Introduction
Sustainable Vantaa Belongs to Everyone – Vantaa’s Sustainability Reporting 2023 is the second voluntary local review (VLR) describing how Vantaa is promoting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The first review was published in 2021 and, in the same year, the city’s management group decided that the review would be published every two years from then on.
In 2015, the UN agreed on a global action plan for sustainable development, the 2030 Agenda. The aim of the 2030 Agenda is to eradicate extreme poverty and promote sustainable development in the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The 2030 Agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) containing a total of 169 targets. The SDGs are to be achieved jointly by all countries by 2030.
The 2030 Agenda brought about significant changes compared to previous sustainable development programmes. Its SDGs are the same for all countries, although different countries place emphasis on different issues. Sustainable development and sustainability are understood as a global issue that requires cooperation between different regions. The 2030 Agenda emphasises the interdependence of the SDGs. One SDG cannot be promoted without also considering the impact of the measures on the other SDGs, as the effects may be contradictory or negative. A hierarchy has also been defined for the SDGs in the sense that environmental sustainability is the basis for social and economic sustainability, without which they cannot be realised, so environmental sustainability should be taken into account in all activities.
Governments are responsible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Its implementation in Finland is guided by a national implementation plan. Finland also reports regularly on the progress of the SDGs through a voluntary national review (VNR). However, cities are very important actors in sustainable development and, due to their nature, most of the SDGs are most strongly affected at the local or municipal level. That is why New York was the first city to publish a voluntary local review in 2018 and challenged other cities to do their part. Cities have also often defined more ambitious targets than their central governments, for example in terms of carbon neutrality, and have the potential to be pioneers in sustainable development.
This review was prepared by an internal working group of the City of Vantaa, with representatives from all city departments. In addition, several other city experts participated in compiling the data and writing the descriptions of measures.
Vantaa as a city
Vantaa is the fourth largest city in Finland in terms of population and is growing strongly. At the end of 2022, there were 242,917 Vantaa residents. The population of Vantaa is growing mainly due to immigration; Vantaa is the most international city in Finland, with about 23% of the population speaking a foreign language, i.e. a language other than Finnish or Swedish, as their native language.
Vantaa is located in the Uusimaa region and is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. It shares a border with Helsinki, Espoo, Nurmijärvi, Tuusula, Kerava and Sipoo. The city is divided into seven major districts and 61 city districts. Its administrative centre is located in Tikkurila, but Vantaa has not just one city centre but several. Vantaa is also home to Finland’s only international airport. The city has a diverse economic structure and excellent transport connections. In addition to the built environment, Vantaa has extensive green areas, and most Vantaa residents live less than 300 metres from an outdoor recreation area.
Vantaa is innovative, and in 2021 it was selected as Europe’s Rising Innovative City. The recognition came after a lot of work on, for example, carbon neutrality and social innovations. In accordance with its vision, Vantaa wants to be a bold and attractive pioneer in sustainability.
Review implementation and structure
This review was prepared with the help of a sustainability working group established in the autumn of 2022. The working group had 13 members from different city departments, whose work was coordinated by a sustainability expert. For the data collection of the review, group interviews were organised together with Gaia Consulting, and Webropol surveys were sent to the city’s experts. The group interviews were on different topics, and their contents were designed based on the 2030 Agenda roadmap of the National Commission on Sustainable Development and its thematic entities. The review preparation process also utilised the latest programmes, reports and documents describing and guiding the city’s operations. For individual measures, additional information and descriptive texts were requested from a number of city experts.
The Vantaa City Strategy 2022–2025 defines six focus areas: Financially sustainable and vital city, good residence-oriented services, preventing inequality, resource-smart and carbon-neutral Vantaa, thriving city centres and meaningful work by active leadership.
In addition to the focus areas, the strategy includes five strategic themes that support the intersectoral implementation of the strategy and provide central guidance for the city’s sustainable development work. Individual and cross-cutting SDGs have been defined for each strategic theme. The themes are broad and have been used to define the challenges that each theme seeks to address. In addition, the programmes implementing the strategy linked to each strategic theme have been defined; they are drawn up and monitored in a cross-administrative manner.
The structure of this review follows the breakdown of the strategic themes. In this review, as in the strategy, the SDGs that the theme primarily promotes are listed under each theme. We have also made some additions to the lists of the strategy in regard to the SDGs.
The themes for the strategy period and the SDGs named under them in the strategy are as follows
In preparing the review, we have tried to create an overall view of how the City of Vantaa promotes the SDGs and the successes and development targets of this work. Many important activities and development projects also being left out of the review. It is not possible to include all the sustainable development activities of the city in a single review, because the core work carried out in municipalities, such as organising education, taking care of the wellbeing and living environment of residents, etc., is all in line with the SDGs. We have selected actions, mainly ones taken in 2021 and 2022, under each strategic theme. They are highlights and examples of the extensive work that Vantaa is doing for sustainable development. Many of the actions could have been listed under more than one theme and contribute to several SDGs.
The purpose of this review is not only to describe the actions taken, but also to indicate areas for improvement and to highlight any gaps left, for example between the programmes implementing the strategy. It is important to identify the points where different goals and measures may have contradictory effects when considered in the context of all SDGs.
The review is being used to raise awareness of the SDGs within the city organisation and to create a basis for the development of sustainability work. With longer-term and more systematic management and coordination, sustainability work can be developed from the perspective of the entire organisation and departments. So far, progress on the SDGs has not been monitored between the reviews, and they have not been sufficiently linked to the processes of knowledge-based management. The coordination and development of sustainability work will be significantly improved in 2023 with the establishment of a new permanent position for a sustainability expert. The SDGs are multifaceted and interconnected, involving various actions in different departments. Coordination and development work across departments requires permanent structures, leadership, sufficient resources and commitment from both management and all departments.