Sustainability Unwrapped: Recent Episodes
Hanken School of Economics
“Sustainability Unwrapped” is a conversational podcast, where science meets practice to think about our world and how to make it more sustainable. The podcast is produced by Hanken School of Economics.
Humanitarian Unwrapped is a brand, new conversational podcast about crisis response and supply chains. Join us every month for a hard-hitting conversation, between academia and the humanitarian sector, about the cutting-edge research conducted by the HUMLOG Institute. “Humanitarian Unwrapped” is the little-sister podcast to “Sustainability Unwrapped” and shares the same conversational tone, where science meets practice, with a humanitarian focus.
Technology in legal design utilizes all kinds of technology to solve legal problems and facilitate work in the legal domain. Creating access and easily understandable legislation through tech can minimize many issues that currently stand. But how can we translate the complex legal language to everyday language? Why is there a need for technology in legal design? And what problems or resistance exists?
In this Sustainability Unwrapped episode, Katri Nousiainen leads the conversation on integrating technology with legal design, and why it should be seen as an asset instead of an overwhelming challenge. Connecting technology with the practise of law, not only benefits law practitioners but companies and individuals as well. Understanding the complex legal agreements, such as GDPR, can be an issue for many, and as Viveca states “[…] legal tech has the potential of rendering law accessible to people! That’s where the real gold is - empowering individuals, lowering costs, explaining the legal stuff etc.”.
Solutions, such as marketplaces for lawyers, minimizing blind-signing, research tools, document review software, can be created by exploring what tools are needed and used in the field, and by asking what the actual problems are. With endless possibilities across sectors and fields, how does it tie in with sustainability? According to Elisabeth “The impact is developing a general culture of law within companies beyond the legal division and giving each individuals the sufficient knowledge to be aware and respectful of the regulations that applies to them in full autonomy”, highlighting that leveraging technology simply makes sense and that it’s a necessary component in legal services of the 21st century.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Katri Nousiainen, Doctorand at Hanken School of Economics at Department of Commercial Law, discusses the potential of technology in legal design together with Viveca Fallenius, the founder of Gentle Rev, Marie Potel-Saville the Founder and CEO of Amurabi, and Elisabeth Talbourdet, lawyer and project manager specializing in Legal Design.
Tune in to the episode to learn more about technology in legal design!
Listen previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
This year constitutes the 10th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The principles are “a set of guidelines for States and companies to prevent and address human rights abuses committed in business operations”. Since the release of the principles in 2011, businesses have increasingly started to accept and adopt their responsibility in human rights due diligence and addressing violations.
A report by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2021), highlights that there are still too many human rights abuses in business-related contexts2. This might not come as a surprise, as out of the global corporations surveyed, almost half had at least one severe allegation of human rights violation in 2020.
Another recently released report “Status of Human Rights Performance of Finnish Companies” (SIHTI) found that in the Finnish context, companies are just now beginning the process of human rights due diligence. So how can companies, with complex, global supply chains, tackle human rights due diligence and violation issues on a practical level?
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Nikodemus Solitander, Director of Centre for Corporate Responsibility (CCR) at Hanken and co-author of the SIHTI report discusses with Lea Rankinen, Director of Sustainability and Public Affairs at Paulig about the human rights responsibilities of Paulig Group, a Finnish food and beverage company, and how they work with human rights issues on a practical level.
This episode of Sustainability Unwrapped is part of a longer SIHTI podcast series on human rights in Finnish companies. See the previous SIHTI podcast episode here.
Listen to previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Sustainable water governance is expected to solve problems related to water scarcity, hydro-electricity and water contamination, to name a few. How do we understand sustainability in relation to water governance? Why do many water interventions labelled as “sustainable” produce highly contradictory results?
Mira Käkönen talks about how dams are marketed as multi-purpose, sustainable solutions which can provide renewable energy and mitigate floods. The reality, however, unfolds differently as she explains: “the ways how these dams are built are through these concessionary agreements, where the corporate concessionaires have very high level of autonomy in how they operate the dam… and of course their rationale is to produce profit from selling hydro-electricity and so actually these dams are very uni-purpose dams […]” Climate justifications for dams are contradictory in a situation, where several other harmful impacts of the dams get neglected, Mira says.
Sustainable water governance relates to wider discourses on sustainability. According to Jessica Budds, sustainability can be misleading, as “in the sustainability narrative there is this idea that the environment, the economy and social needs can be balanced quite neatly”. This type of portrayal tends to hide the trade-offs occurring within these relationships.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Linda Annala Tesfaye, post-doctoral researcher at Hanken School of Economics at the Centre for Corporate Responsibility discusses the tensions surrounding sustainable use of water with Jessica Budds, Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia and Mira Käkönen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study.
