Sustainable Future Districts

The Sustainable Future Districts project was the City of Espoo’s sustainable urban development project. The project ran from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026. 

The project developed solutions related to four built environment themes: clean energy, low-carbon construction and circular economy, sustainable transport and nature-based solutions. Espoo’s districts served as development environments. The themes were promoted through experiments, studies and commitments and by supporting our stakeholders.

Below you can read more about the project results divided into three parts.

• The aim of the first part was to strengthen the structures and practices that support a culture of experimentation and local operators’ participation in Espoo’s districts. The project brought more local knowledge and services to several districts in the city. In 2026, the development of districts is also reflected in the Espoo Story, its key programme focused on the city’s development, and the cross-administrative Event City Espoo programme.
• The Kera Development Commitment is a new steering tool developed in Espoo, whose process and monitoring we further refined in the project. Three construction projects complying with the development commitment were launched in Kera, and the concept was further scaled for the developing Kiviruukki area. Lessons learned were also shared with other Finnish cities through Rakli’s development commitment clinic.
• As the closure of Keran Hallit approached, we supported the unique business community through an assessment of operational conditions(external link, opens in a new window) and an open farewell event. 51% of Keran Hallit companies found new premises in Espoo, 40% somewhere else.
• We actively shared the lessons learned from the temporary use of Keran Hallit. For example, we published an operating model(external link, opens in a new window) for empty spaces at Keran Hallit and collected operators’ experiences in a four-part article series.

• We are working in close cooperation with local project directors, city planners and other city experts to spread the project’s pilot experiments and studies across the city.

  II. New solutions

The second part of the project focused on the implementation of new solutions in the districts. The pilot programme brought new structures and services to Espoo, studies were conducted to increase knowledge, and various concepts were implemented to test new practices. Some of the solutions have remained in the urban environment.

• The Sustainable Future Districts pilot programme included six experiments focusing on sustainable mobility and biodiversity in urban environments. The pilot experiments were carried out in different Espoo districts in 2025. 
• The Kera development commitment encouraged new construction projects in Kera to use new solutions, such as plastic film recycling(external link, opens in a new window) and low-carbon and reused building components.
• Long-term efforts to promote sustainable construction at Keran Hallit paid off as many parts of the demolished buildings were reused.
• Close cooperation with the Kera operator network also resulted in the initiative by Nokia and Fortum(external link, opens in a new window) to recover waste heat from a data centre and use it in district heat production.
• The Circular Drifter demo house was developed to test new reuse solutions. The concept offers an environment for testing the functionality of recyclable building materials and technologies.
• The nature-positive district model(external link, opens in a new window) examines the meaning and importance of nature positivity at the district level. It uses the Otaniemi and Keilaniemi area as an example and offers suggestions for all types of districts.
• The energy analysis conducted for the draft phase of the Viiskorpi district plan provides a foundation for energy analyses in other areas and presents concrete solutions for sustainable energy production.

• Climate and nature solutions for local development were also compiled in a report to support the amendment of the Espoon keskus detailed plan. Through this work, the reference plan for Espoon keskus evolved in a substantially more low-carbon and environmentally friendly direction. The report and its measure sheets can also be used in other locations.

  III. Communication and positive handprint

The third part of the project focused on spreading the information collected and promoting sustainable attitudes towards urban culture. We initiated and actively engaged in discussions with the other capital region municipalities and other urban development projects in Finland, organised events and spoke to audiences.

• More than 450 people from more than 20 cities in 13 countries participated in Keran Hallit tours.
• Kera Talks! events in 2023 and 2024 had a total of 350 visitors.
• Our other talks reached more than a thousand people.
• We published a total of 23 news articles. We were also often visible in other media.
• Through our regular networks, we reached at least 500 experts.