Sustainable development goals

Agenda 2030 is a sustainable development action plan adopted by the UN member states, which contains 17 goals. The sustainable development goals, SDG, are to be achieved by 2030.

You can familiarise yourself with the sustainable development assessment of the city of Espoo in the Voluntary Local Review (VLR) above. The report includes an evaluation of the city's performance concerning the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN Agenda 2030 program.

End poverty in all its forms everywhere. There is little life-threatening poverty in Espoo, but many have difficulties in affording children’s hobbies, exercising flexibly, going to cultural events or even ensuring their electricity supply.

Espoo measures poverty, e.g., by the number of low-income persons and families with children who receive social assistance.

A low-income person is someone who lives in a household whose income is under 60% of the average income of a Finnish household.

Social assistance is granted to families with children whose own income is not sufficient for essential expenses and reasonable housing.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi 

End hunger. Free school meals have been offered in Finland for more than 80 years. However, not everyone makes use of them. Some Espoo residents even have to give up food, medication or medical appointments due to lacking funds. In Espoo, the Family Centre brings the services for families with children into one place.

Even though things are generally good in Espoo in terms of the goal, not all residents feel they have access to sufficient food. Schoolchildren and students skip meals for one reason or another. However, even in places where there is no shortage of food, the food may be of low nutritional quality and have a negative effect on people's health.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Ensure healthy lives. Satisfaction with life and quality of life are essential factors in wellbeing. Satisfaction with their quality of life is related to a person’s living environment and expectations. Healthy habits are the foundation of wellbeing.

One method to measure quality of life is a self-assessment of a person's quality of life, health, relationships and neighbourhoods.

Loneliness is affected by many factors, such as lacking in social relationships and the person's own functional capacity. Loneliness may weaken a person's health and be a risk factor for marginalisation.

More information: taru.ikaheimonen@espoo.fi

Ensure inclusive and equitable education and learning opportunities. Finland employs a compulsory education model, which starts at the age of six and ends when a young person turns 18 or completes secondary-level education. A good education provides good conditions for a successful career.

The Finnish education system consists of pre-primary schools (early childhood education), comprehensive schools (basic education), general upper secondary schools and vocational schools (upper secondary education) and universities (higher education).

The satisfaction with educational services in Espoo is studied, for example, by an annual study on city and municipal services (Kaupunki- ja kuntapalvelututkimus).

More information: annika.latva-aijo@espoo.fi

Achieve gender equality. Democracy requires that everyone has the opportunity to influence their community, regardless of gender. Young women and minorities, in particular, face hate speech, which reduces their willingness to engage in politics.

It can be considered a manifestation of gender equality that everyone has the opportunity to reach the highest political positions. In a municipality, this would be the council, which wields the highest decision-making power.

Gender is a matter of self-identification for each person. The freedom to live your life without experiencing physical threat or sexual violence or harassment is an essential factor in realising gender equality.

More information: kaarina.salonen@espoo.fi

Clean water and sanitation. In a city, good water supply involves both easy access to clean tap water and good wastewater management. Water supply is at an excellent level in Espoo.

Wastewater load refers to the amount of various substances that the residents, companies and other operators in the area let into water systems along with wastewater. The most commonly monitored figures are the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen, and the amount of oxygen being consumed by the substances in wastewater. The aim is to reduce the wastewater load.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Clean energy. Energy involves things such as the production, distribution, storage, energy efficiency and energy conservation of heating and electricity. The aim is to provide all residents and companies with low-emission, reliable and reasonably priced energy. New operating models and energy solutions steer communities towards renewable energy production and sustainable and flexible consumption.

Energy production generates most of the City's emissions. Most of these are from district heating production. Espoo, along with the energy company Fortum, is committed to reducing carbon emissions of district heating in the 2020s (methods include using waste heat, renewable electricity, heat pumps and bioenergy). Using coal in Espoo's district heating production ceased in April 2024.

Other uses of renewable energy are also a way to reduce emissions. By reducing energy consumption, we can achieve financial savings and reduce the pressure to increase energy production and develop the electrical grid.

More information: joni.mäkinen@espoo.fi

Work and economic growth. The City of Espoo is actively working with the local employers and R&D operators to promote sustainable economic growth, increase jobs and improve employment rates. The City offers entrepreneurs, companies and jobseekers high-quality and effective services and attracts new companies and investments into Espoo.

Meaningful work, sufficient pay and good working conditions are important factors in an individual’s wellbeing. 
Most jobs are in private companies. In addition to companies, prominent employers also include the City of Espoo and Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County.

Espoo's innovation community creates notable innovations and new businesses that promote sustainable development.

In a comparison of patent applications submitted in European cities in 2023, Espoo placed sixth with its 1,400 patent applications.

