The Spark Blog

Sustainability is no longer just a “nice to have” for businesses but a crucial aspect that leaders must implement in their organisations. While there are varying views, goals, and definitions of sustainability, it is clear that companies must find their way of making it part of the work culture.

When considering job opportunities, sustainability and green values are often essential factors for people. Millennials and younger age groups, in particular, are looking for responsible employers with whom their values ​​collide. These age groups are not looking for merely a job but a job with meaning.

As the year ends, it’s time to reflect on what we achieved this year and look at the year ahead. This year, Spark Sustainability empowered the Donut Crew to save over 348 900 kg CO2-eq via the Carbon Donut app. No bad, huh?

The entire organisation needs to be on board for a company to reach its climate goals. But how do you make the goal a part of every employee's routine? That’s the million-dollar question!

The sustainability criteria that society puts on organisations have tightened over the past few years; there have been new changes in legislation, in addition to which customers and investors demand climate action. At the same time, climate expertise has become a competitive advantage for companies.

The Climate Campaign was kicked off by calculating the institution’s carbon footprint to bring awareness of the current impact and use that as a starting point. Now, the exciting part has started: the team’s climate work has been kicked off with the help of the Carbon Donut app. 

“We strive to nudge people’s behaviour towards more sustainable living practices”, said one interviewee in our market research this spring.

After fruitful discussions with larger corporations and municipalities, Spark Sustainability sets out to pilot a solution that increases sustainability-related innovation.

Spark Sustainability has enabled 40 000 climate actions and over 30 000 people have tried our calculator in order to find out their lifestyle emissions.

The Finnish Publishers Association wanted to offer its members a list of concrete climate actions to take and turned to Spark Sustainability for help.

Company climate strategies easily remain abstract and feel far-off in the daily work of employees. As a solution we are developing a tool that engages employees in their company’s climate work.

Spark Ambassador Ann Cathrin Nachtwey writes about the linkages she sees between Spark Sustainability’s mission and the principles outlined in the Earth Charter.

A new webshop plug-in by Spark Sustainability lets customers see how much emissions could be saved by buying second hand instead of new.

Logging climate actions and completing lessons will now earn Carbon Donut users climate-smart deals from Spark Sustainability’s partner network.

The Carbon Donut 1.0 launch campaign organised together with Ilmatar and Gold&Green Foods® was a success resulting in nearly 5000 app downloads.

Carbon Donut -sovelluksen avulla jokainen voi oppia, millä ilmastoteoilla on suurin vaikutus ja tutustua ilmastoystävällisten yritysten tarjoamiin vaihtoehtoihin.

According to Tuomas Tiitinen, Chief Operating Officer of Anki Rugs, by learning to shop again, we could be doing both local cultures, ourselves and the climate a favour.

Our means of transport make our lives easy but take a toll on the climate: in Europe, road transport alone accounts for one fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions. Luckily, there are ways to make road transport climate-smarter.

Is wind power the way of the future? We asked the experts to find out.

Heat is something we humans can’t go without. However, heating is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities. But why is that and what can we do about it?

Future-friendly stores represent a new wave of consumption that is about appreciating the good stuff, indulging in great food, great fashion and great home decor, without the sorry aftertaste of neglecting what consuming means for our world and the generations to come.

The food industry is one of the biggest contributors to climate change: globally, 21–37% of greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to the food we put on our tables.

Are you thinking about going car-free? Owning a car is no cheap business and not too climate-friendly either. Check out our top tips to determine whether a car-free life could benefit you.

Six years ago Maija Itkonen, the CEO and co-founder of Gold&Green Foods and the mastermind behind the revolutionary plant protein Pulled Oats®, wanted to make a lasting impact and change the food culture.

If one person in each Finnish household would reduce personal carbon emissions by 20%, we would already achieve 38% of Finland’s emission reduction targets, as set in the Paris Agreement!

For Ilari Haataja, one of the founders of Alvar Pet, conscious choices had been present in everyday life for a long time. Yet one family member was not covered — Alvar the dog.

Our personal actions have a massive impact when it comes to keeping our planet cool — and to keep our seas clean.

We’ve all heard the lists of things we can change in our lives to mitigate emissions, but how to get started?

The mother of the zero waste lifestyle, Bea Johnson, visited Finland in September. We got to spend a whole day with her and learn from her experiences!

Spark is proud to be a close supporter of the #OURSEA campaign, which is going to be the largest campaign for the Baltic Sea to date.

The Nordic Council of Ministers, the Nordic Investment Bank and Moomin Characters Ltd all want to improve the state of the Baltic Sea.

This sugar sweet story started with a few guys sharing a passion for surfing. Today they are passionate beekeepers, turning beeswax into environmental-friendly surf wax.

Every journey begins with a single step. Even the smallest of climate actions can give a feeling of success and makes us want to do more.

What we see in media has a considerable impact on our own impressions and actions. It’s also one of the key factors shaping the scientific and political discussion.

Today, road transport accounts for over 70% of all emissions from transport! What about bringing back the bike on a big scale again?

Imagine a room full of smart and ambitious people, all working towards solving environmental issues - that was the Impact Evening in a nutshell. It was a blast!

Spark Sustainability on mukana Kokeileva Suomi -kärkihankkeessa. Miten suomalaisten hiilijalanjäljen puolittaminen vuoteen 2030 mennessä voisi onnistua?

The Finnish general elections are drawing closer! Which political decisions are needed to stop climate change? What do the Finnish parties plan to do about it?

Could there be one single, major solution to all the large environmental problems we keep seeing on the news?

Plastic has changed the world. The low-cost and versatile material has saved millions of lives but also played a significant part in creating a global throwaway society.

"What if our generation doesn't want to consume more? What if we actually want to enjoy the great immaterial things in life; wellbeing, family and friends.”

Read how one of Spark's co-founders, Felicia Aminoff, has dealt with two seemingly contradicting wishes: to decrease her impact on climate change and to travel!

The tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries worldwide, outpacing the growth of international trade.

In order to mitigate climate change, politics and industry do need to change, but these changes can be traced back to the opinions of individuals.

Spark’s Linda Koskinen went vegan to ease her climate anxiety, but got a healthier, happier lifestyle as a bonus.

At Spark Sustainability, we’re on a quest to spark collective action on climate change, and we thought we’d kick off 2019 by explaining why that’s such a big deal.

Did you notice a whirlwind of pictures of people in front of a pink photowall on social media the other week?

With the help of Spark the employees at the Nasdaq Helsinki office ran a one-month campaign to make workday lunches more sustainable.

We worked together with Mya Design to create something that makes a great Christmas gift.

At the age of 19, Sebastian Österman became the main organiser of People’s Climate march in Helsinki.

The employees at Nasdaq Helsinki office are running a campaign to make workday lunches more sustainable.

Nothing beats the feeling of fulfilling a personal goal while also supporting sustainable development, says Madelene Eklund.

The scientists have spoken: 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from our daily choices.

Today Anna Lehtola is the 23-year-old CEO at Lovia, a sustainable design accessory company giving new life to fish skin.

Industrial designer Robin Falck, 28, loves to innovate sustainably and wants to use his work as one means to change the culture of endless buying.

This is the first Sparkling Story - a story about how people came together to create a better world. It was something of a coincidence - a very lucky one.