alike is one of Helsinki’s most central goals. The City’s social policy leans on humanity, timely support procedures and perseverance.

36 From Agenda to Action Pleasant Sound and Minds the Athletic and Functional and safe healthy wellbeing of active urban children and structure young people

Reduce SDG 10: Resident Digital Learning Responsible inequality within and oriented and leadership among countries. engaging

The population of Helsinki has increased at an adolescents, intergenerational exclusion, and average rate of over one percent per year for regional segregation in Helsinki. over ten years. The rate is expected to remain However, reducing inequality in Helsinki is not on the same level in the future. The growth of only about children and adolescents. The aim is Helsinki is proof of the city’s appeal and the fact to reach all residents in need of help and sup- that people want to live here. Growth is a posi- port earlier, particularly those who need plenty tive thing for Helsinki, but it also presents chal- of support or care. Socioeconomic and regional lenges which require resources. Controlling the differences in health and well-being are bridged segregation of population groups and regions is using methods based on facts and effectiveness. high on the City’s agenda. Gender equality will The City recognizes groups central for the pre- permeate all of the City’s operations. vention of exclusion even among working-age There are many people in Helsinki who have people and the aged, and produces individual difficult short or long-term problems. Helsinki and improved services for these groups. Invest- also aims to take care of those whom life has ments are made in outreach work and loneliness treated roughly. The City’s social policy leans prevention. Differences in well-being and the on humanity, acting as early as possible, and development of segregation are monitored, and perseverance. The City aims to contribute to as the related actions by the City are carried out at many people as possible finding employment the city level. and being able to organize their own and their In order to create equal opportunities, the family’s matters independently. Investments City invests in the improved availability of cultur- are made in the utilization of the competence al and leisure services. The City ensures that its of immigrants in the labor market and more facilities are easy and safe to use for education, extensively in society, as it is a requirement for civic, and cultural activities. The availability of successful integration. cultural and leisure services are also improved The social exclusion of young people, particu- by bringing the services to family centers and larly from education and work, is one of the most making them part of the operations of schools serious problems of our society, and a worrying and daycare centers. The temporary use of consequence of the polarization development public spaces and empty facilities for cultural which is emphasized in metropolitan areas. and civic activities is made easier in other ways Alleviating this problem is important from both a as well, and the City aims to improve the use of humane and an economic perspective, as well as underutilized facilities not owned by the City. In to improve the safety, comfort, and economic in- addition, libraries offer extensive support for terests of the city. The actions of the Project for the information society skills of the residents Youth Social Inclusion aim for a systemic change by offering guidance and support for the use which will reduce the exclusion of children and of digital services and offering the residents

City of Helsinki 37 Mental and social well-being of children and youth in 2017

0 5% 10% 15%

4th–5th graders

Mood problems 8th–9th graders Mood-related problems within the last two weeks (lower stage school learners, 4th–5th graders). upper secondary school 1st–2nd graders moderate or difficult anxiety (GAD-7-E52 scale) 8th–9th graders, (GAD-7 scale) upper secondary school vocational institution 1st–2nd graders and vocational institution.

4th–5th graders

Loneliness 8th–9th graders Percentage of children (4th–5th graders) who report feeling lonely often.

upper secondary school Percentage of youth (8th–9th graders, 1st–2nd graders upper secondary school and vocational institution) who report feeling lonely vocational institution somewhat often or constantly. 1st–2nd graders Source: School Health Promotion study

free-of-charge internet connections and client particular investments in the promotion of the computers, for example. education, employment, and participation of Helsinki promotes the mental health, par- second generation immigrants. ticipation, and freedom of intoxicants of its One of the greatest challenges of cities residents, and strengthens the ability to function around the world is the segregation of the real- and participation of the aged according to the ities of the residents. Signs of increased socio- program for the aged. The mobility program is economic differences between neighborhoods used to increase the mobility of everyone living are also visible in Helsinki. The segregation of in the city and to improve the equality of sports regions is taken seriously in Helsinki. In inter- services. In addition to health benefits, many national comparisons, Helsinki has been more people find friends, things to do together, social successful in preventing segregation than most skills, joy, and success through sports. There- of its comparison cities. Helsinki aims to main- fore, the objectives of the sports program have a tain its position as a top example of the preven- steady connection to the prevention of exclusion, tion of segregation in Europe and in enabling the bridging inequality and health differences, and, equality and well-being of its regions. in its own way, the integration of immigrants. The Housing policy plays an essential role in the actions of the sports program pay particular prevention of segregation. The socioeconomic attention to those residents who do not exercise segregation of residential areas is reduced by a lot and who have clear and recognized difficul- balancing the regional distribution of the forms ties with mobility. of management of apartments and by creating The City’s services promoting employment the preconditions for sufficient apartment pro- will be especially targeted at those groups with duction to secure the vitality and appropriate the lowest employment rates. The City makes local services of the regions. In addition, various

38 From Agenda to Action support measures are targeted at areas with factors greatest risk of social exclusion with experiences of which anticipate disadvantage. success and ability, and to dismantle the segregation of the working life within the ICT field. These objectives Families are offered early stage support are to be reached through the I am remarkable work- to increase the well-being of children shops organized in Kontula and the coding education Families are offered preventive and long-term forms of for girls and women. support, such as the Family Guidance model, designed in cooperation with the Central Union for Child Welfare. The number of services provided by the City The expedited access to employment and education in English will be increased to improve of those with an immigrant background are promoted the services’ overall accessibility through the operations of the Helsinki Skills Center, for The City will increase the number of services it provides example. The Helsinki Skills Center combines integration in English. English-language childhood and education training, vocational training, social rehabilitation and services as well as hobby options will be particularly employment services. emphasized. In the Helsinki Lapset SIB (Helsinki Children) effec- The mayor appointed a working group (February tiveness investment, the support measures for families 1, 2019, Section 23) to review the development of the with children are changed from the taxing repairing City’s English-language services. The group’s task was serices to more agile predictive early support services. to create a proposal of key services that must be made The aim is to improve the well-being of children and available in English and to prepare a set of measures to cut off the spiral of disadvantage of the families by and a schedule for the implementation. The working targeting predictive long-term actions to the families. group’s report contained recommendations for the fu- The funding instrument of the action is the Lapset SIB ture development of the City’s English-language com- (Helsinki Children Social Impact Bond) effectiveness munications and services. The City Board will go over investment model. In spring 2019, a model and effective- these recommendations, after which a city-level deci- ness monitoring system has been designed within the sion on the implementation of the proposed measures project, and in cooperation with the Central Union for will be made. As part of its duties, the working group Child Welfare, the Family Guidance intervention service created an overview of the services currently available model has been designed to offer families individual in English for marketing and communication purposes. support as well as group and community operations. A communications development group began operating at the same time as the working group was launched. Improving education and employment By improving its English-language services, the opportunities for young people City intends to make them more accessible. The focal with an immigrant background by offering areas of development will include communications, guidance and strengthening digital skills marketing and language-independent services. The The Development Plan for Immigrant Education 2018–2021 working group’s report pays special attention to the pays attention to supporting families who recently moved accessibility of services, such as those related to to Finland particularly in the transitional phases of edu- childhood and education, as well as hobbies available cation, for example. A model of multilingual instructors is in English. piloted in early childhood education and primary education. The model’s aim is to ensure that young people with Helsinki Skills Center has enabled immigrants to an immigrant background receive improved multilingual find employment and training faster support for defining realistic goals, seeking education, The goal of Helsinki Skills Center is to expedite the considering education choices, and study guidance when transition of immigrants to training and employment, im- they are transferring from basic education. prove their opportunities of acquiring and complement- As an action of the Project for Youth Social Inclu- ing language skills in Finnish or Swedish and ensure that sion, a workshop of coaching and education particu- immigrant families receive multi-professional support larly for young people with an immigrant background is and pupil and student welfare. being planned in Kontula, as well as a regional, flexible, Helsinki Skills Center combines integration training, and adaptable hybrid-like employment guidance ser- vocational training, social rehabilitation and employment vice. As part of the general model being developed, the services. The Center’s services include the identification City of Helsinki and Google have negotiated cooper- of a customer’s skills, complementing any missing skills ation aiming to bring top-level digital skills education and providing support in completing a degree or finding to Kontula, among other things. Along with the digital employment. education and related employer and educational The number and extent of the operations and servic- institution cooperation, the young people in Kontula es will be further increased (e.g., digitalization, robotics, will be able to find new paths to work and education, business coordination, path groups and basic skill and strengthen their abilities to meet the competence groups). Helsinki Skills Center is already able to help requirements of the rapidly changing working life. Par- immigrants find employment and education more quick- ticular objectives are providing young people with the ly and flexibly.

City of Helsinki 39 Deprivation index Deprivation index in Helsinki in Helsinki compared to the entire country

100 100 250 232.1 Helsinki

80 200 73.5 178.5 178.5 151.1 60 150 Helsinki, excluding homelessness 121.4 40 100 121.4 index index Finland = 100 20 50 index index Helsinki 2015 = 100 Helsinki Helsinki, excluding homelessness 0 0 Finland 2015 2018 2015 2018

The smaller the figure in comparison with As homelessness is concentrated in the Capital Region and particularly 2015, the better the situation is. in Helsinki, we also present a version of the deprivation index where homelessness has been omitted. The deprivation index is composed of the following data Share Change in 2018 since 2015 Homeless lonely people per one thousand residents 2.8 −2.9 Percentage of binge drinkers 8.8 −5.0 Percentage of people feeling lonely 8.5 −2.1 Percentage of people receiving long-term 4.1 −0.8 (at least 10 months) basic social assistance Sources: City of Helsinki, THL/FinSote, Kela, ARA

The cultural services will be made part selection will be piloted in Vuosaari and Kann- of the family centers and early education elmäki. The Education Division’s goal is to utilize In spring 2019, the Itäkatu Family Center in the entire City as a learning environment. The Itäkeskus organized pop up art workshops for curricula will also promote phenomenon-based families with children together with the Culture learning. Furthermore, the Helsinki Region Trans- and Leisure Sector. The project intends to study port (HSL) has decided that school and daycare how suitable the family center environments center groups can travel by public transport for are for organizing art-related activities. Other free. The Culture and Leisure Division services project goals include an assessment of the can significantly help in the implementation of the introduction of cultural activities to the family curriculum, but currently schools and daycare center that will open in Kallio in spring 2019 and centers are not using these services in a uniform a survey on the wishes of residents at an event way. The goal is for these services to be included held at a playground. The necessary resources in the schools’ and daycare centers’ programs in will be reviewed together with the cultural ser- order to encourage children and young people to vices. The aim is to have an arts education and access the services in their free time, as well. a culture production expert work at the family In 2019, the everyday routines of the schools center. and daycare centers in Kannelmäki and Vuosaari will be studied to gain a better understanding Culture and leisure services will be made of how our services could be made easier and part of schools and daycare centers more attractive to the users. In 2019 and 2020, The goal of the Culture and Leisure Division for we will create a functional way of providing all 2019 is to create a functional selection of services schools and daycare centers with the same for schools and daycare centers. The service amount of information on low-threshold partic-