More information: annika.forsten@espoo.fi

Innovation and infrastructure. Infrastructure, meaning services and structures, will be needed to allow for a sustainable economic sphere. For example, company turnovers are on the increase in the area around the West Metro line. The light rail line Raidejokeri, which started operating in autumn 2023, will allow for increased sustainable mobility and vitality, for its part.

The City’s measures in construction and steering construction work impact the building of sustainable infrastructure. Cooperation and partnerships with universities, other education and research institutions, organisations and businesses allow for new innovations and economic sustainability.

Facilitating sustainable mobility (e.g. cycling and public transport) also has a significant impact.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Reduce inequality. The socio-economic qualities of the Espoo population, such as their income level, education and health, are the best in Finland. The percentage of the population who speak a foreign first language will grow in the future. This is taken into consideration in City operations, especially in services related to education and employment.

Offering equal education opportunities to all population groups contributes to the development of the Espoo community.

More information: sanna.lindholm@espoo.fi

Make the city safe and sustainable. Rapid population growth, the ageing population and the increase in the foreign-language population will also increase service needs in Espoo and challenge both sustainable construction and service production. Facilitating mobility is an important aspect of a functional city.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Sustainable consumption and production patterns. The City of Espoo promotes sustainable public procurements and encourages all communities in the city to operate sustainably in their production and distribution chains. The consumption choices made by residents and housing companies are an important part of sustainable development and responsibility.

Sustainability actions include only buying new things when you need them, sharing products and services, and repairing and reusing old things.

Consumption-based climate emissions show the carbon footprint of our lifestyle. Over two thirds of emissions are generated outside of Espoo through the production of the services, food and goods that we consume.

More information: reetta.janis@espoo.fi

Take action to combat climate change. Espoo has the ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The definition of carbon neutrality is that a city only generates the amount of emissions that it can offset in a year.

The Carbon Neutral Espoo 2030 Roadmap is a plan for combating climate change. It illustrates the actions of the City of Espoo and the cooperation with partners and residents to achieve the City's carbon neutrality target. The greatest emission sources in Espoo are the heating of buildings, transport and electricity for consumption. The emissions are reduced by the increasingly clean electricity production and the rapid increase in electric vehicles. Using coal in district heating production ceased completely in April 2024. The City’s climate actions and financial summary of its climate work are compiled in the Climate Watch(external link, opens in a new window) service.

In addition to decreasing the carbon footprint, our aim is to increase our urban community's carbon handprint, which means that new solutions developed in Espoo would help reduce emissions globally. The European Commission selected Espoo to carry out a mission of 100 climate-neutral and smart cities and awarded Espoo the Mission Label for being a pioneer in climate work.

More information: karoliina.isoaho@espoo.fi

Conserve oceans and seas. Espoo is a maritime city. Almost half of the area, 216 km2 , is water, of which the sea area makes up 158 km2 . Espoo cares about protecting its waters. The Water Protection Action Plan for 2022–2027 lists the actions to improve water quality in the next few years.

The greatest challenge in Espoo's water conservation is reducing the load of nutrients and hazardous substances on water systems as climate change increases runoffs in the catchment area. In a growing city, improving the condition of water systems requires much work and new solutions.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Protect terrestrial ecosystems. Espoo is growing and being built increasingly rapidly, and dense construction is being directed at areas that used to be in a natural state. Biodiversity is being secured and increased through plans such as the Nature-Smart Espoo roadmap.

Local nature and conserving biodiversity are important factors in building a pleasant living environment. One way to preserve biodiversity is protected natural reserves. Nuuksio National Park is the largest single protected area in Espoo.

Forests provide a good habitat for many species. Forests also bind and store carbon and, thus, slow down climate change. Forests make up approximately 55% of Espoo's land area.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions. Trust and involvement in political and social systems is essential in a functional democracy. We hope and consider it to be important that the community’s decision-making and activities would involve residents from various backgrounds.

More information: minna.joensuu@espoo.fi

Implementation of sustainable development and partnerships. Achieving the sustainable development goals requires partnership, inclusion and cooperation. Networks between companies, organisations, other cities, universities and research institutes both in Finland and abroad will allow for efficient learning and exchange of information.

Espoo wishes to be a pioneer in the development of municipal services. Services are developed for residents’ needs and in cooperation with residents.

Residents’ satisfaction with services is monitored via an annual survey. One essential figure being monitored is the extensive home municipality index, which is a ‘satisfaction average’ (on a scale of 1–5) calculated from 45 factors being monitored. The satisfaction of Espoo residents has remained at a good level for a long time.

More information: pasi.laitala@espoo.fi

You can utilise the sustainable development canvas in your organisation with the help of the instructions and template below. This tool helps to understand how you can use the UN's 17 sustainable development goals in the planning, implementing and evaluating activities in your organisation. We encourage everyone to think about their own core goals with the SDG goals. It is empowering to recognise the impact of one's work on global goals.