Helsinki – the most sustainable destination in the world

One of the brightest stars on the sustainable tourism scene is our capital Helsinki, ranked as the most sustainable destination in the world. We wanted to uncover some of the reasons for Helsinki’s sustainability success and point out how Haaga-Helia plays an active role in making the city even more sustainable.

#1 in the Sustainability Rankings

Helsinki has top spots in many sustainability rankings. It is ranked number one in the 2024 international Global Destination Sustainability (GDS 2024) index measuring the sustainability of travel and event destinations. In spring 2025, Helsinki was also granted the Green Destinations GSTC certificate, the first city with over half a million residents to get that award (City of Helsinki 5.3.2025). Helsinki was also the first European city to report its progress with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is possible to follow the progress with the SDG indicators of the city on the Sustainable Helsinki (2025) website. Overall, Helsinki and Finland perform very well in international comparisons of SDGs, with Finland number one as a country (Sustainable Development Report 2025).

On its way to becoming even more sustainable

There is still some more sustainability work to be done in Helsinki, though. According to SDG tracking (City of Helsinki 2025a), especially environmental indicators and climate change adaptation need more attention. For example, consumption-based emissions are high in Helsinki. Also, the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by it had a detrimental impact on the mental health of its residents, but there are now initiatives focusing on community building and collaborative spaces and activities in the city. The most famous place for all residents and visitors alike is the Oodi Helsinki Central Library, which offers spaces for spontaneous mingling and activities as well as facilities, tools and workstations.

The biggest positive development on the environmental scene has been the closure of two coal power plants. From 2025 onwards, transport emissions are the biggest source of emissions for the city (City of Helsinki 2025a.) Although public transport, cycling and walking are the easiest ways to move around the city, getting to Helsinki from abroad causes a lot of emissions. Due to its geographical location, Helsinki and Finland are like island destinations, i.e., very difficult to reach without air (flying) or sea (boat/cruise) connections.

Finns are often accused of being too humble and in sustainability-related matters, for all too long, they were guilty of green hushing and green blushing, not disclosing how responsible they were. These days, Helsinki has many companies that want to show what they are doing on the sustainability front. Many tourism companies in Helsinki have joined Visit Finland’s Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) programme. As a destination, Helsinki aims to get the label this year, meaning that 51 % of its tourism companies must have the certification or the city itself must be GSTC-certified (like Helsinki already is) and have a plan to put its companies on a STF path as well (Visit Finland s.a.).

Sustainability is very much a part of Helsinki’s appeal. The rankings testify that it is not just marketing hype, but real actions. There is even a sustainability-devoted section on the city website: Sustainable Helsinki.

The sustainable spaces of the greenest capital

Helsinki is a unique blend of urban life and green nature, coastal scenery and an archipelago of over 300 islands. Helsinki is a hidden gem compared to the many overtourism hotspots around the world. Tourism numbers are still rather modest, and our Nordic neighbours get more visitors from abroad to their capital cities. Helsinki and Lapland are the two destinations that receive the most tourists in Finland (Visit Finland 2025). Helsinki Airport is the main gateway to the city and the country, with around 16 million passengers (Finavia 2025). Helsinki is also the destination with most overnights in Finland and gets around 150,000 cruise passengers annually (Port of Helsinki 8.11.2024).

One of the most popular tourist sites of the country based on the number of visitors, Suomenlinna, is also located in Helsinki. Suomenlinna is a long-time partner of Haaga-Helia and it is perhaps the best-known destination in Finland for sustainable tourism. The UNESCO World Heritage listed sea fortress, located just off the coast of the city, gets around one million visitors a year (Suomenlinna s.a.) and it was awarded as the Tourism Company of the year 2025 in the recent Helsinki Travel seminar (City of Helsinki 7.5.2025).

Foreign media, for example Guardian (Fiegel 26.12.2024) and New York Times (Williams 8.8.2024) have written stories about sustainable Helsinki, a city where visitors can enjoy the many saunas by the sea or stay in a wooden hotel (Pier 4) or hut (Majamaja) close to the city center. Not something that most tourists associate with visits to capital cities.