40 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 41 Libraries support of computers has further increased. In 2018, a residents’ skills regarding total of 590,000 sessions were recorded on the customer computers. All libraries also have free information society Wi-Fi that customers can connect to by using and digitalization their own devices. by offering guidance Libraries provide comprehensive guidance and support on the use on the use of digital services of digital services. Libraries support residents’ skills regarding Preventing digital information society and digitalization by working with other operators to offer guidance and sup- exclusion improves port on the use of digital services. Differences equality. between population groups will be identified, and services will be targeted at high-risk target groups and people in need of special support. Advice on digital services in Helsinki is coordinated on the city-level by a project group appointed by the City Executive Office’s Participa- tion and Citizen Information Unit, tasked with the improvement of digital skills. The project group includes employees from the City Executive Of- fice’s Participation and Citizen Information Unit, the library, work conducted among young people, the Finnish Adult Education Institute, community ipation options. Furthermore, we will also begin centers and service centers, as well as workers to monitor the equality when it comes to the use and volunteers from other organizations. of our services. The project will utilize currently The city library has at least one branch in every existing models that have been found useful, area providing regular instruction to groups. such as the Kultus.fi service. Digital instruction is arranged by large and medi- The City Manager has appointed a steering um-sized libraries. Private guidance is available group to guide the development work, with the at every library, either by a library’s own staff aim of having the culture and leisure facilities, members or other operators in the area. Instruc- conditions and services support the curriculum tion may be provided at either regular or irregular goals better. The steering group must guide intervals. Instruction is provided at least twice a the development in a way that enables schools, year, during national theme days, for example. daycare centers and other culture and leisure Our partners, such as peer instructors from sector operators to have a smooth service path. Enter and data processing students, can also The steering group’s work is based on the City’s provide guidance alongside the library staff strategic objectives to increase physical activity at library facilities. Cooperation with different amongst children as part of their everyday lives operators is encouraged, but no minimum re- and utilize the City as a learning environment quirements are set. Instruction provided by the for people of all ages. Other currently running partners will not replace guidance provided by projects and good practices form the foundation the staff, however. for the development work. The aim of the work is In 2018, nearly 40,000 longer instruction for the various sectors to form a uniform vision sessions and 140,000 quick sessions were re- of the City as a learning environment and to plan corded for instruction arranged by the library on shared development projects. technical and digital matters. The skills of the customer service staff have Libraries provide the City’s residents been improved with the additional funds granted with free access to the internet by the City Board in 2018, with roughly 320 peo- and digital services ple participating in training on digital services. The Helsinki City Library has a vast network of Libraries also hold so-called e-events, with libraries (38 in total), with approximately 390 the aim of familiarizing the customers and the computers available for customers. These com- staff with the library’s vast e-collection. puters can be used for free by anyone with a library card. Low-threshold Verstas workshops The customer computers throughout the teach digital skills library network are extensively used, and thanks Local libraries have launched Makerspace/Vers- to the new Central Library Oodi, the number tas workshops. These low-threshold workshops

42 From Agenda to Action Percentage of children and content for collaboration with schools and other edu- young people with a hobby cational institutes. 2017 The Ilo kasvaa liikkuen (‘Joy increases through exercise’) program will enable all children to find joy in exercise and achieve a sufficient physical activity level by the end of 2021 The early education program Ilo kasvaa liikkuen is a 86.0% 91.4% national exercise and well-being program that is free of charge and has been developed through collaboration between an extensive network of experts and hundreds of pilot daycare centers. The program’s aim is to enable all children to experience the joy of exercise and achieve a sufficient daily level of physical activity. The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Finnish National Board of Education are in charge of the program’s strategic management. The program is led by LIKES Research Centre for Physical Activity and Health. 4th–5th graders 8th–9th graders A multi-professional working group has been appointed in order to introduce the program to the Source: School Health Promotion study grassroots level, and a number of early education staff members have received training for this. The early education facilities’ conditions have been improved teach the participants to use digital technologies, their to encourage increased physical activity by acquiring interfaces and other modern tools. The focal areas new bicycles and updating the equipment. Children, include Iot, robotics, 3D printers, 3D modelling and families and early education staff members have programming. Some of these may also be combined been encountered at various events and occasions. and utilized in musical, visual, virtual and other hands- The measures specified in the exercise program have on workshops. For example, in the workshop involving been discussed at events intended for early education music and sound, the themes are discussed at a general supervisors. level while providing the participants with better skills of So far, 121 early education units have joined the Ilo using the new central library, Oodi. kasvaa liikkuen program, and their numbers are as Preventing digital exclusion improves equality in the follows: digital world. Learning to use the necessary devices also • 46 daycare units improves digital identity management and the ability to • 52 daycare centers understand the basic logic behind different interfaces. • 10 playground units Furthermore, the library provides a chance to experi- • 3 playgrounds and family houses ence and learn about things that would otherwise be • 6 family daycare teams beyond the users’ reach. The library enables lifelong • 4 private daycare centers learning. Makerspace, i.e., the development of workshops, will be an important part of the library’s operations in the Circus groups for babies now operate future. The most visible workshops are organized by at all playground units Oodi, and copying Oodi’s workshop activities in the local The objectives and measures of the exercise program libraries will ensure more equal distribution of skills and have been clearly described in the plans of action of the continuation of this work. all playground units’ early education plans. The units The workshops are part of the ‘library as a learning have analyzed the achievement of the goals in more environment’ and the schools’ ‘the entire City as a detail in their own interim reviews. Circus groups for learning environment’ approaches. The library’s work- babies now operate at all playground units. In May shop activities will be further developed together with 2019, cycling instruction was provided at ten Pyörällä the users and the City of Helsinki’s various sectors. päästään events. Schools and the City’s other facilities will have various types of technology laboratories, and the plan is also The Students on the Move program will expand to model the library’s workshops after these and work from three piloting upper secondary schools in collaboration. The workshops will become part of to six in the school year of 2019–2020 the pedagogics. Regional pedagogical informaticians, Students on the Move is part of the Finnish Schools on workshop organizers and other staff working in coop- the Move program, which is one of the Finnish Govern- eration with daycare centers and schools will design ment’s main projects in the areas of skills and training.

City of Helsinki 43 Cycling will be promoted among the City’s residents by building 3,000 new bike racks and 75 kilometers of cycle lanes in the inner city

New bike racks:

2017 2018 2019 2020

432 racks 320 racks Approximately Approximately in Kallio in Töölö 900 racks 1,500 bike racks in the center planned for the northern inner-city area

The planned new inner-city cycling route network’s construction:

2019 2020 2021–2024

• Hämeentie and the connecting streets • The arrangements • Mannerheimintie • The surroundings on Lauttasaari Bridge (to be continued) • Sturenkatu of the Olympic Stadium • The underpass connection • Mäkelänkatu • The Baana in Pikku Huopalahti Park at the Central Railway Station • The Hakaniemi area • The arrangements • Helsinginkatu–Runeberginkatu– • The Baana in on Lauttasaari Bridge Caloniuksenkatu Vallilanlaakso • The arrangements • Aleksis Kiven katu on Kulosaari Bridge (to be continued) • Mäntymäki Field • Erottaja & Telakkakatu • Linnankoskenkatu (to be continued) • Hietalahdenranta

44 From Agenda to Action The aim of the program is to increase physical Percentage of people engaging activity amongst students and improve their in proper exercise or sports study skills. State funding has been applied for the Stu- several hours a week dents on the Move program, and the decision in the age group regarding the funding will be received in May 2018 2019. The number of events organized in 2018 was eight, while in 2019 the number was 12.

The conditions for physical activity in ten schoolyards will be improved with additional funding granted for 2019 In accordance with a decision made by the City Board on October 26, 2018, additional funding in the 2019 plan of action has been allocated to the infrastructure property for the construction of sports facilities in ten schoolyards. The 34.3% schoolyards of the following schools have been 20.2% 13.1% selected for renovation: Merilahti Comprehen- sive School (in Kallvikinniementie), Grundskolan Ages 20–54 Ages 55–74 75 and older Norsen Kronohagen-enheten 1–4, Grundskolan Norsen Cygnaeus-enheten 5–9, Kaisaniemi Source: THL/FinSote Lower Stage Comprehensive School, Hiidenkivi Comprehensive School, Torpparinmäki Com- prehensive School, Zacharias Topeliusskolan, the aim of increasing their hobby opportunities. Kontula Lower Stage Comprehensive School, Municipalities, businesses, foundations and Ruoholahti Lower Stage Comprehensive School associations can upload free or inexpensive and Snellman Lower Stage Comprehensive hobbies, introductory hobby sessions and entry School. In addition to these, the schoolyards of tickets to the app. The Ministry of Education and schools included in the construction program Culture has granted the City of Helsinki 185,000 will be renovated in the near future during up- euros for the application’s development. The grading projects. acquisition decision for the app was made on All the selected schools were engaged in the February 20, 2019. project through a digital form. Furthermore, another five schools were offered the chance The City’s employees will pay attention of utilizing an augmented reality iPad app when to the everyday physical activity level planning their equipment. The results from the of elderly customers and promote hearing will be used in the planning. their continued mobility The mobility agreement means that the everyday Hobbies that involve mobility of elderly customers is systematically physical activity will be organized supported during home care visits. During home in an increasing number of schools visits, customers will receive support in func- From the autumn term 2019 onwards, all tioning and staying mobile at home. At the same schools in Helsinki will have a slot for hobbies time, the workers will reduce the amount of on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 5 pm. School fa- chores they do on the elderly customers’ behalf, cilities will be made available to hobby groups. instead guiding and encouraging them to train The Culture and Leisure Division will take part in their mobility skills regularly. providing hobby opportunities, but other suitable The mobility agreement is a tool that allows operators, such as associations and clubs, are the workers to monitor their customers’ mobility also being scouted to organize the activities. and the level of their everyday physical activity. One of the goals of the key project aiming to An individual’s mobility agreement will cover el- prevent social exclusion is for every 3rd-year ements from day-to-day life that are highlighted pupil in Kontula to find a regular hobby they like. during the discussions between them and their The purpose of this is to achieve a systematic nurse, including personal hygiene, daily chores, change in the hobby habits of Kontula’s resi- independent training and group exercise. The dents, thereby achieving more extensive effects current coverage of the mobility agreements is on their well-being. 51 percent (April 11, 2019). The strategy period’s The activity ePass is a mobile application goal is for the agreements to cover no less than intended for Finnish pupils in grades 7–9 with 70 percent of the customers.

City of Helsinki 45 46 From Agenda to Action The assessment information regarding Identifying means gender effects will promote equality to support social, and allow the City’s services to be of a higher quality and better targeted economic and political A decision has been made within the strategy participation and promote project to assess the gender effects regarding participation, regardless the following services: of age, gender, disability, • The Culture and Leisure Division Assessment of the gender effects of subsidies granted to ethnic background, origin, sports clubs religion or financial • The Education Division: Special support in or other status. comprehensive education and early education • The Urban Environment Division: Planning service • The Social Services and Health Care Division: Support for informal. The gender effects’ assessment project is linked to the sustainable development goal of reducing inequality within countries. This can be achieved by using research information as a basis for measures whose goal is to ensure equal opportunity, abolish practices that enable discrimination and promote social, economic and political participation. The gender effects’ of the assessment is to evaluate the allocation of assessment will generate information that will special support, and it will provide information improve not only equality but also the quality and to help abolish any discriminating practices and successful allocation of the City’s services. The target services better. Furthermore, high-quality decisions regarding these have already been education and the necessary support will also made in the Culture and Leisure Division’s pro- promote social, economic and political participa- ject, and the reports for the other projects will tion, in accordance with the goals of sustainable be completed in autumn 2019. development. The Culture and Leisure Division’s assess- The Urban Environment Division’s assessment project analyzed the gender division ment project is based on a resident survey and pertaining to facility bookings and subsidies its results, conducted in the neighborhood. The granted to associations and clubs for their op- project analyzes the area planning process. The erations and facility rents, and studied the views analysis of the resident survey will provide in- of sports clubs regarding the success of gender formation about the survey participants and the equality. The assessment results were published connection between the information collected in December 2018. Based on the information through resident surveys and the area plan. This generated during the assessment project, meas- information can then be used to identify means ures that reduce unequal treatment of clubs and to support social, economic and political partic- associations when it comes to subsidies granted ipation and promote participation, regardless by the City can be promoted and implemented. of age, gender, disability, ethnic background, Providing sports clubs with suitable facilities origin, religion or financial or other status. It will and granting them subsidies for their operations also reveal whether the area planning measures and facility rents will also promote social partic- utilized by the Urban Environment Division affect ipation. Furthermore, the assessment will allow people equally. The practical application of the these subsidies to be more carefully and equally results will enable area planning to be conducted allocated. in a way that reduces inequality. The Education Division’s project studies The Social Services and Health Care Divi- special support required during comprehensive sion’s project studies support for informal care. education and early education. A total of 70 70 percent of those receiving support for infor- percent of those receiving special support are mal care are women, although the proportions boys, and the project aims to identify reasons of men and women vary depending on the age for why this number is so high. The project maps group. By identifying the existing information, statistics pertaining to special support, analyzes analyzing the caretaker survey conducted in the special support process and conducts inter- 2018 and describing the service process con- views with special support experts. The purpose nected to the support for informal care, the

City of Helsinki 47 Geographical segregation index

Segregation The share of people who have completed Standard de- viation of the by level of education a master’s or equivalent level diploma in distribution Helsinki’s neighbourhood quarters 2016 2000 7.5 50% 0.2 percent- 2016 35.5 % 10.5 age points 40% 2018 more than in Every line 2016 30% represents a neighbourhood % quarter; the 35.7 20% } broken line stands for the 10% figure for all of Helsinki. The index indicates how large a portion of one group would The blue and have to live in a different area for the distribution to be similar green lines: 20 to that of another group. Those with only primary education vs. 0 neighbourhoods those with a master’s degree. Calculated from the information 2000 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 2018 with the lowest of Helsinki’s areas. Limiting: people aged 25 and older, born in education level. Finland. Only neighbourhoods with more than 100 households have been included. Limiting: people aged 25 and older.

