Sustainability brings security!

We asked our partners what kind of “good” they would like to hold on to. We received nearly 300 responses! Clean water and air, accessible and diverse nature, and a climate with four seasons were repeatedly mentioned as cherished things people do not want to lose. Many justified their wishes with immaterial values such as beauty, peace of mind, health and happiness.

In Finland’s comprehensive security thinking, such immaterial resources that enhance human well-being are rightly connected to national resilience. Syke’s field of work includes, alongside fostering mental crisis resilience, restoring ecosystems that provide security of supply, designing a fossil-free energy system to reduce geopolitical risks, developing a circular economy to strengthen self-sufficiency, as well as preventing flood damage and anticipating drought periods.

Our core message “we build hope through research” could just as well be “we build security through research”.

As we now adapt our operations to an era of scarce resources, we as a work community must go through a difficult phase. We experience a contradiction in that, although the demand for solutions produced by our research and development activities is growing, our operating conditions are weakening as funding decreases.

However, this year we have renewed our strategy, and it guides us towards even more cost-effective and relevant impact in the second half of the 2020s. In the future, we will focus on societal systems whose unsustainable structures amplify the global environmental triple crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.

When developing the energy system to be climate-neutral, its negative impacts on nature must be minimised at the same time. Circular economy can reduce the environmental footprint of production systems. The food system can be transformed to limit waterway emissions and restore nature. Climate and nature wise planning should be included as a basic assumption in land use and built environment systems.

At Syke, we work for a better future, and this is above all work for the well-being of future generations. A healthy environment, a favourable climate, a recovering nature and sustainably used natural resources enable a good and secure life.

Thank you, reader of our newsletter, for your interest in Syke’s work. I wish you a sustainable and safe Christmas and confidence in the future for 2026!

Leif Schulman, Director general, Finnish Environment Institute (Syke)