Sustainable by default: Finland makes sustainability the norm
When it comes to achieving sustainability goals, policies and regulations often trigger the necessary change. While many companies are aware of the necessity of an industrial transformation, partly due to the pressure of global competition, overall efforts are often still happening rather slowly. Mostly, it is only the pressure of existing or announced regulations that triggers significant transformation efforts across economic sectors. This goes especially for small companies in traditional sectors, which might not always be well integrated in global value chains. The risks for them to fall behind or not be able to respond to new demands, are high.
Beyond regulations, it is also important that the stakeholders in a given economic sector agree on norms with clear progress indicators. Ideally, sustainability should become the norm at the industry level. Having clear indicators enables benchmarking and pushes businesses to stronger efforts. On the same time, a strong promotion of the norm fosters the competitive advantage of those businesses going for sustainability, thus creating an incentive for others to join.
This is what Visit Finland aims for the Finnish tourist industry with the Sustainable Travel Finland programme, a good practice from the Interreg Europe project TOURBO. Vision Finland is a part of Business Finland Oy, a non-profit company that is 100% owned by the State of Finland and responsible for promoting Finland as a trade, investment and travel destination in international markets.
Sustainability: the norm for the Finnish tourist industry
The Sustainable Travel Finland programme provides a comprehensive toolkit and structured pathway for sustainable tourism development.
Through its 7-step development path and adherence to international standards, Sustainable Travel Finland guides businesses towards sustainability and ensures ongoing commitment through regular review processes. The programme is in line with Finland’s tourism strategy motto for 2022-2028, “Achieving more together - sustainable growth and renewal in Finnish tourism”.
By setting strategic priorities for both the digital transformation and sustainable development, industrial transformation is clearly a major driver for the Finnish tourism industry’s development.
The destinations and companies that undergo the entire programme and meet the criteria are awarded the Sustainable Travel Finland label.
Clear sustainable tourism indicators
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” (Peter Drucker)
One of the outstanding features of Sustainable Travel Finland is the close monitoring of the companies involved in the programme and the overall progress within the industry. At the company level, a clear set of indicators to be reported by businesses (see figure) has been agreed upon. The results can serve for benchmarking purposes among business but also for monitoring the collective progress in the tourism industry. The progress on the programme level is documented on the STF digital hub in a dashboard and publicly accessible.
According to the latest figures (retrieved online in April 2025), there are currently over 500 labelled companies (and over 1.000 participating in the programme) as well as 12 labelled destinations (over 60 participating in the programme).
Source: STF sustainability indicatorsCapacity building in the transformation process
The programme also focuses on education and competence-building, facilitated by Visit Finland Academy and sustainability consultants. This facet further enhances its value by empowering stakeholders with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively implement sustainable measures. In addition to consulting and support from educational institutions to help with the green and digital transformation, Sustainable Travel Finland also offers its participants access to practical tools, such as e.g. the Hiilikuri CO2 calculator for tourism industry, which enables businesses to measure their carbon footprint and to identify and address their most significant emissions sources with targeted measures.
An inspiration for other regions
A key achievement of the practice relies on its wide acceptance by the tourism industry in Finland as the national framework and standard for sustainable tourism. And the programme’s statistics show a positive development in several dimensions:
- 99% of the companies involved in the Sustainable Travel Finland programme actively participate in actions to mitigate climate change
- 90% work to reduce water consumption
- The share of renewable energy in total energy consumption is 69%
- And over 60% make sustainable choices in catering
A major learning value of this practice lies in the programme’s clever approach, consolidating various sustainability schemes into a single framework and streamlining the sustainability journey for tourism businesses while promoting the potential competitive edge for sustainable tourism businesses and destinations.