Standard de- Segregation Median income in 2016 money viation of the by level of income in Helsinki’s areas distribution 2016 2000 5,277 40,000 2016 37.2 % 36,000 8,197 32,000

28,000 Every line represents a neighbourhood 24,000 quarter; the broken line 20,000 stands for the figure for all of 16,000 Helsinki. 2000 05 07 09 11 13 2016 The blue and green lines: 20 Persons in the lowest vs. highest income quintile. Concept of Karhusaari, Kaivopuisto and Kuusisaari, which are the most well-to-do neighbourhoods income: disposable income per consumption unit. The income neighbourhoods, have been omitted. So has the neighbourhood with the lowest with the lowest quintiles are calculated at the Helsinki region level. income, i.e. Viikin Tiedepuisto, where students live. Only neighbourhoods with income level. more than 100 households have been included.

Segregation Percentage of foreign-language Standard de- viation of the by ethnic background people in Helsinki’s areas distribution

2000 2016 40% 2.9 35% 2016 27.3 % 1.1 percent- 30% 8.7 age points 25% Every line 2018 more than in 20% represents a neighbourhood 2016 15% quarter; the broken line 28.4 % 10% stands for the } figure for all of 5% Helsinki. The blue 0 and green lines: 18 neighbour 2000 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 2019 hoods with the highest share of People with a foreign background vs. native population. foreign-language Calculated from the information of Helsinki’s areas. Only neighbourhoods with more than 100 households have been included. residents.

Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office

48 From Agenda to Action Housing production Housing production key figures management form distribution

2017 4,890 Number of 2018 completed housing units 4,801

5,044 Number of started housing units 7,943 2017 2018

Unregulated owner-occupied and rental housing 8,232 Intermediate housing Building permits ARA rental housing granted 7,109

Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office

project intends to shed light on the gendered nature of gender aspect on all levels and is an effective way of the support provided for informal care. The resulting reducing inequality and supporting measures that can information will be used to promote appropriate meas- promote social, economic and political participation. ures in combating discrimination and to allocate the City’s services better. Although this topic far exceeds Housing policies will promote the equal the scope of the City’s services, information generated development of different neighborhoods through research on the gender effects of informal The City’s goal in terms of its housing policies has care should be used to highlight the gendered nature for a long time been to ensure that the housing units’ of this care. Furthermore, the information will allow for management and financing methods in individual neigh- the removal of discriminating practices and support the borhoods and in the entire city remain equal. This is development of increasingly effective services for infor- done to guarantee that all demographic groups can live mal caretakers. in any part of the City. The aim of the housing policies and the related implementation program of the land use Gender-aware budgeting plans (AM program) is to have 45 percent of the newly will lead toward more equal service constructed housing units to be unregulated owner-oc- The Helsinki City Council requires that the method of cupied and rental housing production, 30 percent to be gender-aware budgeting be piloted in one or more ser- a mix between rental and owner-occupied housing, such vices provided by a Division as part of the equality pro- as Hitas owner-occupied housing and right-of-occupan- ject. It has been agreed that the piloting will take place cy housing, and 25 percent to be ARA rental housing in the Culture and Leisure Division’s sports services. that will remain reasonably priced for a long period. The assessment of gender effects caused by subsidies Hitas is a housing price-and-quality control system used granted to sports clubs was completed in late 2018. The in Helsinki. piloting process has been planned during the first half Due to the housing market trends in 2017, nearly 60% of 2019 as a collaborative effort by the City Executive of the new housing units were constructed as unregu- Office’s experts on equality, budgeting and research lated production. The mixed-form housing accounted and the experts from the Culture and Leisure Division. for 18% of the total, while ARA rental housing made up The actual pilot phase will begin in spring 2019. 23%. The same figures in 2018 were 50%, 28% and 22%, Gender-aware budgeting has been piloted in Finland respectively. The aim of the City’s own production is to before, for example in projects run by the Ministry of have 50% of mixed-form housing units and 50% of ARA Finance and some municipalities, but no standard prac- rental housing units. In 2017–2018, 51% of the housing tices exist. A report on the pilot’s results will be issued units were mixed form and 49% were ARA rental units. by the end of 2019 together with recommendations on When the City transfers land for construction pur- further measures in order to make gender-aware budg- poses, it must make sure that the objectives regarding eting a permanent part of the City’s financial planning the management and financing method are met on land and reporting. Gender-aware budgeting supports the owned by the City. On privately-owned land, the goal’s

City of Helsinki 49 When the City transfers were built every year. In 2017, the construction land for construction of 5,070 new housing units was begun, and in 2018 this figure had risen to 7,940. An average purposes, it is ensured of 8,090 building permits per year were granted that the objectives between 2017 and 2018. In late 2018 and early regarding the management 2019, a record number of new housing units were being built, approximately 10,000 units, and financing method while the previous year the number of units had are met on land owned been 7,000. by the City. On privately- The housing policies and the related implementation program of the land use plans (AM owned land, the goal’s program) for 2016 set the City’s housing pro- achievement is ensured duction target level at 6,000 new units per year. with land-use agreements. In 2017, the City Strategy raised the housing production target to 7,000 units per year for the latter half of the Council term in 2019–2021. The City’s own housing production is partly responsible for achieving this goal. The goal determined in the AM program is 1,500 housing units a year. In 2017–2018, a total of 2,320 new housing units were built as part of the City’s own housing production. During that same period, construction was begun on 3,050 units more. achievement is ensured with land-use agree- The population density in Helsinki contin- ments. Land use planning creates a framework ued to increase in 2017–2018. Housing units for the construction of housing units of each have been built in both new, easily accessible management and financing category in every neighborhoods and existing neighborhoods neighborhood. as infill development. The proportion of infill Systematic and long-term efforts are re- development of all completed housing units quired to stop the current trend of segregation. was roughly 60 percent on average between Since 2018, Helsinki has been preparing a set 2017 and 2018. An average of approximately 90 of Urban Renewal projects which will focus on percent of the new housing units are in apart- the suburban areas. There are five such areas ment buildings. in total: Malminkartano–Kannelmäki, Malmi, Suitable conditions for housing construction Mellunkylä, Meri-Rastila and Jakomäki. The are ensured with land use planning and by pro- measures will be long term in nature, reaching viding land owned by the City for housing pro- more than 15 years into the future. duction purposes. In 2017, the target floor area In addition to the construction projects, of 600,000 m², set for the detailed plans in the the neighborhoods will be further developed AM program, was exceeded, as detailed plans through other cross-sectoral measures. The allowing more than 700,000 m² of floor area be- extensive reorganization that the City under- came legally enforceable. In 2018, detailed plans went in 2017 will provide new opportunities allowing 545,000 m² of new floor area became to do this. For example, the currently running legally enforceable. In late 2018 and early 2019, Mukana program is seeking new systematic and detailed plans allowed nearly five years’ worth cross-sectoral solutions to the prevention of of new housing construction. In 2017–2018, the social exclusion, and the measures will focus on amount of land provided for housing construc- the same areas as the Urban Renewal projects. tion purposes amounted to a total floor area of The positive developments in Myllypuro show 568,000 m². In late 2018 and early 2019, there that construction investments and new housing was more than five years’ worth of land availa- units can allow the City to increase a neighbor- ble for new housing construction. Helsinki’s new hood’s vitality. city plan came into force in December 2018. The city plan will govern the detailed planning in the The City is facilitating an increase future and enable Helsinki to become a densely in the housing production populated city, with rail transport connecting its The rate of housing construction has been many centers. on the rise in Helsinki in recent years. In 2017–2018, during the first years of the strategy period, an average of 4,870 housing units

50 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 51 Climate action

Helsinki has committed to shouldering its responsibility to mitigate climate change.

52 From Agenda to Action Carbon Diverse neutral nature

SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Helsinki has committed to shoulder its respon- 2018. The action plan describes the means with sibility to mitigate climate change. One of the which the emission reduction can be achieved. goals of Helsinki’s City Strategy 2017–2021 is The plan illustrates the climate actions cur- for Helsinki to become carbon neutral by 2035. rently undertaken in Helsinki and the emission This can be achieved by reducing greenhouse forecast for 2030 and 2035. The necessary gas emissions in Helsinki by 80 percent. The City measures have been determined by area in will make compensations for the remaining 20 order for the City to meet its emission reduction percent by ensuring that the amount of emis- goal. In addition, the plan describes each area’s sions is reduced elsewhere. The main sources of current status, the future goals and the main greenhouse gas emissions in Helsinki include the means of achieving a reduction. heating of buildings, electricity consumption and The areas are: traffic. In addition to the city organization, the cli- • Traffic mate goals also concern the City’s residents and • Construction and building use organizations that operate there. Helsinki can • Consumption, acquisitions, sharing economy become carbon neutral through cooperation. and circular economy The climate will change in spite of the miti- • Smart & Clean growth gation actions, and therefore adaptation to the • Energy company Helen’s development changes has become equally important. The program adaptation will involve means with which the • Carbon sinks and emission compensation. amount of harmful effects of the changing climate can be reduced and the beneficial effects utilized. Maintaining and building new green An engaging preparation process infrastructure and avoiding covering up the The Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 action ground will improve the management of water plan contains 147 measures with the related run-off, prevent the escalation of the phenome- schedules and organizations in charge of imple- non of heat islands, diversify habitats and pre- menting the measures. An approach entailing vent the transfer of nutrients and pollutants to open decision-making was tested during the waterways. The City Board approved the City’s preparation of the action plan. The open de- policies regarding adaptation to climate change cision-making method was developed by the in May 2019. National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), and its purpose is to make the decision-mak- The Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 ing processes of public administration more action plan has been approved open and transparent. Active participation and The Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 action plan openly available information are key elements in was approved by the City Board in December open decision-making: as many people as pos-

City of Helsinki 53 Helsinki’s greenhouse gas emissions (total emissions)

2017 2,665,000 t CO₂ eqv.

2018 2,559,000 t CO₂ eqv.

Helsinki’s greenhouse gas emissions (emissions per resident)

2017 4.1 t CO₂ eqv.

2018 3.9 t CO₂ eqv.

Helsinki’s total emissions have decreased by 27 percent since 1990. However, even though the City’s long-term emission levels have been decreasing, greater and faster reductions will be needed in the future. The City has grown in size and gets roughly 8,000 new residents every year. Yet, the residents’ average emissions are already 45 percent lower than in 1990, even though the number of residents has gone up by approximately 150,000. Source: HSY

54 From Agenda to Action sible may participate and they will have access to the In addition to same information throughout the entire process, from the city organization, the preparation phase to the final decision-making. This will ensure the availability of the best possible ex- the climate goals pertise and a deeper commitment of the participants. also concern The open decision-making method links Helsinki’s the City’s residents strategic goals of openness, participation and utilization of digital solutions together. During the action and organizations plan’s preparation phase, all the material was available that operate there. on the website and the program was co-created as an Helsinki can become open online document. Although the schedule was too tight for an extensive campaign, close to 300 people carbon neutral took part in the workshops and online work. The open through co-operation. preparation process was praised and it was generally believed to have expedited the writing process. The method will be further developed during the implementation and monitoring of the measures.