Listen to previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Home appliances, communications and information technology devices, home entertainment devices...you name it. Electronic or e-waste is the fastest growing waste stream globally. In 2019,a record of 53.6 million metric tons of globally generated e-waste was reported. Electronic devices contain an extensive list of precious metals as well as harmful chemicals; if no product recovery procedures are applied, we lose scarce resources and create a negative environmental footprint.
Our smartphones and small telecommunication devices contribute solely to about 4.7 million tons of e-waste annually. Nowadays, smartphone consumers tend to keep their devices for longer time, however, the lifecycle of a smartphone is still only about 2 years on average.
Can we prolong the lifecycle of smartphones and reduce the amount of e-waste? “When a device has some malfunction, for example, a broken screen, old or broken battery, or any other faulty component, such device can be refurbished. About 50% of all smartphones can be reused and it, of course, varies a lot from old to new iPhone models. We try to save components and parts from devices that have no value and cannot be refurbished. We use these parts in our refurbishing process. For the rest, we have our certified recycling partners,” affirms Felipe.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Anna Zhuravleva, Doctoral researcher at Hanken School of Economics at the HUMLOG Institute has a conversation with Felipe Cañete, Business Development Manager from Swappie , a Finnish iPhone refurbishing company, about the reuse of smartphones and consumer perspective on purchasing refurbished devices.
Text written by Anna Zhuravleva
Listen previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Digital games industry has become the largest entertainment industry in the world and gaming careers are portrayed as a lucrative option for passionate game enthusiasts. However, there has been continued public turmoil regarding the discriminatory and non-inclusive aspects of the industry. We have seen multiple waves of public outcomings from employees of major game studios, who have disclosed systemic sexism, gender-based discrimination and racism.
Building a career in the digital games industry is particularly challenging for women as well as other minority groups like racial and sexual minorities because of the prevailing gender stereotypes and the masculinist culture of the industry, and the gamer culture at large. In the light of all this, it is unsurprising that the efforts to recruit women into coding and the games industry have been mostly ineffective — women comprise one-fifth of the game industry workforce both in Finland and globally.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Marke Kivijärvi, Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher at Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics and an affiliated researcher at GODESS institute at Hanken, discusses with Jenni Ahlapuro, a community volunteer at Inklusiiv and a communications consultant working within the tech & games industry at Netprofile, and Marianne Määttä, President of Female Gaming Finland ry about the importance of raising awareness of the inclusion problems in games sector and ways of actively supporting diversity and inclusion. The guests share their experiences as players and members of gaming communities and talk about their volunteer work to support diversity and inclusion in the games industry spaces, and the wider tech sector.
Listen previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
In the past years there has been a global boom to invest sustainably, both in the private and institutional sectors. Sustainable investing provides an opportunity to invest by considering environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors. According to Bloomberg-Green, solely in 2020 the investment in ESG oriented funds in Europe topped 1,12 trillion euros (approximately US$1,4 trillion). Huge right?
Based on recent reports and articles (such as MSCI or Millennials Are a Driving Factor in the Growth behind ESG Investments) younger generations especially women, but growingly also investors from all ages and genders are interested in sustainable investing, because of the growing concern of environmental and social and other related issues and secondly, because there is just more information available nowadays. Further, the swift in the markets has put a lot of pressure for all the companies to renew their strategies. Companies are judged rather on how they contribute to a more sustainable society than with short-term financial goals.
Get your answers in this inspiring Sustainability Unwrapped episode, where Hanna Silvola invites Magnus Alfredsson to explore and chart what we should consider when selecting sustainable funds and what will the future of sustainable investing look like.
Listen previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Access to justice is a fundamental rule of law and is protected under various conventions on human rights. In reality, there are lot of delays and issues with the overall judicial processes around the world. This is where lean thinking could come into play. Lean is about creating the most value for the customer while minimizing resources, time, energy, and effort. It enables the smooth flow of the processes, while striving for continuous improvement and is in this podcast episode suggested to be applicable to the justice system to improve the existing processes.
Tune in to this Sustainability Unwrapped episode, to get a good grasp of how lean thinking can improve the justice system, smoothen the judicial processes and the various roadblocks currently facing it. The episode is hosted by Isabell Storsjö, doctoral student in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility at Hanken, with guests Ana Lúcia Martins, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, Operation and Management at ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon and Matti Tolvanen, Professor in Criminal Law and Procedure at University of Eastern Finland.
Listen previous episodes at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Ethical animal testing methods, business practices in the chemical industry and natural ingredients sourcing are just a few of the practices that exist within the cosmetics industry with unsustainable tendencies. Microplastics and chemicals from cosmetics products and their packaging have also been found to have negative impact on both life in water and on land. But the cosmetics industry and unsustainable practices does not have to go hand in hand, something both consumers and companies are realising more and more.
