Espoo is a forerunner in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – results compiled into a book
Since 2019, the City of Espoo has been working actively towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and the results of this work have now been compiled into a book entitled ‘Stories of European Cities’.
The City of Espoo has been a forerunner at both national and international level in promoting the UN’s 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This pioneering and award-winning project will end at the end of 2025. The results and lessons learned are presented in a new book entitled ‘Stories of European Cities’.
One of the key messages of the book is that sustainable growth is both a local and global competitive advantage. Strategic consistency with international goals increases credibility in international communities and opens doors to funding and partnerships.
“When we make choices that are in line with international goals, we take care of both our community and the world. Small actions have a major impact locally, nationally, in Europe and globally,” says Development Manager Ville Taajamaa.
The book highlights the views of European mayors and leading urban thinkers on promoting sustainable urban development. Their stories support the book’s message that successful European cities are capable of both systematic urban development leveraging structures and processes and creative, network-based urban development at the same time. The combination of these two complementary approaches is one of the enablers of sustainable public innovations.
The book also focuses on the City of Espoo’s own journey towards sustainability, particularly the entire Espoo community’s VLR work (Voluntary Local Review) based on the SDGs, which is described in the third chapter of the book as a key enabler of community-wide learning and development.
The ‘Stories of European Cities’ book is available in digital format. You can find a link to the pdf version at the bottom of this page.
Read about a tool developed by Espoo together with a European city network to help cities develop the activities of their organisations and the effectiveness of their city communities.
Enquiries
Ville Taajamaa, Development Manager, ville.taajamaa@espoo.fi, tel. +358 40 5083806