Traffic emissions must be reduced by 69% In 2018, the traffic in Helsinki created 654 kilotons (carbon dioxide equivalent, CDE) of greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of emissions has remained the same during the 2010s. In order for the City to achieve its carbon-neutrality goals, the traffic emissions were set their own objective: the aim will be to reduce green- the heating of buildings and consumption of electricity. house gas emissions by 69 percent by 2035 from the The emission reduction goal for the buildings’ energy 2005 level. consumption is 82 percent between 1990 and 2035. This Greenhouse gas emissions caused by traffic can be goal can be achieved, but it will require a fast and exten- reduced by changing the following: sive adoption of the necessary measures. The heating of buildings causes more than half of • Distance traveled Helsinki’s emissions. Most of the heat is currently still • Mode of transport generated with fossil fuels, which release massive • Unit emissions, i.e., the amount of emissions per amounts of emissions. The less heat buildings use, the travel kilometer. less heat needs to be produced. Roughly 90 percent of The City can influence the travel distances and the properties in Helsinki are part of the district heating modes of transport through land use planning and pric- network. A cost-effective change over to carbon-neutral ing and by providing sustainable transport options. Unit energy production will require Helsinkians to reduce the emissions are affected by technological development, amount of heating needed in their buildings. Three main i.e., more advanced propulsion options (electricity, methods exist for achieving this: biofuels) and engine efficiency (output). • the energy efficiency of buildings can be improved, The measures related to traffic involve an increased • energy can be produced based on an individual use of sustainable transport modes, transport pricing, building’s requirements, and denser urban structures, increased use of more ad- • waste heat can be actively collected from air and vanced vehicle technology, reduction in ports’ emissions water. and implementation of new transport services and transport control. These methods will be applied to the service and res- A project titled Carbon neutral and resource smart idential buildings owned by the City, outdoor lighting, old business areas, coordinated by the City of Helsinki, has privately-owned buildings, wooden buildings, creation been launched in the Metropolitan Area to develop the of detailed plans, transfer of land, building inspections, concepts of emission-free ports and construction sites. renewable energy, funding and incentives. The Smart & Clean foundation’s Bio Sata project aims to have all the Metropolitan Area’s buses and the Toward circular economy City of Helsinki’s construction machinery begin using Procurements make up more than 40 percent of the nothing but biofuels made from waste and residues. City of Helsinki’s expenditure. When the entire Helsinki Group is taken into account, the total value of pro- Buildings’ emissions must be reduced by 82% curements is over two billion euros annually, of which Alongside traffic, construction work and building use construction takes up around half. Macroeconomic produce the second highest amount of emissions, be- procurements that take into account the procurement’s cause most of the Helsinkians’ emissions are caused by entire life cycle may increase the costs in the short

City of Helsinki 55 Mode of transport distribution 2018

Primary mode of transportation for travel within Helsinki, percentage of all travel

Passenger Train car 3 20 Bus Walking 13 36 Tram 7

All modes of transport Public transport

Cycling Public 11 transport Metro 33 10

Source: City of Helsinki

Energy consumption in the city area 22% consisting of renewable energy 2017 13,783 GWh 24%

2018 2017 13,797 GWh 22%

Lähde: HSY 2018

Source: City of Helsinki, Urban environment division

56 From Agenda to Action term. However, in the long term, they can help decrease In 2018, a total emissions, increase quality and, at the same time, of 4.3 million items achieve financial savings. Carbon-neutral Helsinki means cutting down the went through direct emissions generated in the City area by 80 per- the City of Helsinki’s cent. This goal does not include all the emissions during subsidiary, the products’ entire life cycles, which also include the acquisition of raw materials, the manufacture of the Pääkaupunkiseudun product, logistics, use and waste management. Aside Kierrätyskeskus Oy from the direct emissions generated in Helsinki, the reuse center, carbon footprint of Helsinki citizens also consists of other consumption. These include food produced out- saving 46.7 million kilos side the City, travel and consumer goods transported of solid natural resources. into the area as well as using services outside Helsinki. Compared to so-called direct emissions, the consumption-based carbon footprint of Helsinki residents is slightly more than double of those. Even though the citizens’ entire carbon footprint cannot yet be included in the emission calculations, it was considered important to also include actions that mitigate the life cycle emissions of consumer actions in the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 action plan. These include e.g., decreasing the carbon footprint of food and promoting sharing economy and circular economy. In addition to climate change, the consumption of The City Council has decided that the city will aim natural resources is linked to many other detrimental to halve the consumption of meat and dairy products environmental effects. WWF has demonstrated this by within the Helsinki Group by 2025. Furthermore, a plan calculating an Earth Overshoot Day. It is a calculated covering the entire Helsinki Group will be compiled, tak- date on which humanity’s ecological footprint exceeds ing into account the possibilities of different divisions to Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that cut down their meat and dairy product consumption. year and bind the emissions caused by the use of fossil fuels. In 2019, the calculated overshoot day of Finland Smart & Clean jobs, was as early as April 5th. investments and business A second indicator used to describe the climate Measures that enable smart and clean growth are an effect of consumption is carbon footprint. The carbon essential part of Helsinki’s carbon neutrality program. footprint of a Helsinki resident refers to greenhouse Through systematic and long-term actions, the city can gas emissions generated by the consumption of Hel- significantly facilitate the growth of clean and smart sinki citizens, regardless of where they are generated. business and the generation of new jobs in this field. The carbon footprint of a Helsinki resident was initially This will then enable new kinds of smart and clean ser- assessed as early on as in 2011, and the result back vices and solutions that will guide the citizens and the then was about 11 tons of CO2 equivalent per resident. businesses in the area to reduce their own greenhouse Compared to so-called direct emissions, the consump- gas emissions. tion-based carbon footprint of Helsinki residents is The buses in the capital region and most of the City therefore slightly more than double of those. of Helsinki’s work machinery and trucks will transition Housing, transport and food comprise the majority to waste and residues based biofuels by 2020. The ad- of consumption. According to assessments made in vantage of these high-quality liquid biofuels is that they recent years, the carbon footprint of housing has de- do not require procuring new vehicles or building a creased, whereas the carbon footprint of foodstuffs new distribution infrastructure. Related emissions can has remained the same. The objective is to cut down be decreased through the targeted use of these bio- the carbon footprint of Helsinki residents. The resi- fuels. The renewable diesel will cut down the particle dents’ carbon footprint assessments will be continued emissions of older cars and work machines by up to a in the future. third. At their best, biofuels can cut down up to 80–90 The measures of the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 percent of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the action plan are related to increasing climate and cir- production and use of fuel when compared to fossil cular economy competence at all levels, increasing fuels. Helsinki Region Transport operates around 1,400 vegetable-based food and decreasing food wastage, buses in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and they con- increasing the efficiency of waste sorting, sustainable sume about 40,000 tons of fuel annually. The amount procurements and promotion of sharing and circular of fuel used by Stara’s own fleet totals to around 2,000 economy. tons.

City of Helsinki 57 Measures that enable investment will help Helen cut down its carbon dioxide smart and clean growth emissions by 65,000 tons a year. The heat pump plant at Esplanadi has been in use are an essential part since early summer 2018. The heat pump plant is locat- of Helsinki’s carbon ed underneath Esplanadi park, at a depth of around 50 neutrality program. meters. A massive, 25 million liter cold water reserve is also located in connection to the plant, and together they comprise an underground Esplanadi heat and cooling plant.

Bioheat plants as replacements for coal Helen’s new bioheat plant at Salmisaari was commissioned in 2018. The plant produces renewable district heating in the largest pellet boiler in Finland. The main fuel of the Salmisaari pellet heat plant is wooden pellets. The plant can produce enough renewable district heating to meet the needs of 25,000 two-room apartments. Helen is also planning to build new bioheat plants in Helsinki. The plan that has progressed the furthest is the 250 megawatt bioheat plant in the Vuosaari power plant park, which will be commissioned in 2023 at the earliest. The plan is to implement the bioheat plant project gradually so that it will be possible to replace the heat production of Hanasaari power plant, which will Though only a small part of the city’s work machines be decommissioned in 2024. The bioheat plants will help have used biofuels since summer 2017, the emission replace the use of coal and, together with heat pumps reductions have been significant. By April 2018, the and energy storing, enable the plants to meet the de- work machines had generated 1,160 tons less carbon mand for district heating. dioxide compared to previous years, and the amount of detrimental related emissions also decreased Regional renewable energy significantly. The intention is to also include the re- A seasonal heat storage is being planned for the former quirement to use biofuels in the tendering criteria of oil containers of Kruunuvuorenranta. This would be a subcontractors. regional solution that would serve the local residents. Warm seawater would be pumped into the storage in Toward climate neutral energy production July and it would then be utilized during the heating Helen Oy, an energy company owned by the City of Hel- season. This could produce up to a third of the region’s sinki, has compiled a development program which pre- heating. Helen has also started to review other regional sents how the district heating generated by the Hana- energy production options in a smaller scale. Regional saari coal plant can be replaced with other sources of renewable energy contains city block or area-specific energy. It was decided that the replacement production solutions that could be implemented by Helen or anoth- will be generated in a so-called decentralized manner, er operator, such as a building owner. These could be and it is included in this program. By 2025, Helen aims various smaller heat pump solutions, such as ground, to generate 25% of its total energy production through air and sea heat pumps. renewable energy (12% in 2018) and cut down its emissions by 40% compared to 1990. Balancing consumption and production In the future, more and more flexibility will be required New heat pump plants from energy systems, and thermal energy storages are Helen will build a new heat pump to complement the excellent ways to balance the system. Helen has thermal world’s largest heat and cooling plant located under- energy storages at Salmisaari and Vuosaari, and anoth- ground in Sörnäinen, under Katri Vala park. This new er massive thermal energy storage is currently being heat pump will be commissioned in 2021. The plant al- built into the caves of Mustikkamaa, previously used for ready has five large heat pumps. Thanks to the new heat storing oil. pump, the plant’s total production can be increased Heat demand elasticity is another thing that helps by nearly 30 percent from the current 570 gigawatt balance the system, and Helen is a global forerunner hours. The new pump is used to recover heat from once in this field. Already, Helen has enabled all the city’s utilized wastewater heat and it will enable using the own rental apartments to participate in heat demand plant more even in cold temperatures in winter, which elasticity. Helen has provided the Helsingin kaupungin cuts down the heat load of the Baltic Sea. In total, the asunnot Oy’s (Heka) rental apartments with a new heat pump investment is around 20 million euros. The indoor temperature and moisture measurement and

58 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 59 A monitoring tool, duction of the solar plant on the power station’s roof is freely available online, highest in summer, whereas the wall-mounted panels produce the most energy during spring and autumn, has been developed when the sun is lower in the sky. The solar wall has for the monitoring been directly integrated with the power station building of the Carbon neutral by disassembling the building’s old brick wall and using the solar panels as the new wall surface. Consumers Helsinki action plan, have been able to order energy produced by Helen’s so that anyone interested solar panels by acquiring a so-called signature panel in the actions may monitor as a part of their electricity agreement. Helen’s newest large solar power plant has been built on the roof of their progress. the Messukeskus Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre in Pasila. Additionally, the City of Helsinki’s buildings will increase the use of solar energy. In 2018, a solar power plant was completed on the roof of the Wholesale Market’s meat wholesale warehouse in the Teurastamo district. A new freezer building is also being planned for the Wholesale Market area, and a 350 kWh solar power plant will be built on its roof. In May 2018, a solar power plant utilizing advanced optimization panels was completed on the roof of Mellunkylä rescue station. Yliskylä daycare center located in Laajasalo, which was completed in 2018, utilizes both solar power and geo- reporting service, which helps improve the energy thermal heat, and it is on its way to becoming largely efficiency of residential apartment buildings in a energy self-sufficient. Solar panels will also be installed cost-effective and easy way. The service monitors the on the roof of the new Neulanen daycare center, which temperature levels of apartments, which in turn ena- will be completed in Myllypuro in 2019. The Helsinki bles more specific control of heating based on outdoor City Transport public enterprise installed a 480 kWh temperature. For the tenants, this means that the solar power plant on the roof of its metro depot in late indoor temperature can better remain at the desired 2018. The metro depot’s solar power plant will also be temperature even when the outdoor temperature implemented with the help of panel-specific optimizers, varies a great deal within a short period of time. The which will make the energy production more efficient, developed service will now also be offered to private flexible and safer. housing companies. Communication and engagement Investment decision about A communication and interactivity plan has been com- a sea thermal energy plant piled for the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 action plan An investment decision worth EUR 15 million has been (CNH2035). A website will be opened for the plan in made concerning a sea thermal energy plant that will spring 2019. The city personnel will be trained in the be built in connection to the Vuosaari power plant. It subject through an education unit that contains top- will recover thermal energy from the sea in the summer ics on three different levels. They give more in-depth and thereby enhance the power plant’s heat recovery knowledge about the different themes of carbon-neu- process. Helen has also reviewed a large-scale ther- tral Helsinki, such as circular economy. A ‘Helsinki <3 mal energy solution from further at sea, which would Ilmasto’ exhibition was opened for the residents at the require a transport pipe with a length of more than 20 Oodi central library in May 2019. The citizen dialogue kilometers. Other review projects are ongoing, e.g., about carbon-neutral Helsinki will also be developed regarding small-scale nuclear power plants, geothermal with Open Knowledge Finland through the Uutisraivaaja heat, carbon dioxide recovery from biomass, and the project. Additionally, Urban Lab, a shared urban de- recovery of waste heat at the Kilpilahti industrial area velopment laboratory of the City, businesses and the located in Porvoo. citizens located in Kalasatama, has information about the CNH2035 topic. The same theme is also showcased Expanding the use of solar energy at the City Hall’s lobby. The citizens also sent in several A solar wall with 84 solar panels has been installed at suggestions promoting carbon-neutral Helsinki to the Suvilahti power station in Helsinki in order to test the participatory budgeting process. production of wall panels. Suvilahti enables comparing The introduction of this program has now started the energy production of a solar plant on the roof and and a separate review of launching the measures and wall-mounted solar panels, as the location is the same their possible obstacles will be compiled for the City but the installation method is different. The energy pro- Board in early 2020.