Conscious consumerism, rising consumer awareness and pressure from policy makers to move away from harmful practices has incentivised cosmetic companies to take ownership of their role in creating a sustainable future. Because of this, it comes as no surprise that the global natural and organic cosmetics market has grown immensely, from a 1$ billion market in mid 1990 to a whopping 9.1$ billion in 2011.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, we deep dive into the natural cosmetics industry with Marisun Gajitos, Lecturer at the Centre for Languages and Business Communication at Hanken, Emilie Raittinen, marketing manager at cosmetics company Naviter and Edem Agbekey-Taylor, founder and CEO of Inkuto Organics. The discussion touches upon the natural cosmetics market, what to consider in the production of natural cosmetics (raw materials, packaging, and certification) and how sustainable development is considered in practice at Naviter and Inkuto Organics.
Tune in for more insights on natural cosmetics and how beauty can be sustainable!
Explore more at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
To fulfill the obligations under the EU waste directive, Finland will have to develop a network of local textile collectors and sorting facilities, build, and test the textile processing factory, and find ways to utilise recycled textiles. In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Anna Zhuravleva, Doctoral student at Hanken School of Economics at the HUMLOG Institute, gets together with Emppu Nurminen from Nextiili, an organisation from city of Tampere which is part of the textile collection pilot unfolding in Finland.
Anna and Emppu walk us through all that we should know about textile reuse and recycling in Finland. They discuss the difference between reuse and recycling as the two are often used interchangeably in day-to -day language. ‘’Let’s say, your jeans, when they are recycled, are broken down into cotton fiber which is collected and then used as material for something else. Reuse is when someone is using your old jeans still as jeans’’, emphasizes Emppu.
The discussion then delves into the transformation that lies ahead of us in the textile industry in Finland and all the closed-loop solutions we are seeing, and will see in the future. Emppu also talks about the social aspect of this transformation and foresees ‘’ this will lead to a more ecologically sustained society which will also create new recycling jobs in Finland’’. Tune in now to explore this significant upcoming development!
CORRECTION: at 12:29: Emppu Nurminen is not leading the project on textile sorting at Nextiili. Helena Käppi is leading the project at Nextiili
Explore more at podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
Nowadays sustainability is part of our everyday life. We are more aware of the environmental capacity to maintain natural resources, as we try to adjust our lifestyle according to it. Likewise, sustainability is also impacting the work of artists across the world, raising the question what does art have to do with sustainability? and how can art in its various forms contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle?
Join Marisun Gajitos, Lecturer at the Centre for Languages and Business Communication at Hanken with Outi Turpeinen, Art Coordinator at Aalto University, Veli-Markus Tapio, Senior Advisor in Finnish Cultural Foundation, and Paavo Halonen Finnish contemporary artist and designer located in Helsinki, to find out how art and sustainability are intertwined and what can be done for a more sustainable lifestyle.
Visit the podcast website: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
In humanitarian assistance, an increasingly popular response is cash and voucher assistance (CVA). CVA refers to “the provision of cash transfers or vouchers given to individuals, household or community recipients”1. Just from 2015 to 2020, the use of CVA as a humanitarian response more than doubled, making it an important element of the humanitarian response programs2.
CVA’s positive impact in social and economic sustainability is well established; it allows freedom in decision-making and dignity for recipients since they control how they spend the cash or vouchers, boosts local consumption and business, as well as promotes social cohesion1. However, there has not been as much focus on the environmental impact of CVA, as the programming of CVA programs often makes it difficult to assess and control their environmental impact.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Amin Maghsoudi, researcher at the HUMLOG institute at Hanken, discusses with José Jodar and Valérie Léon, about CVA´s relationship to the environment and how environmental impact can be considered in the CVA programs without forgetting the social benefits and burdening the recipients of assistance.
José Jodar is a technical advisor at CaLP (the Cash Learning Partnership) with a background in development and international cooperation. Valérie Léon is a researcher at Groupe URD with a background as a field humanitarian worker for 10 years.
Visit the podcast website for more information: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/
References:
- Balmer, L., Aftab Alam, S. M. and Koirala, B. (2021). Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) Programming: A step-by-step guide. Plan International.
- Brangeon, S. and Léon, V. (2020). THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE. Groupe URD.
Human rights impact of business activities is one of the hot topics of today. While the discussion has roots as far back as the times of Dutch East India Company (early 17th century), the landscape is still rocky and contentious, and different types of tensions embedded in the discussion are hard to escape.
Human rights issues, particularly within the context of companies’ supply chains, have been broadly recognized. However, since supply chains are increasingly located in Global South, the responsibility of addressing them has been a hot potato few companies have been willing to ‘own’ fully.
