The Future Workshop for Sustainable Development (TUPA)

The Future Workshop for Sustainable Development (TUPA) project strengthens the resident-based approach and inclusion in Espoo’s sustainable development work. The project has a sustainable development resident partner group that consists of 25 residents.

News about the project

In this section we update current information about the project and workshop meetings.

What is it all about?

The Future Workshop for Sustainable Development (TUPA) project strengthens the resident-based approach and their inclusion in Espoo’s sustainable development work. The project develops and tests a new model of resident inclusion, in which a number of residents from different backgrounds resolve sustainability challenges together with the city’s operators. The objective is to better integrate the voice of residents into the sustainable development work done by Espoo, to better view the goals from the residents' perspective, to establish the resident-inclusion model and to scale it for wider use both nationally and internationally. The coaching provided in the project strengthens the city personnel’s competence in using methods of inclusion.

The Future Workshop for Sustainable Development (TUPA) project, funded by the Ministry of the Environment, is developing a new model for engaging residents in the city’s sustainable development work. The project is part of the Ministry of the Environment’s Sustainable City programme, which provides funding for new types of solutions to activate and engage different operators in sustainable development work.

The TUPA project implements the city’s strategy, the Espoo Story, according to which the Espoo community develops sustainable and local pioneering solutions promoting carbon neutrality to be also shared with other urban areas in Finland and abroad. Espoo’s goal is for the entire community to operate sustainably and to discover new solutions to promoting carbon neutrality and improving the flow of everyday life. Espoo is committed to being a pioneering city in view of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to presenting the solutions to achieving these goals at the UN High-level political forum (HLPF) in July 2025. The TUPA project is part of a larger whole, in which urban solutions will be developed for better consideration of residents, promotion of good governance and participation of residents. The outputs of the project will be presented as part of Espoo’s SDG pioneering solution.

Dialogue and partnership thinking at the core of the project

In the future workshops, a number of residents from different backgrounds will process the city’s climate and sustainability goals together with the city’s employees. Residents and other interest groups will be involved in the planning of the project. The workshop activities will include expert presentations and processing of various sustainable development themes in a facilitated manner by making use of functional methods. Where possible, the workshops will be held in a place in Espoo related to the theme being processed and accessible with public transport. Participants for the workshop activities will be selected in spring 2022 through an open call, supplemented, if necessary, by a targeted call.

In the future workshops, the city’s employees and residents will sit around the same table to discuss matters as equals, which will allow for open interaction. The parties will gain a more comprehensive understanding of each other’s needs and perspectives, which is of particular importance in the future-oriented development work of sustainable development.

The future workshops will provide valuable experience in a new form of resident inclusion, where a group of residents will meet during the project period to deepen their knowledge of the sustainable development themes and to consider future solutions to them. After the future workshop experiment, the model can be further developed to promote better interaction between the city and its residents. The objective of the future workshops is to better integrate the voice of residents into the city’s sustainable development work and to better view the goals from the residents’ perspective. This promotes social sustainability as part of the green transition and strengthens Espoo’s goal of being a pioneer in sustainable development together with its residents.

Contact information

Sanna Rönkkönen

Development Manager+358 40 6458877

Suvi Jäntti

Project coordinator+358 40 5794840