60 From Agenda to Action Open monitoring Stormwater program completed A monitoring tool, freely available online, has been The City Board approved the stormwater program in developed for the monitoring of the action plan, so May 2018. Stormwater is rainwater and meltwater which that anyone interested in the actions may monitor flows off from the ground, building roofs and other their progress. A page for each separate action will similar surfaces in built environments. In the long term, be opened in the monitoring tool, used for gathering the stormwater program facilitates systematic and sus- information about the action’s progress and its pos- tainable comprehensive management of stormwaters in sible effects. The City’s employees will report about Helsinki and helps prepare for the future by taking into the progress of these measures. In the future, the account the effects of climate change, increasing city aim is to get most of these data directly from other density and the changing legislation. databases. Thanks to open data, researchers will The objectives of the stormwater program are to be able to assess the effects of the actions and the utilize stormwater in increasing the comfort of the assumptions and calculations behind them. Feedback surrounding environment, maintaining biodiversity and will be collected from the citizens about how they feel promoting the good condition of surface and ground- about the measures and how they would like to be a water; secure regional and local drainage while taking part of them. Open monitoring has also interested climate change into account; prevent and remove the businesses. Political decision-makers can utilize the detrimental effects of stormwaters; manage the storm- monitoring tool when assessing whether emissions water flows and improve the quality of stormwater; are decreasing as agreed or how the operations could decrease the amount of stormwater in the combined be targeted better. As the actions progress further, sewer system; and secure the introduction of cooper- the assessments about the various effects will be- ation and method models supporting the systematic come more detailed and the arguments for them will overall management of stormwaters as well as the be freely available. A demo version of the monitoring sufficient competence and resources. tool was completed in 2018, and the tool will be developed further in 2019. A green factor in use in the city plan A green factor has been introduced in Helsinki’s city Climate risks reviewed plans. Its purpose is to ensure that plots have a suf- A climate risk review report, conducted in cooperation ficient share of green surface area, thereby helping with the Finnish Meteorological Institute, was completed prevent stormwater floods. The green factor describes in March 2018. According to this review, the central how much vegetation and water delaying solutions the risks of Helsinki are stormwater floods caused by heavy plot has in relation to its surface area. A green factor rain, flooding water areas, slippery roads, extreme and may offer solutions for how to keep the ever denser exceptional winter conditions, symptoms caused by urban areas lush and attractive, make less dense city polar nights, heat waves, dryness and the eutrophication districts’ green areas more diverse and preserve the of the Baltic Sea. Of these, the most critical climate diversity of valuable nature areas. This method enables hazards with the most risks are probably floods and ex- highlighting solutions that maintain the characteristics treme winter conditions. Additionally, the risks on nature typical to the area or, alternatively, mitigate the negative are notable, especially due to the other stress factors effects in the area. affecting nature in Helsinki. The significance of green areas with regard to adapting to climate change and the various ecosystem ser- Adaptation guidelines have been compiled vices becomes more pronounced as the city structure Helsinki has drafted adaptation guidelines for 2019– grows denser. Vegetation decreases the risk of flooding, 2025, with the help of which we are preparing for the binds carbon dioxide, cools down the heat islands of ongoing climate change. These guidelines contain an built environment and increases the attractiveness and adaptation vision on what a climate-sustainable Hel- health effects of the urban spaces. It has also been stat- sinki looks like in 2050. These guidelines feature four ed in several studies that urban greenery has a direct themes: preparedness, integration, development as well effect on plot prices. as overall economy and business opportunities. Each In the green factor method, the land use planner will theme outlines the central measures on which we need set a green factor level for a plot, which a landscaper to focus during the next two board terms. can achieve flexibly by using various green elements in These adaptation guidelines have been fitted to the the yard plan. The green factor is calculated using an needs of urban planning and the purposes of preparing Excel-based tool. The tool has been updated to highlight the city’s strategic goals. The presented measures the management of stormwaters. The tool also de- will be included in the city planning and management, scribes the different stormwater solutions clearly. for example with regard to zoning, preparedness and contingency planning, stormwater management program and flood strategy, as well as in the programs of green area development, nature protection and nature management.

City of Helsinki 61 Peace, justice and strong institutions

Helsinki wants to be stable, responsible, safe and reliable – while also being dynamic and keeping up with the times.

62 From Agenda to Action Pleasant Minds the wellbeing and safe of children and young people

SDG 16: Promote peaceful Resident Digital Responsible oriented and leadership and inclusive societies for engaging sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive Financially institutions at all levels. sustainable

Everyone should feel safe in Helsinki. Security of working, working environment and the oper- planning in the city is implemented from local ating culture from the perspectives of compe- perspectives as the citizens’, communities’ and tence, management and occupational wellbeing. authorities’ collaboration. The initial data for se- The goal of Helsinki’s financial planning is curity planning is received through monitoring to determine a sustainable level of growth in a the wellbeing and health of the population. transparent manner in relation to population The City’s measures to decrease substance growth and the change of cost level. Invest- use prevent violence. A working group estab- ments will be planned within a 10-year invest- lished to prevent domestic violence has pro- ment frame. Helsinki will manage the condition duced training events and implemented com- of its built property and thus reduce the growth munication campaigns to raise awareness. The of renovation loans. Helsinki Group will be man- City is also executing an anti-bullying program. aged and developed as an entity formed of the Helsinki utilizes the competence of its citi- City and the communities controlled by it from zens and stakeholders in developing services, the perspective of overall economy. for example through various client councils We will advance the accuracy and updating and thematic competent influencer bodies. of the information on which rel estate tax is The independence and volunteer activities of based, so that taxation is as just as possible. citizens are supported. The use of participatory The sustainability of the City’s revenue base budgeting will expand from the cultural and will be secured through measures supporting recreational services to the operations of the employment and business activity. At the same entire city in 2019. The Ruuti activities will offer time, the opportunity to be employed in a job young people opportunities for participation that matches one’s education and characteris- and influencing. tics supports the wellbeing of citizens, especial- The processing of customer feedback and ly the young people. initiatives will be developed with the help of digital tools, artificial intelligence and service Local security planning improves design. We will implement multi-channel 24/7 wellbeing customer service. Ethical principles will be Helsinki implements local security planning, the determined for utilizing data and applying AI. purpose of which is to improve the safety of The data produced by the city will also be made citizens and their sense of safety by preventing available for other parties to utilize. crimes, disturbances, accidents and disasters. The personnel’s accountability and inde- The definition of security planning is a ‘cohesive pendence as well as open information flow will and coordinated process in which local-level se- be supported in the City’s management and curity questions are solved through cooperation work development. We will develop the forms between various operators’.

City of Helsinki 63 Experience of safety is used to prevent the harms of substance abuse and (safe travel to own residential area gambling through cooperation between the City’s in weekend evenings) preventive substance work operators, surveillance authorities and retail and alcohol-licensed business operators. In particular, the operations aim to reduce 2017 77.4% the availability of intoxicants among minors. During the strategy season, purchasing alcohol, tobacco and gambling products has been tested in 2018 80.9% selected target areas, and customer assessments related to responsible serving of alcohol have been im- Source: City of Helsinki, security review plemented in cooperation with educational institutes. Additionally, Pakka operations have also been involved in communication campaigns that aim to prevent giving Number of youth resorting to crime or selling alcohol to minors. (per 10,000 young persons) Preventing domestic violence A working group aiming to prevent domestic violence Ages under 15¹ 236 has operated in Helsinki since 2011, and its operational term will continue to 2021. The working group promotes the local implementation of national recommen- Ages 15–17² 424 dations and action proposals in Helsinki and compiles presentations about the measures, communication and education preventing domestic violence. Additionally, 1 Compared to overall Helsinki residents the working group is in charge of producing instruc- aged 10–14 (1/10,000) in 2018 tions and communication campaigns intended for the 2 Compared to overall Helsinki residents aged 15–17 (1/10,000) in 2018 residents. It also monitors the development of criminal statistics with regard to domestic violence. Source: Helsinki Police Department During the strategy term, the working group has updated the guidelines related to domestic violence, produced training events and implemented commu- The principles of local security planning will be nication campaigns in order to prevent violence and updated in 2019 and, in the future, they will act as the increase awareness. In 2017, their campaign had the guidelines for the operations in the entire City. Objec- theme of encouraging people to seek help: ‘act be- tives related to everyday safety have been included in fore violence takes over’, and in 2018, their campaign Helsinki’s wellbeing plan, completed in spring 2019. theme related to mental abuse: ‘do your words hurt the Such objectives include promoting the safety of city person you love?’. The working group, formed by City districts as well as preventing domestic violence and representatives, authorities and third-sector opera- accidents at home and during recreational activities. tors, has shared information about the phenomenon The indicators describing the security situation in and maintained city-level situational awareness of it. Helsinki are part of the population’s wellbeing and health monitoring (annual HYTE barometer and a well- We will implement an anti-bullying program being review carried out once during a council’s period The anti-bullying program will be introduced during of office). The comprehensive security review, com- the 2019–2020 school year. The planning and imple- pleted every three years, reviews the citizens’ experimentation will be conducted together with the pupils ences of the security of the city and their residential and students. An introduction campaign will be linked environment. In autumn 2018, these survey materials to the program. Anti-bullying measures include e.g., a were collected for the sixth time and the results will be program developing social and emotional skills and the reported during 2019. The local security planning also handling of bullying situations as well as continuous heavily utilizes other data sources, such as the police’s efforts to promote group spirit and the promotion of criminal activity and mission statistics. social attachment. Another objective will be that all schools and educational institutes will have electronic Pakka operations cut down feedback channels for reporting bullying. This applies the detrimental effects of substance use to all bullying, also that taking place through social me- Measures decreasing substance use also play a part in dia. The existing prefect operations will be developed preventing violence. The Pakka operational model has through systematic training of other prefect and tutor been developed in Finland and its name is an acronym student models. of the words ‘local prevention of detrimental effects of The well-being of schools and educational institutes alcohol, tobacco and gambling’. It has been applied in will be monitored through school health surveys and west Helsinki since 2015. The Pakka operating model wellbeing profiles, for example. The objective is to