The approaches companies have adopted to various human rights challenges they face through their activities are varied, as there is no binding regulation that would steer the companies in these aspects. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were launched in 2011, but still, nine years later, there is little concordance as to the level and means business enterprises implement these guidelines. This has spurred on the growing interest in this topic and given rise to new ideas of how to go about charting the terrain.
Also, Finland has taken a closer look at the Finnish business’ human rights performance in an ongoing SIHTI-project, which has used the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) methodology to obtain a comprehensive and in-depth overview of how Finnish companies are fulfilling their human rights responsibility.
The SIHTI-report will be published on 18 January 2021, and a corresponding publishing event will be streamed online on 26 January at 9-11 am. The event will be held in Finnish, and you can register here.
This interesting podcast, which features discussion between the project research team, discusses both SIHTI, the CHRB-methodology, and human rights questions in relation to business activities in a broader sense. It is hosted by Nikodemus Solitander, Director of Centre for Corporate Responsibility (CCR) at Hanken with guests Jaana Vormisto, Managing Director at FIANT Consulting and Suvi Halttula, Founder and Senior Advisor at 3bility Consulting.
For many investors, the financial outcome of their investments is not their only objective. Some investors are also interested in the impact and role of their investments in promoting sustainability and responsible actions.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is a term for investments aiming for long-term positive impact on society and the environment with positive financial returns. For instance, the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock recently stated in their 2020 Letter to Our Clients that “sustainability should be our new standard for investing”. They see especially climate risk as a transition and investment risk for investors, and for their portfolios. Sustainability-oriented portfolios can provide higher risk-adjusted returns. On efficient markets, returns are viewed as compensation for taking on risks, and therefore sustainability-oriented investing should not yield excess returns.
The Bank of Finland (BoF) has had responsible investment practices in place for several years. It takes into account the risks and sustainability aspects related to investment activities. By signing the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in December 2019, BoF committed to incorporating environmental and social, and corporate governance issues into its investment decisions and ownership policies and practices.
One might ask, is ESG investing about achieving higher risk-adjusted returns? Can responsible investing work to mitigate risks during poor economic times for investors, i.e., work as a kind of insurance against bad times? How does the BoF actually implement responsible investment strategy?
Find out answers to these and other timely questions by listening Niclas Meyer, post-doctoral researcher at Hanken with Anna Hyrske, Principal Responsibility Specialist at Asset Management Department, Bank of Finland podcast on ESG investing!
Volunteering is defined as a free act of an individual or a group to give time and/or service to others. It’s about taking action for issues that feel important to oneself.
Volunteering has often been criticized for being harmful in certain contexts or being motivated by egoism. While the former is problematic, is the latter also a problem? Should volunteering be purely altruistic?
At the same time, there has been a lack of sense of community and increased polarization in different societies across the world. We are also facing a climate crisis and many other sustainability challenges. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased isolation and has also led us to question many things about our existence, communities, and societies.
This raises many questions! Is there a need to look at volunteering differently especially in the context of sustainable development? Has the COVID-19 pandemic put volunteering in a different light? What are the benefits of volunteering for individuals, companies, communities, and societies as a whole?
Get answers to these and many more interesting questions in this podcast hosted by Marisun Gajitos, Lecturer at the Centre for Languages and Business Communication at Hanken. Marisun teams up with Henrietta Grönlund, Professor of Urban Theology from the University of Helsinki, Daniela Sumelius, Hanken alumni and Client Development Manager at the Publicis Groupe agency CJ Affiliate and Kaisa Vainikka, Social Responsibility Manager at UPM for a very insightful conversation.
Let’s remember
‘’If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’’! African proverb
What role would you think sustainability policies play in accentuating political division in your country? How has the question of peat energy become a polarizing issue in Finland and how does it relate to sustainability? What is the Finnish approach to bioeconomy and how sustainable is it?
We’re witnessing an increased geographical division of politics in many countries in Europe and North America, between the so-called liberal, metropolitan centres on the one hand, and increasingly marginalized rural peripheries, on the other. We can see this division in the US elections, between and within states, but also with the recent success of various populist movements across Europe (Dimock & Wike 2020).
An important part of the dividing line in these polarizarions has to do with sustainability policies largely supported by the liberal populations of the urban centres and largely resisted by many people in more rural areas. For example, the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement in France started initially as a reaction against rising taxes on petrol and diesel. In the Finnish context, it is well known that the Green party gets its best scores in the largest cities and its worst scores in sparsely populated rural areas (Statistics Finland 2019). Perhaps as a mirror effect, the populist party Perussuomalaiset (True Finns) has come to define itself as vihreiden vastinpari, meaning the antithesis of the Greens (see Rämö 2019).
To get a better understanding of how sustainability is linked to political polarization, with particular illustrations from Finland, listen to Martin Fougère, an Associate Professor in Management and Politics at Hanken, Hanna Lempinen, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of Helsinki, and Heikki Sirviö, postdoctoral researcher in geography with at the University of Helsinki.
