March 28 2009, 20:30

I organised yesterday a seminar for Laundry Helsinki and WWF Finland on Green Office, a great concept for public and private institutions to reduce their carbon footprint at the office. Over 100 big Finnish organisations have already joined ranging from McDonald´s to Finnish Tax Authority and more keep coming.

One of the issues promoted yesterday was the importance of action following the declaration. Jos-Willem van Oorschot from the architectural office Venhoeven CS gave an inspiring talk on the possibilities for self-supporting cities and energy-producing buildings. One of the actions we all could do is the Earth Hour in the end of March. Watch the video and see what you can do.

I am convinced, also by yesterday´s talks that sustainability is not something some of us do as a hobby or a cool gadget - it is the only sensible way of living. Combating climate change is not an opinion, it is the only rescue plan left. We need to find ways to imagine our lives improving also through other things than material goods and consumption and find a low-carbon and no-oil solution for living together. As Jos´ speech and many others showed yesterday: we can if we want to. This is where creativity needs to be directed now.