64 From Agenda to Action City of Helsinki 65 provide each school and class with a method will develop the operations of city libraries both that enables monitoring the day-to-day coping locally and thematically. Helsinki Art Museum and learning capabilities of pupils and students. HAM will develop the upcoming Helsinki Bien- This information will be actively used to develop nale and its other future exhibitions together new operational methods as well as prevent with different audience groups. The City Mu- and intervene with bullying. seum will design its new collection policy, now for the first time interactively with Helsinki Student unions in schools residents. Cultural and recreational services and educational institutions will utilize the expertise of the city’s elderly Each educational institute in Helsinki has a citizens, disability and youth councils in their pupil or student union comprising all that insti- decision-making. tute’s pupils or students. The pupil or student Client surveys measure services’ customer union will be heard in matters related to the satisfaction more and more agilely as a part institute’s operations and development. The of the operations’ continuous assessment and students will elect a board for their pupil or development. Digital services will be developed student union. The duty of this board is to en- together with different user groups to ensure courage pupils/students to become involved in that they are as easily available and accessible shared activities and distribute information. to everyone as possible. The pupil and student representatives will also have representation in the many various The Ruuti activities will offer working groups and committees of the edu- young people opportunities cational institute. Additionally, the registered for participation and influencing student association STAO ry operates under Ruuti is a participation system for young people Helsinki Vocational College, promoting the best in Helsinki. It takes into account the diversity interest of all the college’s students. of young people and offers the different young people possibilities to promote the matters Increasing the influence of citizen important to them in a manner natural to them. over their living environment Ruuti operations are targeted at 13–17-year- With the help of the City of Helsinki’s shared old teenagers, and there are approximately participatory model, a set of goals has been de- 26,000 of them living in Helsinki at the moment. signed for cultural and recreational services in According to the appointment decision, the order to reinforce the equal influencing oppor- Culture and Leisure Division is in charge of tunities of the citizens and stakeholder groups planning and implementing Ruuti operations, in during the 2018–2022 strategy term (participa- close cooperation with the Education Division. tory and parity plan of cultural and recreational The Ruuti system is a part of the city’s partici- services). The expertise of the citizens and pation system, and all divisions take part in its stakeholders will be utilized to develop cultural implementation. and recreational services. Volunteers may Ruuti’s objective is to provide each young adopt historical monuments and sites and, this person in Helsinki with at least one experience way, help maintain the city’s cultural history. of influencing a year. In order to realize this Voluntary work and other cooperation between goal, the influencing system must enable and the residents and the stakeholder groups will support several different methods of partic- create partnerships that benefit the city, fur- ipation and influencing. Ruuti operations are ther improving its functionality. structured into four operational sections: sup- Cultural and recreational services utilize the porting independent operations, representative method of participatory budgeting to plan local operations, cooperative planning operations operations in order to reinforce the participa- and event-related operations. The Ruuti oper- tory opportunities of young people and develop ations are surveyed through five operational the entire city. In the participatory budgeting principles. These principles are learning skills, covering the whole city, a little over 350 propos- equality and parity; working to benefit others; als were submitted to the cultural and recre- regionality; working together; and the diversity ational services in 2019. All Helsinki residents of participation. These operational principles over 12 can vote for these suggestions. The guide the development, implementation and most popular proposals will be implemented, assessment of Ruuti operations. using the city’s budgeted funds of EUR 4.4 During the 2017–2021 strategy season, Ruu- million. ti’s operational methods are an initiative system Client juries will be used to help identify the for young people, project subsidies and other service needs of different groups and people. support for independent activities, operations Kirjastoheimo (‘library tribe’) client councils of the Helsinki Youth Council, pupil and student

66 From Agenda to Action union activities, Voice of the Young Editorial The voting percentage of the participatory Board, participatory budgeting of young people budgeting is used as the effectiveness indica- (RuutiBudjetti and Ruutiraha) and influencing tor of the ‘Developing services and custom- events. er-centric approach’ sector in the monitoring of the City of Helsinki’s strategy. It will be The citizens will decide monitored annually since 2018, on the level of the use of EUR 4.4 million the entire City, on a regional level and based through participatory budgeting on age groups. The voting percentage of par- In 2017, a participatory model was estab- ticipatory budgeting will be monitored so that lished in Helsinki, determining the principles, voting behavior can be analyzed as in national structures and operational methods of city and municipal elections. In early autumn 2019, participation. The participatory budgeting was the City Board will be presented with a review launched in the city as a new method of par- about the first implementation of participatory ticipation, as a part of the participation model. budgeting. This enables adjusting the princi- In participatory budgeting, the City opens a ples and execution method of participatory budget of 4.4 million euros to implement the budgeting if necessary. residents’ ideas every year. The budgeted funds have been distributed among seven are- Feedback from Helsinki residents as depending on their resident number, and 20 will be processed more efficiently, percent of the sum has been allocated to plans also with the help of AI applying to the whole City. All citizens can make In spring 2018, the City of Helsinki launched a suggestions about the use of these funds. renewal project of the City’s feedback channels Even on an international scale, Helsinki has a and feedback processing. The objective is to comparatively low voting age for participatory provide each citizen with clearer ways to give budgeting, and anyone over 12 years of age can feedback and present questions. These channels vote. The City is committed to implementing must be easily accessible and usable. Process- all the plans that do well in the voting. A digital ing feedback will become more efficient and platform with an open source code will be transparent, and the citizens can monitor the used for collecting the suggestions and making measures caused by the feedback more closely. plans as well as voting. The feedback channels will be developed togeth- The citizens sent in a total of nearly 1,300 er with the citizens, e.g., by utilizing the methods proposals for the participatory budgeting. of service design. The amount, types, processing Joint development workshops were also held time and measures of feedback are monitored. in different parts of the city as a part of the The City’s service promise is that they will react participatory budgeting process. In these to feedback within 7 days, and this time was, on workshops, the proposals were adapted into average, 6.5 days on the city-level in 2018. concrete plans, with several suggestions being A pilot was implemented in 2018 and 2019, linked to each plan. More than 800 citizens in which the City’s feedback data was mined and 170 city experts took part in these work- using a text analytics tool. This created new shops. In total, 350 plans were made based on perspectives to the content, topics and types of all the suggestions of the participatory budg- feedback received by the city. In the future, the eting process. Most of the suggestions were goal is to create better prerequisites for utiliz- about developing the City’s built environment, ing feedback as a part of developing services for example the renovation and building of and operations and as support for manage- sports facilities and parks. ment, with the help of artificial intelligence and When implementing participatory budget- machine learning. ing, the different needs of citizens, as well as The City collects opinions for its pending their obstacles for participation, are taken plans through the Kerro kantasi service, which into account. The citizens received support will be developed as more interactive in 2019 for using the digital platform in all the City’s by enabling facilitated discussions, for exam- libraries and in the over 100 events organ- ple. Since 2014, more than 26,000 opinions ized by borough liaisons all around the City. have been shared through the service and 107 For facilitating the making of the proposals, hearings have been implemented. The ‘Kerro the City of Helsinki designed a participatory kartalla’ service previously used by the City will budgeting card game together with the service be replaced with a new map-based survey tool, design firm Hellon. The objective of this game which enables citizens’ real-time participation is to lower the threshold of participation and with a low threshold in the plans and deci- help understand the process of participatory sion-making processes related to different city budgeting. districts.

City of Helsinki 67 68 From Agenda to Action We will implement a multi-channel The citizens’ knowledge 24/7 customer service and competence The customer service model completed during the previous strategy term will be used as the multi-chan- form the basis for nel 24/7 customer services’ frame of reference. In this the Helsinki participation model, the City of Helsinki has determined principles model. A better Helsinki for producing customer-oriented services and developing the customer experiences. The model has been is built together. developed together with the citizens, City employees, companies and five other Finnish cities. It highlights the significance of shared, functional and efficient tools and focuses on the employees’ independent development of their work. The customer service model proposes the following actions: 1. Introducing a shared customer service model and cohesive tools The opening hours of the city’s different customer service points vary, and more and more residents wish to manage their affairs outside office hours. Helsinki’s objective is to provide a multi-channel, functional and efficient 24/7 customer service where the customer is served in a way that is the most natural to them. This model will be taken into channels enabling the 24/7 customer service will be use and developed in cooperation with the different employed in the shared operational model. divisions and public enterprises. The prerequisite for a multichannel 24/7 custom- Platforms of digital participation er service are cohesive and functional tools. The will be brought together introduction of a shared city-level customer service The City of Helsinki will develop the entirety of digital model creates a need for city-level management of participation platforms in close cooperation with the cit- the customer experience. The shared operational izens and developer groups. The objective is to combine model also enables the introduction of new tech- the different participation and feedback services into nologies and channels. It helps even out peak times one clear unit during 2019, providing the citizens with an and offers high-quality customer service 24/7. easy way to participate in topics they find interesting. 2. Multi-agency and cooperation will also be included This way, the citizens can also customize their partici- in the multi-channel model pation services to suit their own interests. The City will In addition to being multi-channel, good, functional compile a comprehensive channel strategy, according to and effective customer service requires multi-agen- which the participation channels will also be unified. cy and cooperation with different organizations As one key participation platform, the City of Hel- and operators. Several collaboration models have sinki will develop the Decidim open source platform, been launched with regards to this, and in this their together with Barcelona, other European cities and shared clients are served in cooperation between various developer groups. Through the services that the different organizations. will be built on this platform, citizens and communities The International House Helsinki (IHH) service will be able to produce new development ideas and unit includes, in addition to the City of Helsinki, refine them further together with other citizens and the various state officials and the City of Espoo, busi- City’s experts. In Helsinki, this service has been utilized ness and state operatives serving the customers as a digital platform in participatory budgeting, in the as well as Oodi central library and all of the City’s Mayor’s idea competition (The World’s Most Functional divisions, excluding the Social Services and Health City) and for collecting the staff’s development sugges- Care Division. Additionally, close collaboration with tions (Ideapaahtimo). various organizations is carried out in many ongoing projects, such as ‘JaNe,’ a grassroots-level guidance The citizens will participate in developing service. services and the service network The City Board approved the goals, scope and key The citizens’ knowledge and competence form the development areas of Helsinki’s digitalization program basis for the Helsinki participation model. A better in its meeting held on March 4, 2019. A target state has Helsinki is built together. Helsinki invites all the citizens also been determined for the multi-channel customer and all its partners to develop the city, its services and service, according to which new technologies and its different regions. Meidän Stadi (‘Our Helsinki’) is a

City of Helsinki 69 Helsinki has opened nearly 400 datasets and 23 open APIs to information systems publicly available

Amount of open APIs, 23 external APIs

Amount of opened datasets 400

Number of digitalization projects by the central government administration and the cities

19 14 12 11 10 5 Digital services Support Data Digitalization Basic IT Experi- operations management conditions functions ments

Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office

70 From Agenda to Action place for community, effective actions and meetings. Open data related to The city’s decision-making is open and encourages the City’s finances, participation. The positive city experience will also be transmitted through good service culture and interac- decision-making tive communications. and acquisitions Helsinki’s participation principles have been written and the applications in the City’s rules of procedure and thereby the entire City organization is bound by them. The principles of and visualizations participation are the utilization of the knowledge and made of them make the expertise of individuals and communities, enabling City’s operations more volunteer activities and creating equal participation opportunities. All of the four City divisions have their own transparent. participation and interaction plan, which describes in This promotes more detail how participation will be implemented in democracy. practice. The new strategy meter of resident engagement will measure what kind of participation methods the different divisions use to develop their services. The ‘Realization of resident engagement in the divisions’ indicator measures the use of the most central resident engagement methods (online surveys and discussions, digital interactive platforms, public events, experience experts, committee work, service design, shared development) in the divisions’ different service units. The divisions will report the use of the resident development projects for a year. These have included engagement methods to the committees in their en- projects utilizing digitalization, such as improving the gagement reports, providing more details than the user experience of the Ahjo case management system city-level indicator. In the future, the indicator results and facilitating registration to after-school activities. will be reported to the City Board once a year. Furthermore, the City has started to develop Helsinki Design System, which helps build functional and cohe- We will develop the Helsinki Region Infoshare sive customer experiences across online services. service as an open data The City has compiled a digitalization plan with data, clearing house service artificial intelligence and automation as one of the sub- With the support of the Helsinki Region Infoshare (HRI) ject units. One of the spearhead projects is to compile service, the City of Helsinki will open data to increase a data strategy for determining shared principles for the transparency of city operations. Open data relat- distributing and utilizing data. ed to e.g., the City’s finances, decision-making and The use of data and artificial intelligence is based on acquisitions and applications and visualizations made trust, which the city wishes to reinforce by operating of them make the City’s operations more transparent. openly and responsibly. Compiling the ethical principles Open data also enables making the City’s internal of AI will be done through comprehensive cooperation operations more efficient, as data is easy and quick to with both other cities and the citizens. Helsinki has find, accessible and in a format that enables easy use. organized an international workshop for determining With the support of the Helsinki Region Infoshare the ethical principles of data and artificial intelligence, service, the City of Helsinki will open data, ensuring and this work has already been started. This work has both the access to public data and its free utilization. been carried out with the City of London, for example. HRI features a wide range of data, such as geographic Helsinki has joined an international Cities for Digital data and statistics as well as data related to finances, Rights network, which has defined shared principles operations, decision-making and acquisitions. These concerning the openness of data and its user rights. data sets will promote democracy and the citizens’ The City has utilized the possibilities of robotization participation and influencing opportunities while also (RPA) in financial administration processes, for exam- serving as a basis for e.g., (data)journalism, research ple. The City has RPA competence in two of its units and application development. HRI will actively inform (service center and financial administration services). the public about the available data sets and will help The utilization of robotization will also be promoted with data requests, discovery and utilization. through the City’s digitalization plan.