One may think what has IPR to do with Sustainable Fashion. Well, fashion industry is an Intellectual Property (IP) intensive industry, that deals with plenty of creativity in the form of designs, fabric etc. However, historically, the global fashion industry has had to operate in a low-IP protection environment, especially when it comes to designs.
Fast fashion has benefitted hugely from the low-IP protection of the industry as it has been rather risk-free to knock-off designs of high fashion or indie brands and make cheap low-quality copies of them. This way, the low-IP protection has played a role in the fashion industry’s race-to-the-bottom when it comes to sustainability.
Fashion is also one of the most polluting industries globally, thanks to the “fast fashion” phenomenon. Fast fashion brands produce extremely high volumes of trendy garments and sell them for incredibly low prices. However, this comes at a huge cost, especially in the context of human rights abuses and our environment.
What is the impact of low IP protection on local and sustainable fashion? How can the IP protection of fashion designs and generally of the industry be improved? What makes fash fashion so dangerous from the human rights perspective? What is the impact of sustainability on the brand value?
Find out answers to these and many more interesting questions by listening to Heidi Härkönen, a lawyer and doctoral researcher at the University of Lapland, and Annariina Ruokamo, Research, Development, and Innovation Specialist at LAB University of Applied Sciences and a clothing designer.
Let’s make fashion sustainable again!
How to create human-centric and sustainable Internet of Things solutions?
The internet of things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT solutions are found everywhere. Look around you and you might be surrounded with one! A smart coffee machine, a smart air purifier, smart locks and the list goes on and on!
Undoubtedly, there is a lot of potential in IoT to make our lives digital, convenient, hassle-free and to also contribute to making our planet more sustainable. However, the importance of people as an integral component of the overall IoT infrastructure is not yet fully understood and recognised.
Moreover, for IoT solutions to be successful, humans must trust its security, safety, and privacy and currently that is not the reality. We are currently far from responsible solutions!
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Kimia Aghayi, Doctoral candidate at the department of marketing at Hanken invites Tomi Teikko, Founder and head of Empathic Building at Haltian to discuss why the human aspect is so integral in IoT technologies. They talk about the challenges, cultural aspects and why we are too slow and what can be done going forward to create more useful, sustainable and responsible IoT solutions.
Is artificial intelligence fair, inclusive and ethical?
Imagine a robot running a recruitment process? Sounds like the solution we have been waiting for fair recruitment processes? But wait…Can it really be free of bias?
The answer is unfortunately not so simple and lies in the algorithms that are behind the artificial intelligence tools. As our lives become more and more intertwined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots, there is a need to dig deeper and critically evaluate the ethicality of it.
This and many other ethical issues of artificial intelligence will be discussed as Robert Ciuchita, Assistant Professor in Marketing at Hanken invites Martina Caic, Assistant Professor in Design at Aalto University, and Stefano Tempesta, Chief Technology Officer at Connecting Software.
In this episode of the Sustainability unwrapped podcast, we uncover questions like: are algorithms neutral? Who is designing them? Does AI really have a brain of its own? How can AI be fair and inclusive? What is ethical AI? Are there any principles and standards for it?
We will also take a step forward and discuss how the ideal future could look like and how can AI solve some of the biggest sustainability challenges our planet is facing. Time to get people and sustainability aspect into the AI debate!
How can private investors invest responsibly and sustainably? Moving beyond the why!
Sustainability matters for all investors, both private and institutional. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impending climate crisis, the interdependence of capital markets, economies, environmental impacts, and social impacts is clearer than ever.
In 2019, sustainable investment by institutional investors was USD 30,7 trillion in assets under management in Europe, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (GSIA, 2019). This is a 34% increase since 2016 and a 68% increase since 2014 (GSIA, 2017), indicating that sustainable investment is becoming mainstream.
This trend can also be seen in the private investment space. Many individuals are moving beyond the question of why they should invest sustainably and are now focused on how to best incorporate sustainability considerations into their investments in ways that support their overall objectives and values.
However, this is path is not as clear and straightforward. There are many questions that pop up in a private investor’s mind. How and where to start? Is sustainable investing the same as ethical investing? What is Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing? Do I have to forgo profits when investing sustainably? What are the information sources? How much time do I need to put in? How does sustainable investing differ in stocks V/s fund?
To answer all these tricky yet tangible questions, Hanna Silvola, Associate Professor in Accounting at Hanken invites Tiina Landau, a Sustainability and ESG expert who currently works at Neste and has previously worked at one of the biggest pension funds in Finland, Ilmarinen. They have also together written a book in Finnish on sustainable investment titled ‘Vastuullisuudesta ylituottoa sijoituksiin’. This book will be soon released in English with the title ‘Sustainable Investing: Beating the market with ESG’
Black Lives Matter – how and why slavery and colonialism still reflect on Western corporations and what steps should be taken towards decolonization?
