In order to include outside suggestions in the revision process, the Bertelsmann Stiftung was asked by the Finnish government to present to the sustainability council the findings from a study carried out as part of this year’s Reinhard Mohn Prize. The presentation took place on the day the council reached its final decision.
Findings from the study had barely been published before interested parties contacted the foundation to find out more. Finland is one of the five countries profiled in the study, since it is a prime example of a nation with successful sustainability policies. The Northern European country was also the first to request a presentation of the study.
The Bertelsmann Stiftung study found that Finland is one of the nations that have implemented effective strategies for ensuring a sustainable future. It has distinguished itself from its international peers by introducing a national sustainability strategy early on and by establishing governance mechanisms in the area of sustainability and improving them on an ongoing basis. Above all, these mechanisms include effective methods of horizontal and vertical coordination, broad stakeholder participation and continuous institutional learning and improvement processes. In addition, social and business organizations are very willing to adopt ideas from the policymaking sphere. Many players in Finland’s business community have become leaders in Europe’s green economy as a result.
Finland’s national sustainability strategy is currently being revised. The goal is to create a comprehensive “social contract” that will stimulate change, which in turn will lead to greater sustainability. In setting this goal, the Finns looked to Germany for inspiration, since the idea of creating a fundamental social agreement for increasing sustainability was first advanced in 2011 by the German Advisory Council on Global Change. The Finnish sustainability council has embraced the idea and, in its meeting of December 2, added to the revised version of the sustainability strategy the goal of initiating a process that will take society’s overall commitment to sustainability into account.
In order to include outside suggestions in the process, the Finnish government asked the Bertelsmann Stiftung to present its findings from the Reinhard Mohn Prize to the sustainability council on the day the council was to make its final decision. Program director Andreas Esche was assigned the task and he discussed Finland’s strengths and the challenges its policymakers face with a number of public figures, including the Finnish minister of finance and the environmental minister. The Bertelsmann Stiftung study identified one of the main challenges the country’s politicians must address, namely the coordination of diverse policymaking strategies. That is precisely the point addressed by the sustainability council with its proposal for a general social contract.
As part of the study carried out for the Reinhard Mohn Prize, the Bertelsmann Stiftung team created a matrix of criteria that makes it possible to identify effective strategic policies promoting sustainability. The criteria include the innovative potential of strategies and policymaking proposals (quality, implementation potential and participation) and the innovative power of practical measures for promoting sustainability (successful implementation in the economy, environment and social sphere, and in cross-cutting areas). Overall, the matrix consists of 20 individual criteria. With the assistance of an international working committee, the project team located and evaluated five inspiring and diverse examples of how sustainability strategies can be effectively developed and implemented, namely the countries of Bhutan, Costa Rica, Finland and Ghana, and the state of Tasmania in Australia. Findings from the country profiles were published for a symposium held in conjunction with the Reinhard Mohn Prize in November.