We develop digital tools The economy of Helsinki will be managed and support service design responsibly, sustainably and profitably Through Helsinki Lab, the City has provided assis- A calculation based on population growth, cost level tance and guidance for launching user-oriented increase and productivity improvement is made an-

City of Helsinki 71 nually in order to assess the City’s sustainable ing in it, which benefits the City’s residents growth level. The total, city-level frame of oper- and the whole region. The City, as the parent ating costs has been estimated transparently unit, is in charge of guiding the development of using a formula in the strategy, which takes into Helsinki Group and defining the services organ- account population growth and the changes of ized by the City. The communities complement costs as well as the 0.5% productivity goal. The the City’s own service production and manage population growth is based on the City’s popu- the support operations necessary to Helsinki lation estimate and the rise of costs is based on Group. They are also used in assignments col- the price index of basic services. laboratively managed by the City and external The budget proposal for 2018–2022 will in- organizations. The Group comprises around clude the development of customer and perfor- eighty subsidiaries and foundations. mance figures, broken down by population and In Helsinki, the City Group Division of the other factors. Additionally, it will be taken into City Board supervises the operations of foun- account that Helsinki aims, in accordance with dations and subsidiary communities. The City its City strategy, to achieve the unit costs aver- Group Division has nine members appointed by age to other large cities in services for which the council for a two-year term. The duty of this the unit costs are higher than those of other division is to monitor the operations of Helsinki large cities. The budget proposals must include Group and ensure that the subsidiaries and the unit costs of services as stated in the 2018 foundations belonging to the Group adhere to financial statement along with their 2019–2022 the goals set by the City Council and City Board. development, as well as the productivity devel- The Group guidelines determined by the opment based on them. council supports managing Helsinki Group in The key principles of investment program- accordance with the City’s goals, as one unit ming are effectiveness and timeliness. The and with shared operational principles, with overall level of investments will be based on Helsinki Group’s overall interest in mind. As a profit and financial calculations on the basis of part of its guidance of subsidiary communities, the strategy’s financial target so that the loan the City of Helsinki’s budget sets annual oper- stock does not increase per capita. In 2017 and ational and/or financial performance targets to 2018, the realization of investments has clearly the largest subsidiary communities. Additional- remained below the available funding. There- ly, the subsidiary communities governed by the fore the City’s investment level in 2020–2022 City report about their operations and financial may be higher, if necessary, when compared to developments through regular interim reports. the realized investment level of 2017 and 2018. Within the investment frame, the annual total Good level of employment and social investment level of the City’s 10-year investment sustainability are closely linked program is about EUR 758 million, including the The City’s employment management measures investments made by Helsinki Region Transport aim to ensure that Helsinki’s residents will and other public enterprises. have jobs that match their abilities, education The City and the center for supervision of the and skills. Vocational education, in particular, rights of tax recipients have, through juridical is needed to ensure that the companies’ needs means, promoted projects that question the Tax and the competence of the employees meet. As Administration’s existing interpretation practic- employment management measures, the City es of implementing real estate taxation. Due to offers thousands of pay subsidy, apprentice- these processes (e.g., Decision of the Supreme ship training and work try-out opportunities in Administrative Court of March 29, 2018), it has its different divisions annually; supports the been possible to apply real estate taxation to summer job opportunities of young people and the surface area of such buildings that have employment projects that follow the key areas not been previously taxed fairly. Moreover, of the city strategy; and participates in new the City has influenced the national reform of kinds of purchased service experiments that real estate taxation, the purpose of which is to promote employment. Enterprise Agency New- renew the taxable values of real estate taxation, Co in Helsinki promotes new entrepreneurship. making them fairer and more open. In addition to this, the City encourages and supports its citizens’ employment in the private Helsinki Group’s ownership policy sector by looking for new employment opportu- supports organizing services, economy nities through company coordinator operations and social objectives and by granting a separate Helsinki subsidy as Helsinki Group is an ownership and administra- financial support. The City aims to take unem- tive structure with the purpose of enabling the ployed people in difficult labor market positions compatibility and cooperation of units belong- into account in the employment criteria of their

72 From Agenda to Action Loan stock €/resident Growth in full-time jobs in the private sector in Helsinki 2017 in proportion to the growth of population € 2.18 1,871 2,2 2018 2,0

1,8

1,6 1,693 € 1,4 Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office 1,2

1,0 Target

Estimated borrowing in 2019 0,8

0,6 Baseline 0,4 December 31, 2015 0,2 € 115 M 0 2016 Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office Source: Statistics Finland

Cash sufficiency (2019 estimated) outcome forecast

days

0 J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Source: City of Helsinki, City Executive Office

City of Helsinki 73 Percentage of staff who feel like they have the opportunity to influence and make changes to their work

2017 56.4%

2018 56.5%

Source: The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

acquisition tendering processes. The legislated Helsinki will develop the forms of services include multidisciplined cooperation working, the working environment and the (Helsingin TYP employment services) and operating culture from the perspectives rehabilitative work activities organized by of competence, management and the Social Services and Health Care Division. occupational wellbeing Furthermore, the City has many established A coaching management method based on structures that aim to decrease unemployment, openness and trust supports the staff’s ac- aimed at different target groups, which include countability, independence and open informa- e.g., young people, immigrants and people with tion flow. The City’s equality and parity plan will reduced working capacity. be implemented in all the City organizations. The Economic Development unit coordinates This will be supported with a training unit and develops integration matters in accordance provided to both the supervisors and work with Helsinki’s legislated integration program, communities. Kaikkien Stadi 2017–2021. It especially aims to promote work-based immigration and attract The practices of personnel engagement and commit international professionals. The and their opportunities to influence their program’s aim is for these residents with an im- own work will be promoted e.g., through migrant background to find employment match- innovation competitions ing their skills, training and abilities. As an The engagement project strengthens the partic- employer, the City will develop its recruitment ipation possibilities of the City’s personnel and process to meet the needs of the diversifying develops new participation methods and tools. City and its citizens. Additionally, the City of A coaching approach to supervisory work Helsinki will invest heavily in developing edu- reinforces the staff’s sense of their work’s cation and training as a part of the integration meaningfulness and their opportunities to in- program, promote good relationships within the fluence their work and the organization’s oper- population and prevent inequality. ations. Brainstorming and innovation activities have been developed as a way of supporting the employees’ influencing opportunities, for example through the Ideapaahtimo experiment, where employees receive rewards for good ideas. Moreover, O365 tools are in use, enabling transparency, staff participation and developing matters together across organizational boundaries.

74 From Agenda to Action Summary and conclusions

Making a success of the local and research institutes. Ecosystem-based think- implementation of the UN Sustainable ing will in future enable fruitful implementation. Development Goals through cooperation The next stage of the Helsinki project is really A significant part of the actual implementation to engage the whole ecosystem to accomplish of the sustainable development goals take place concrete results more efficiently through the locally. The cities have a key role in making the implementation of goals and the building of goals a success. The transformation of the critical mass. sustainable development goals from agenda to actions takes place specifically at the city Key observations level. In order to realise the goals successfully, strong cooperation between nations and cities Helsinki invests in quality education is needed in the future, but also at the local level, and learning opportunities (SDG 4) between the players of the ecosystem and within Helsinki wishes to be the world’s most impactful the cities. place for learning. The objective is to guaran- The task of drafting Helsinki’s implementation tee that everybody has access to open, equal, report was given to a committee with members high-quality training and life-long learning op- representing various municipal divisions and portunities. Already at present, the city provides units. Due to the extent of the goals, it is essen- the inhabitants with high-quality and attractive tial that the knowhow of the entire municipality neighbourhood services in the fields of daycare be harnessed for the process. At the same time, and basic education. it is necessary for the city management to be Helsinki invests in training to promote equal committed comprehensively. opportunities. The learning environment will be In the course of the whole process, Helsinki expanded and diversified. Additionally, according cooperated closely with New York City. However, to assessments made by the schools the stu- it is essential to make sure that yet more towns dents will increasingly work together, produce and cities choose the model of making local knowledge and solve problems together. By implementation reports. Were this to happen, we making things collaboratively, you also reinforce will be able to produce a network which is not the development of socio-emotional skills that only aiming at city-level success but at making a will be needed in future. Projects within the difference globally. Here a key issue is dialogue digitalisation programme have been launched. with the UN. Accordingly, the schools have procured student A working relationship between the govern- computers and improved the schools’ pres- ment and the city is a key part of being able to entation technology. The Development Plan for fulfil the sustainable development goals. A close Immigrant Education 2018–2021 that is intended relationship with regard both to reporting and to advance equality includes 28 measures. Pilot to implementation should be sought in coun- projects for testing the first few of these meas- tries where cooperation is possible thanks to ures are currently being undertaken. Moreover, common values and objectives. In Finland, the Helsinki has allotted 2 million euros for the reim- six largest cities have set out to cooperate with bursement of students in secondary education the national government to enable the cities to for their travel costs, learning materials and provide their input to the monitoring process. visits to cultural sites and institutions. The UN sustainable development goals are Helsinki provides its 5-year-olds with free universal and as such, they are of concern to daycare, where the participation rate has risen everyone. The whole ecosystem must work in line with the set goal. Already at present, together to enable a positive result. This includes Helsinki is able to offer all comprehensive school partnership not only between cities and nations, graduates a place for further training in Helsinki. but also between corporations, organisations Affirmative action has been implemented and

City of Helsinki 75 promotes efficiently the realisation of equal tourism. The supply of vocational training has daycare and training. Since the autumn of been planned to match future labour demand 2018, the teaching of the first foreign language both from a qualitative and from a quantitative starts already in first grade. Additionally, the point of view. Helsinki has launched the broad city invests in the provision of language training, Mukana (Together) programme in order to among other things, by increasing the number of prevent the exclusion of young people and to slots in English-language daycare and training. increase their employment opportunities. In By including environmental education in the Ed- addition, Helsinki’s municipal employment ser- ucation Division’s environmental leadership and vices are in the process of actively developing syllabuses, the city makes sure that the young measures for industries that experience labour acquire knowledge of sustainable lifestyles shortage. They are also involved in developing already in daycare and onwards. employment ecosystem operations. The goals of the Helsinki city strategy and the The City of Helsinki has taken several steps city’s measures fit well in with the UN’s goals to advance sustainable economic growth and concerning education (SDG 4). The measures employment as well as the creation of decent described in this report advance on a large scale jobs. Sustainable economic growth is being the goals of open, equal and high-quality training advanced, among other things, by establishing as well as lifelong learning. The Helsinki city operational business environments that sup- strategy or the measures carried out by the city port sustainable development, by investing in do not highlight direct assistance allocated for technological development and innovations and developing countries exclusively. by supporting entrepreneurship and growth companies. Moreover, the city is doing a lot Helsinki promotes sustainable economic to support the employment opportunities of growth, employment and decent work (SDG 8) its inhabitants, especially among those whose Helsinki wishes to be Finland’s best city for labour market participation rate is the lowest. companies. Planning is a means to realise a Additionally, Helsinki advances the creation city structure that offers companies and their of decent jobs by making sure that the mu- employees attractive and diverse locational nicipality in its capacity as employer operates opportunities in areas that are well accessible. in a sustainable manner, by making sure that Concerning this, the city actively strives to de- the employees too act according to the city’s velop the logistical conditions for the business ethical principles and by complying with basic community, too. Helsinki wishes to produce a international labour standards and ethical functional and pleasant urban environment that principles in its procurement, by requiring that serves as a good growth platform for corporate its contract partners do the same and by being innovation activities and that promotes sustaina- an active partner in promoting these goals. The ble economic growth and employment. City of Helsinki broadly advances objectives Helsinki has launched several projects to that are in line with UN target no 8. Only target attract foreign entrepreneurs, investments, 8.10 (“Strengthen the capacity of domestic employment-based immigration and tourists. financial institutions to encourage and expand The whole city is being developed to serve as access to banking, insurance and financial ser- a platform for experiments and new, creative vices for all “) and 8 a (“Increase Aid for Trade innovations, but Helsinki invests in particular support for developing countries”) have been in the city centre to increase its attractiveness. given less consideration by the city. Helsinki’s objective is to secure the centre’s international competitiveness both as a site for Helsinki invests heavily business location and investments, but also as in the reduction of inequality (SDG 10) a place of residence and a place to visit. Si- One of the most central goals of Helsinki’s city multaneously, the city promotes growth-driven strategy is to reduce inequality between popu- entrepreneurship, an innovation ecosystem and lation groups but also between areas. The city’s the university campuses. The carbon-neutral social policy is based on humaneness and on Helsinki 2035 action plan advances several the correct timing and perseverance of support goals in connection with sustainable consump- measures. The objective is to support people’s tion and production. The city’s international wellbeing already ahead of the emergence of competitiveness and visibility is advanced also problems. Therefore, the city tries to reach by new municipal measures to improve the those who are in need of assistance and support Helsinkians’ quality of life and to reduce emis- in time, particularly those people that need a lot sions. This is showcased by the development of of support and care. The city uses various sets the Kalasatama area. The city develops tourism of measures with the aim of achieving broad and according to its programme for sustainable systematic change, whereby exclusion, including