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has brought the legacy of slavery and colonialism to the Western consciousness in a way perhaps not witnessed since the end of formal colonialism in most of the African countries in the 1960s. It has reinforced the fact that the legacy of colonialism lives on today in the forms of economic and epistemic dominance, as a power structure that reproduces inequality and racism.
The BLM movement has come as a reality check for Western corporations. Many of the companies publicly support the movement, but their track records show another story behind. Even today, the black CEOs constitute one percent of all CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in the US (Fortune 2020). No doubt these companies mirror the racial hierarchy with white male executives.
In this episode, Eva Nilsson, doctoral researcher in Management and Organisation at Hanken invites Stella Nkomo, Professor in the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Pretoria, South Africa; Bobby Banerjee, Professor of Management at Cass Business School in the UK, and Holger Weiss, Professor of General History at Åbo Akademi University, Finland, to discuss why slavery and colonialism are still prevalent in Western corporations and what can be done
Is there really a need for a Diversity Program in corporations and why decolonization has become like an ice-cream flavor?
What is the future of textile reuse in Finland and beyond?
Let’s be honest. You don’t wear every single piece of clothing you own. None of us do! Recent studies reveal that we are using only 12% of what’s in our closets. It means that 88% of our clothes remain there, untouched.
The fashion and textile industry is responsible for approximately 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of all wastewater. The industry consumes more energy than the airline and shipping industries combined, according to a United Nations study. In addition to the environmental costs, the fast-fashion sector also has huge social costs. For example, the catastrophe of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2012 killed 1 138 garment workers and injured 2 600.
But there might be light at the end of the tunnel! Recent trends and developments seem to promise a rather bright future for textile reuse. Consumers are more and more aware of environmental and social issues. The second-hand clothes market has witnessed a boom, evidenced by the increasing amount of donated clothes and demand for reused textiles.
In this episode, Anna Zhuravleva, doctoral researcher in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility at Hanken invites two guests from UFF: Maija Makkonen, Communications specialist, and Pia Tanskanen, Sustainable solutions specialist.
The episode digs into questions like “How does the reuse and recycling system operate in Finland? What is special about the Finnish second-hand market? What will be the impact of the up-coming regulations for separate collection of textile waste? In general, why reuse matters?”
Our experts will also share some tips on how to donate clothes correctly. We bet you will be inspired to get your unused clothes sorted and donated after listening to this episode.
Legal Design and ethics in commercial contracts
Imagine a world where you would know if your insurance would cover the repair of your broken iPhone’s screen or of your drowned drone. Where you would know what your data is being used for when you download an app on your phone, where you would read and understand the “terms and conditions” before clicking “I agree”, where you would understand the legal terms of your contracts.
Let’s be honest here! Most of the time we have no idea what our rights or obligations under these contracts are. Could simple, empathetic and user-centric legal design be the solution?
In this episode, Katri Nousianen, doctoral researcher at Hanken in commercial Law, invites Viveca Fallenius, the founder of Gentle Rev, a company focusing on legal design, law, impact, and yoga, driven by a desire to infuse more empathy and innovation in the legal sector and beyond; and Marie Potel-Saville, the Founder & CEO of Amurabi, a legal innovation by design agency which combines legal expertise and user-centric design to reduce the gap between the law and its users. https://www.amurabi.eu
Find out, what are the advantages of using design thinking methods. What impact legal design has on commercial practice? What do we need to do, individually, as users, and as lawyers?
The Legal Design approach can be used to empower people, societies, communities, and entities in their legal matters and life in general. It would make legal products, services, and processes more ethical, efficient, transparent, and fair. This would overall save money, time, and unnecessary long-drawn legal battles, which is a win-win for our societies as a whole.
Will intelligible, accessible, and engaging legal documents be the new normal tomorrow?
Where are we headed with Sustainability and Ethics in the Banking Sector?
Sustainability, and especially Ethics, are not the first words that come to one’s mind when thinking about the Banking Industry. Although banking activities are largely based on trust, banks do not benefit from a positive image. Scandals of money laundering, links to cartels, and terrorist organisations have generated quite a lot of bad publicity for the sector.
In recent times, sustainability has gained a lot of attention and momentum in the banking sector, especially after the financial crises of 2008-09. The United Nations has recently launched a new framework for driving sustainability in the banking system: Principles for Responsible Banking. The objective is to help the industry to demonstrate how it can make a positive contribution to society.
Do global guidelines sincerely increase banks’ positive impact on the society? Are they just a way to polish their image? Is it banks’ role to steer other businesses, via their financing decisions, toward more responsible activities? How can banks stop money laundering?
