The City of Helsinki’s Roadmap for Circular and Sharing Economy

The linear economic model has proven unsustainable for climate, human and environmental health and well-being. By leading in the transition into a circular and sharing economy in four specific sectors or goods, Helsinki aims to harvest their benefits, thereby putting an emphasis on the generation of new business and employment opportunities.

The Roadmap introduces objectives, related interim goals and supporting activities for each of the four selected aspects. While the objectives are directed at 2035, the activities run between 2020 and 2025. All of the activities are planned to be executed in collaboration with several relevant stakeholders. 

The Roadmap defines 15 measures for the construction sector. These consist of educational and communication activities, land use and planning, infrastructural and building construction, and demolition.     

With two billion euros annually, the City of Helsinki spends 40% of its expenses in procurement, making it a powerful tool for the promotion of circular and low-carbon goods and services. The Roadmap presents seven measures related to different goods and services (e.g. furniture and catering), such as preparing an organisation-wide policy and instructions on supply procurements, studying the lifecycle impact of materials and adding criteria that promote the sustainability of products. The Roadmap is the first of its kind to include a commitment from the city to studying the lifecycle impact of alternative construction materials and include it in the procurement criteria of the city. Alternative materials are also surveyed in the planning and market survey phase of procurements.

In the search for solutions for new, circular, low emission processing methods for green waste, the city puts forward three measures. These are centred around the piloting of new technologies for the sustainable utilisation of green waste, developing an operating model for the city for processing green waste, and participating in projects that study and promote the use of biochar. 

Six actions towards realising a sharing economy in the city and thereby reducing the need for material consumption and emissions, are presented. Here, for example, preparing principles for sharing economy promotion in land use planning, preparing a guide on available residential area sharing economy services, and creating a monitoring system for the use of the City’s premises, play a central role.

The progress is being monitored and recorded in the Climate Watch of the City of Helsinki (available in Finnish, see link - ilmastovahti.hel.fi - below).