76 From Agenda to Action hereditary exclusion stretching over several genera- to means-tested basic income support. It also grants tions, and regional segregation are reduced in Helsinki. preventive income support whose objective is to The creation of equal opportunities is a key part of the advance social security and autonomous capacity of measures aiming at the reduction of inequality. Gender the individuals and families that are affected by the equality is a principle permeating all activities of the city. support. It is also meant to prevent exclusion and long- The City of Helsinki has initiated several sets of time dependence on income support. In its capacity as measures with the aim to reduce inequality. These employer, the City of Helsinki endeavours to treat its sets of measures include a broad range of support employees equally and to achieve equal pay. In addi- and service measures directed at diverse population tion, the city participates in the struggle against the groups. In parallel with these measures, the city makes black economy and strives through different means an effort to create equal opportunities for participation to influence legislation and various social conventions and agency, e.g. by investing in the accessibility of to make them evolve in a socially sustainable manner. culture and leisure services. Measures that advance The set also includes following up on the evolution of health and wellbeing are part of this complex. There inequality and on strengthening the knowledge base is also a strong social dimension as a backdrop to the regarding inequality. measures. Altogether, they also have an impact on the Measures that aim at reducing inequality in Hel- relative development of areas. Moreover, the city uses sinki are above all directed at the city’s inhabitants urban planning and housing policy strongly to support and areas as well as at municipal employees and the the balanced development of residential areas. The operations of the municipality. At the same time, the support measures are channelled in particular into city actively tries to influence the development of leg- those areas that suffer from an accumulation of fac- islation and social conventions in unison with the UN tors that presage the vulnerability of the area. goals. However, the city has in its own operations paid The City of Helsinki has taken other measures as less attention to those UN goals that aim particularly well to advance a change that aims at reducing in- at improving the situation of developing countries and equality. The city on its part takes responsibility for their inhabitants (UN targets 10.6, 10.7, 10.A and 10.B) those in the weakest position, inter alia, by providing and at reducing the transaction costs of migrant re- complementary income support that is a supplement mittances (UN target 10.C). However, concerning e.g.

City of Helsinki 77 mobility and migration it should be noted that Helsinki city will develop and reform its modes of operation and invests substantially into the integration of those of its its services. There is an emphasis on the provision of inhabitants who are of foreign origin and into creating various services in the municipal operations, but the city opportunities that are on par with those of the original considers its role as increasingly being one of an ena- population. bler and creator of opportunities. The inhabitants’ and stakeholders’ partnership, participation and opportunity Helsinki carries modern to influence is being supported and reinforced by many climate responsibility (SDG 13) means. At the same time, Helsinki streamlines its modes Helsinki emphasises ecological values in its operations. of decision-making and its service processes. Making Helsinki aims at being an internationally networked use of digitalisation plays a key role here. pioneer for local implementation of global responsibil- The City of Helsinki bolsters the inhabitants’ sense ities. The city strives to achieve the goal through the of security, e.g. by cooperating broadly with authorities integration of climate-related measures with strategy and stakeholders. In addition to the prevention of crime, and planning, by bolstering its capacity to adapt to disturbances and accidents, the measures are directed climate change and by increasing education and raising at, among other things, the prevention of substance awareness in the context of climate change. In March abuse, money gaming and intimate partner violence. 2019, Helsinki was admitted to the Carbon Neutral The sense of security is being reinforced also by pro- Cities Alliance (CNCA) city network. Helsinki has also viding the inhabitants with assistance and support in confirmed its intention to join the C40 climate network’s various problem situations. Moreover, the city invests Sustainable Consumption programme. in the security and sanity of facilities that are meant for Helsinki has already for years worked with determi- the inhabitants and enables a safe urban environment nation for the climate and managed to reduce its emis- through the use of urban planning. sions by 27 percent from the 1990 level. The previous Aside from security, Helsinki tries to raise the confi- carbon neutrality goal defined 2050 as target year, but dence of inhabitants, enterprises and other players in in the current strategy, the target was doubled down the municipal organisation and its operations and also and set at 2035. As a consequence, the Carbon Neutral in the perception that the city is being managed and the Helsinki 2035 plan of action was drawn up as a compre- municipal personnel policy is being implemented ethical- hensive and ambitious plan for the city. It sets down 147 ly, responsibly and sustainably. Confidence is above all measures to act broadly against climate change and its built through openness – Helsinki’s mode of operation effects. The plan of action is being carried out regarding is based on maximum openness and transparency. With the fields of traffic, construction and the use of build- this in mind, Helsinki develops digital solutions that ings, circular economy, smart & clean business, energy make it easy to keep yourself up-to-date about topics production, communication and participation and the that you find interesting and that are of concern to you. coordination, follow-up and evaluation of climate action. It also enables participation and opens up public data The City of Helsinki aims at taking fast action to for everyone to exploit. contain climate change and to adapt to it. The measures The city upholds its stability, responsibility and of the Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 plan of action service capacity in the long run by means of financial realise especially the following targets within the UN planning and ownership policy as well. Helsinki is a climate goals (SDG 13): target 13.2 (“Integrate climate major carrier of responsibility for the balancing of the change measures into national policies, strategies public finances, at the national level too. At the same and planning”) and 13.3 (“Improve education, aware- time, it takes care of improving its own total productiv- ness-raising and human and institutional capacity on ity. The city’s capacity for investment is ensured, inter climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction alia, by keeping total investment at a level that can be and early warning”). With regard to the issue of adaption funded during the strategy period without adding to the to risks caused by climate change, the city has adopted per capita indebtedness of the city. The Helsinki City a policy for adapting to climate change in 2019–2025. Group’s ownership policy upholds the principle that mu- Thus, adaption has been taken into account at the level nicipal ownership and controlling interest buttress the of measures, although the question was not raised in city’s capacity to provide services and that they benefit the city strategy. However, Helsinki has not undertaken municipal finances or the city’s social goals otherwise in actions that can be recognised as being targeted at the long term. Thus, Helsinki on its part takes respon- developed countries and small island developing states sibility for balancing public finances and takes care of as mentioned in the UN targets. improving the city’s total productivity. Helsinki’s predicted strong growth increases the Helsinki promotes peaceful and just role of Finland’s only metropolis as a guarantor for the social development extensively as well as effective wellbeing of the whole country. Helsinki pursues func- and accountable administration (SDG 16) tional and long-term cooperation with the government. Helsinki wishes to be a city that is stable and responsi- In addition, Helsinki will strengthen its international ble, safe and reliable, but also at the same time dynamic undertakings with special focus on digitalisation and and highly in tune with the times. To achieve the goal, the on combating climate change, which are among the

78 From Agenda to Action strongest global factors of change and thus make for perspective. Experts from all divisions should widely be natural fields for raising your profile in the international invited to take part in these analyses. A financial analy- arena. City diplomacy is being harnessed for the pro- sis should also be included in the examination to enable motion of business interests in Asia, particularly China. an assessment of resource allocation. The inclusion of Moreover, the city develops the twin-city concept with the city ecosystem in the examination phase would also Tallinn, advances Nordic cooperation and strengthens raise awareness of the convergence with functions that its inter-urban relations with Russian cities. are not solely controlled by the city. Helsinki’s goals and measures support broadly the UN goal to promote peaceful and just societies as well Next steps as effective and accountable modes of administration. In light of the results of the report, the city should The measures that Helsinki has undertaken are directed deliberate internally what the city should do to put the particularly at strengthening the inhabitants’ safety, pre- city strategy into practice in order to implement the venting crimes, pursuing an administration that is ac- sustainable development goals in the municipal organi- countable, transparent and effective for everybody, and sation as well as possible. The intention is to deploy the strengthening the inhabitants’ and other players’ partic- results efficiently within the city. This requires sufficient ipation and opportunities to take part. However, the city coordination and broad commitment from all players does not participate in broadening and strengthening of within the city. The more conscious people are about the participation of developing countries in the institu- advancing sustainable development in the tasks they tions of global governance (UN target 16.8). are fulfilling, the more likely it is that they will succeed. The city communicates actively the results to stake- Development needs regarding holders and inhabitants in order to raise consciousness the reporting process of the importance of the sustainable development goals Helsinki’s strategy is to produce an ambitious and broad in the city’s day-to-day operations. Raising conscious- document. This goal is well compatible with the UN goals ness makes it possible for the city to find new ways to for sustainable development. The report has managed put the goals into practice successfully. to illustrate that Helsinki has already carried out or is in Helsinki will also carry on with being an internation- the process of carrying out many measures that ad- al influencer with the aim to persuade other cities to vance the UN goals at the city level. Then again, the city commit themselves to issuing voluntary implementation made note of the fact that some of the UN targets refer reports. Jointly with other cities, Helsinki endeavours to international development cooperation, which the to influence matters to achieve recognition for the government is primarily in charge of in Finland. importance of cities in key international fora and net- Helsinki’s first implementation report was mainly works – and in the UN in particular – and to enable cities focused on the city strategy, on top projects for carrying to participate in drawing up the agenda and the goals out the strategy, and on the Carbon Neutral Helsinki too in the future – and not just in their implementation. 2035 plan of action. Hence, the report describes the Helsinki actively advances global awareness of the linkage that there is between Helsinki and the UN goals sustainable development goals. for sustainable development from the point of view of the material here mentioned. Even though the approach is strategically comprehensive, it does not cover the entire field of municipal service provision. An expansion of the scope of reporting to the entire organisation would enable a better coverage and a more profound understanding of how the city’s operations and the goals of sustainable development are linked. Subsequent to the first implementation report, it is possible to evaluate the level of future reporting. It would be useful to further develop and add indicators that are suitable for following up on the UN goals. As for the follow-up indicators, the challenge is to produce indicators that are comparable. Therefore, the indicators that we have chosen for this report are mainly the ones that are used for evaluating the city strategy. The UN goals for sustainable development, including the sub targets, are a large complex. It would be beneficial to analyse in detail the convergence of the targets with local-level operations to be able genuinely to identify the goals that Helsinki needs to work on in order to make progress. Likewise, it would be good to identify the targets that are not relevant from a city-level

City of Helsinki 79 From Agenda to Action – The Implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Helsinki 2019

Publisher City of Helsinki, City Executive Office 2019

Layout/graphic design Merkitys

Photos Photos are from Visit Helsinki material bank unless otherwise noted Cover Tuomas Uusheimo Pages 3 and 52 Jussi Hellsten Page 6 Jarvis Lawson Page 13 Dorit Salutskij Pages 14, 20 and 68 Konsta Linkola / City of Helsinki Page 22 Veikko Somerpuro / City of Helsinki Page 27 Kimmo Brandt / City of Helsinki Pages 31 and 65 Riku Pihlanto Page 36 Julia Kivelä Page 41 Aki Rask / City of Helsinki Page 46 Petri Anttila Page 51 Kuvatoimisto Kuvio Page 59 Katri Tamminen / Helen Page 62 Jarmo Nieminen Page 77 Yiping Feng and Ling Ouyang

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