Helsinki wants to attract sustainability-minded visitors, and it has listed on its website sustainable places to visit (City of Helsinki 12.5.2025), including islands, saunas, libraries and museums. The icon of the city and a popular place for tourists, Helsinki Cathedral, is there as well. Helsinki and its islands can be explored by boat tours as well as more closely by canoe.

The vast green areas surrounding the capital are easily accessed by all modes of transport, for example by taking a bus powered by renewable energy to Nuuksio or Sipoonkorpi national parks, or to the old-growth forest of Haltiala, in the northern part of the Central Park. After all, Helsinki is one of the greenest capitals in the world. Many residents take their proximity to nature for granted, but its green credentials are evident in the good air quality of the city. Having such easy access to nature plays a part in the happiness rankings of Finland.

From footprints to handprints

However, being a successful travel destination depends not just on the rankings and numbers but on the quality of the stay. According to studies and reports (e.g., WEF 2025; Visit Finland 2024), more and more travellers want to actively contribute to the destinations they visit – whether by revitalising local communities or leaving behind positive, regenerative impacts. The shift is from footprints to handprints. While sustainable tourism focuses on conservation and minimising harm to a destination, regenerative tourism aims to enhance and heal it for future generations, making the destination, its communities, and ecosystems thrive (Pollock 1.10.2019).

Therefore, Helsinki should focus even more on offering visitors possibilities to engage in community projects, support local businesses, and participate in environmental conservation efforts. The city already states that it is aiming to embrace regenerative tourism, but the understanding of the concept is still rather basic as the number of vegetarian restaurants is listed as an indicator of regeneration (City of Helsinki 2.6.2023). The final indicator list for regenerative tourism is still in progress. The continued focus on growth in tourism numbers (City of Helsinki 7.5.2025) is not aligned with the concept of regenerative tourism either.

Helsinki City Strategy aims to develop Helsinki into the smartest and most sustainable travel destination in the world, and its five-year goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030 (City of Helsinki 2025a; City of Helsinki 31.12.2024). Helsinki wants to remain sustainable and embrace regeneration. It means that the city needs to keep its residents happy and healthy, as well as its economy sound, and the environment – water, air and nature – clean. It requires both nurturing and innovative sustainable solutions, e.g., community building, local companies, low-emission transport, and renewable energy. All these are already applied in Helsinki.

Haaga-Helia’s commitment to sustainable tourism

Sustainability plans and efforts are a continuous process, where commitment to making decisions that support life on this planet are needed. These efforts need input from different stakeholders such as tourists, residents, companies and educational institutions – including Haaga-Helia. Helsinki has the biggest concentration of jobs and businesses in the country, employing many of our students and graduates.

As an educator, Haaga-Helia is well positioned to support the ambitious sustainability goals of the city by making sure that the future travel, tourism and hospitality professionals have the necessary skills, competences and know-how to develop and promote sustainability of destinations. For example, all tourism and hospitality students learn about STF certification during their studies (key competencies), so they will be able to work towards achieving the label in their places of work. Also, there are many courses and minors related to sustainable tourism for them to choose from, e.g., Sustainable Tourism Experiences, Nature and Wellness Experiences. Students can learn about sustainability communications, for example how to promote sustainable tourism experiences and how to inform consumers about sustainability deeds.

Sustainability is a central value for Haaga-Helia. The university is committed to responsible business operations in its study plans and research, development and innovation (RDI) activities. All RDI-projects Haaga-Helia participates in are evaluated based on their sustainability impact (Huttunen & Koivisto 2024). Haaga-Helia wants to do its part for a sustainable future by taking part in projects that have a large impact on business and society. Since 2022, Haaga-Helia has been tracking how its projects affect the SDGs. The biggest sustainability impact so far have been for Quality education (SDG #4) and Decent work and economic growth (SDG #8) (Turkulainen & Koivisto 2025).

Many of the projects our students participate in have Helsinki-based companies as their commissioners, and they work to improve their sustainability already during their studies. Haaga-Helia tourism students and graduates are more than ready to be active change-agents and make Helsinki even more sustainable than it already is.

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