In this episode, Emilia Vähämaa, Associate Professor in Finance at Hanken is discussing these very questions with Nebojsa Dimic, Assistant Professor at the University of Vaasa and Mika Leskinen, Chief Investment Officer and Head of ESG at FIM.
Will the banks play an increasing role in steering the sustainable changes that the world needs? As we say “the one who has the money can set the rules”, so hopes are high! But can we trust the banks in changing the world for the better?
Why Corruption needs to be addressed in the quest for Sustainability?
Every year, $3.6 trillion end up in individual’s pockets via systems of corruption. Lots of money, right? According to Transparency International’s corruption perception index, which scores and ranks 180 countries by levels of perceived corruption, 98% of countries are corrupt, only 2% are least corrupt, and no country is clean.
On the other hand, the United Nations estimates that $5 to $7 trillion per year is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally, with the estimates being $3.3 to $4.5 trillion per year in developing countries.
Corruption, which is defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is the biggest impediment to achieving the SDGs.
In this episode, Neema Komba, doctoral researcher in Entrepreneurship, Management and Organisation at Hanken, invites Matthew Jenkins, knowledge and research manager at Transparency International, and Prisca Kowa, senior officer at Policy Forum, a network of over 70 Civil society organisations in Tanzania.
The episode digs into questions like why should we care about corruption when talking about sustainability and the SDGs? What are the different forms of corruption in different contexts? Why is corruption an issue that concerns us all, everywhere in the world? What can we do about it as individuals and citizens?
The world’s food system account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity according to a recent study, but food´s relationship with sustainable development does of course not end there.
Globalization has had a major impact on food systems around the world according to a report by FAO. It allows giant food corporations to enter new markets (often at the loss of local actors), resulting in standardization and a less diverse food culture globally. Also, it has aided in creating global food production systems with complex and often obscure supply chains, which can have unethical and negative environmental and societal consequences.
As a countermeasure, there have emerged alternative food networks that are based on values such as environmental sustainability, social justice, and animal welfare. In this two-part episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, we hear experiences from two different alternative food networks in Finland and how the networks have self-organised.
In part one, Maija gives us an inside look into community supported agriculture through the food co-operative OmaMaa. In part two, we get to hear Anders Norrback’s experiences in founding a REKO Ring, a network that lets consumers purchase produce directly from producers. Norrback is a farmer, small business owner and a member of the Finnish Parliament. Both episodes give insights into the multitude of dynamics that these types of community initiatives need to consider, the value they bring, and lets us in on what is needed to start a similar network of our own!
These episodes are produced by master´s students as a group assignment in the Sustainable Organizing in Times of Crisis course at Hanken School of Economics. Part one is produced by Minja Orava and Mathilde Pierroux. Part two is produced by Anja Hummel, Ellen Norrback and Sofie Sundqvist.
The world’s food system account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity according to a recent study, but food´s relationship with sustainable development does of course not end there.
Globalization has had a major impact on food systems around the world according to a report by FAO. It allows giant food corporations to enter new markets (often at the loss of local actors), resulting in standardization and a less diverse food culture globally. Also, it has aided in creating global food production systems with complex and often obscure supply chains, which can have unethical and negative environmental and societal consequences.
As a countermeasure, there have emerged alternative food networks that are based on values such as environmental sustainability, social justice, and animal welfare. In this two-part episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, we hear experiences from two different alternative food networks in Finland and how the networks have self-organised.
In part one, Maija gives us an inside look into community supported agriculture through the food co-operative OmaMaa. In part two, we get to hear Anders Norrback’s experiences in founding a REKO Ring, a network that lets consumers purchase produce directly from producers. Norrback is a farmer, small business owner and a member of the Finnish Parliament. Both episodes give insights into the multitude of dynamics that these types of community initiatives need to consider, the value they bring, and lets us in on what is needed to start a similar network of our own!
These episodes are produced by master´s students as a group assignment in the Sustainable Organizing in Times of Crisis course at Hanken School of Economics. Part one is produced by Minja Orava and Mathilde Pierroux. Part two is produced by Anja Hummel, Ellen Norrback and Sofie Sundqvist.
If there is something we can be certain about, is the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming societies, business and nature of work. However, there are a lot of open questions and confusion that persist around what constitutes AI and what does not? What is the role of data science and design? What is the untapped potential of AI and how could its trans-formative ability contribute towards solving some of the biggest sustainability challenges of our times?
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Robert Ciuchita, Assistant Professor in Marketing at Hanken, uncovers different aspects about AI as a follow-up to his episode in last season where he touched upon inclusivity and ethicality of AI. He gathers Akanksha Malik, Data Scientist at Telstra Purple and Director at Women Who Code, based out of Melbourne, and Mauro Rego, Design Lead at Google based out of Berlin in Germany to dig deeper into the complex world of AI and its potential to contribute to some of the grand sustainability challenges.
The episode uncovers these questions through very relatable examples that will help the listener grasp the subtle and not- so- subtle nuances about AI. The episode also sheds light on some of the resources one could use to know and learn more about AI.
Tune in for an intriguing conversation on AI and its potential impact on sustainability.
Connect with the host and guests on their social media:
- Robert Ciuchita
- Akanksha Malik
- Mauro Rego
Social innovation is often touted as one of the keyways in which we can address various sustainability challenges. It is understood as an innovation process that can stretch the boundaries of creativity and flexibility to develop new and pragmatic solutions.
While the concept and the process of social innovation are important tools for societal development, there are different understandings of what social innovation is or should be. Contemporary scientific and policy discourses tend to ignore the social in the process of solving challenges. Oftentimes, the offered solutions are technology-, organisation- or market-oriented, putting a lot of emphasis on the end results rather than on the ethical and social aspects.
In recent years, different social and environmental justice movements have caused many to wake up to the injustice suffered by marginalized groups and made us aware of the struggle’s they face due to their identity, ethnicity, culture or pollution of their environment. Still, in much of the mainstream discussion there has been a lack of indigenous perspectives on these topics.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, we get an insight into the struggles of the Arctic Indigenous People of Europe, the Sámis, and how their way of life and livelihoods are endangered by government supported development projects and regulations.
Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes, assistant professor in Management and Organisation at Hanken School of Economics discusses with Petra Laiti, Sámi activist and Hanken alumnabout how the Sámis defend and organise their ancestral lifeforms in Sápmi. Also, we get to hear about how the Sámis’ relation to land and water upholds a particular kind of sustainability that can be difficult to understand from the non-indigenous viewpoints, and how important it is for the survival of the Sámi culture to create awareness and support among non-Indigenous allies
Sápmi, the Sámi homelands stretch over the northern parts of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, as well as parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The total Sámi population is estimated to be 80,000 people, of whom approximately 10,000 live in Finland.
Tune in to learn more about indigenous perspectives, how Sámi culture and communities are being threatened and what can be done to support the Sámi in a way that aligns with their way of life!
As we grapple with some of the biggest sustainability challenges of our times such as extreme poverty, climate crisis, pollution, increased inequalities, there is a clear need for organisations to rethink their business models and value logics to reflect the challenges and opportunities thus created.
In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, we delve deeper into novel business model design for sustainable development with a focus on environmental and societal impact. We address questions suchas ‘’why do we need a new paradigm when it comes to business models? What are the elements of business model for sustainability-as-flourishing, i.e., creation of net positive impact”? What tools can organisations use to develop new sustainable business model pathways.’’
Man Yang, Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant Professor in Management and Organisation at Hanken in Vaasa, invites Maya Hoveskog, Associate Professor in Innovation Management, Halmstad University in our neighboring country Sweden and Nicole Norris, Manager at the Centre for Changemaking and Social Innovation, Georgian College located in the other side of the world in Canada, to discuss these and many more questions.
In particular, Man and the expert guests discuss Flourishing Business Canvas, which has introduced a new paradigm by focusing on both value co-creation and value co-destruction and multiple value logics, i.e., social and environmental in addition to monetary value.
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Want to know more about this innovative and novel business model for sustainability-as-flourishing, and how to apply it in practice and be more inclusive? Tune in to get your answers!
Want to explore the topic further?
-Become a member of the global community of first explorers, sign up here
-Keep yourself updated and join Strongly sustainable business model group on LinkedIn,
-Check out the New Business Models conference in June 2021!
For additional readings, please visit the podcast website: https://bit.ly/3eHFamE
What would the world look like if women and men shared care equally?
How do families and their situations sometimes ‘fall between two stools’ when they don’t fit the ‘norm’? And how can their situation be addressed and improved?
The social relations of care, home and work constitute very fundamental aspects of gender relations in society. Globally many economic, social, and political discriminations and inequalities are founded upon inequalities around gender, care, and work.
”From the economy of work to the care economy” discusses the deeply rooted divisions of paid and unpaid work and its effects, such as the gendered and aged phenomenon around social sustainability.
Episode is moderated by Charlotta Niemistö, GODESS institute Director at Hanken School of Economics, with guests Jeff Hearn Professor Emeritus and Research Director at GODESS Institute, Hanken School of Economics, Nikki van der Gaag, an independent gender consultant and Senior Fellow from Instituto Promundo and Anna Moring from Monimuotoiset perheet(Diverse families).
For extra readings visit: https://blogs.hanken.fi/sustainability-unwrapped/2021/05/06/from-the-economy-of-work-to-the-care-economy