2025 Scientific themes

Sustainability Science Days is now Science for Sustainability!

In September, Science for Sustainability will bring together science, innovation and change makers from diverse fields. The event will build on four broad sub-themes. Description of the sub-themes is provided below.
Science for Sustainability 2025 Scientific themes
  1. Green growth, Sufficiency, Degrowth - Bursting the Growth Bubble

Our political leaders and mainstream economists have maintained the growth paradigm as a foundation of the dominant economic narrative. However, the current economic system has fallen short in handling urgent global challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Consumption, production, inequalities, and use of natural resources are still accelerating, and many planetary boundaries have already transgressed. Twin digital and green transition is considered as a driving force for a fair and prosperous future, as well as for sustainable growth. This sub-theme encourages contributions to reveal different visions and solutions as well as challenges of the main alternative strands in the growth debate. 

The questions being asked under this sub-theme may include, for example: What kind of an alternative “beyond growth” future could be created to achieve sustainable and inclusive prosperity? How the main alternative strands 1) green and inclusive growth, 2) sufficiency economy, 3) degrowth, and 4) post-growth, may affect the Earth’s systems? What kind of climate futures may we have under different strands? How are these strands shaped by slowing human population growth or urban and rural transformations? How would stable societies look like? What gender perspectives should not be dismissed? What kinds of business models could be successful and which businesses would thrive? What are the feedback loops looming ahead and their implications for “growth”? How are sufficiency and degrowth perceived in the Global South, East and West? Where does green growth and its resources come from and whom does it benefit? Collapse or co-operation? Where a degrowth world is possible to imagine, the path from the current economic system to sufficiency/degrowth economy is far from clear. How is the peaceful democratic transition to these imagined happening? Is the transition to a sufficiency economy or degrowth possible within the current political and economic systems? What is the relation between green transition and transformation?

 

  1. Global Cooperation and Sustainability Visions

This sub-theme invites contributions that focus on different sustainability visions through the aspects of globalisation and localisation. The phenomena of globalized production and sourcing, modern colonisation, global extractivism, well-being based on modern slavery, as well as Eco/Feminist and Post/Decolonial perspectives, and multispecies sustainability may be addressed. Sessions may seek to burst the globalization bubble through equal, fair, and just sustainability transformations observed from the non-western parts of the world, by different cultures and from the perspective of other species. Contributions may also focus on the global polycrisis or on the multipolar world – its systems implications and possible solutions (silver bullets vs. heterogeneous and just solutions) to achieving peace, security, and sustainability.On the other hand, the value of localisation becomes questionable if global cooperation in e.g. climate regulation does not work. Can effective carbon trade agreements solve the climate challenges accelerated by globalisation?

The questions being asked under this sub-theme may include, for example: Have we been living in a bubble of globalisation, and is it time to look at the benefits of localisation as well? What effects do globalisation and localisation have on human societies or other species’ populations? What is the role of global regulatory processes (different levels and types, incl. information, policies, legislation etc, IPCC, IPBES, COP, CITES, SDG’s) in sustainability visions? Case studies and systems analyses are welcome. What are the current scenarios for global security and peace? Has the sustainability rhetoric ignored the overarching political instabilities, emissions and social harm caused by the war industry? How are wars affecting sustainability transformations? What can responsible media do to build peace? How do we mitigate and adapt to climate change and ecocrises simultaneously with radical changes in the global energy, security, economic and information systems? What effects does green transformation have on land use, indigenous human communities, and other species on different continents. Is global economics the biggest bubble? How to include sustainability indicators into monetary valuation? Are there joint solutions from economy, studies of law, humanities, and natural sciences?

 

  1. Resilient, Just and Healthy Systems

Resilience of social-ecological systems refers to their capacity/ability to deal with change, withstand shocks and stresses, and to rebuild/recover for continuing to develop. Enhancing systems’ resilience to the wicked global problems, including infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 and avian flu, calls for solutions that are based on systems thinking and without unintended consequences. This sub-theme invites contributions that seek to reveal existing sustainability bubbles in our practices and approaches to enhance resilience, fairness, and health of different systems. Deep sustainability approach emphasizes the interconnectivity of all life, but what are the manifestations in policy or practice, and how can we provide resilient, just, and healthy life for all living beings? Case studies and systems analyses from different continents and regions are welcome. For example, the Arctic nature is highly vulnerable, a treasure of natural resources and the focus of international research and policymaking. Increased exploration and exploitation of natural resources might be fatal to the Arctic ecosystems, and indigenous peoples’ rights and cultures overshadowed by economic and geopolitical interests. 

The questions being asked under this sub-theme may include, for example: How can we build resilient and just human societies? What indicators can be used for measuring that a system is resilient, just, or sustainable? What is the state of food and water systems, and how are these being reshuffled due to environmental and other drivers? How does this impact water and food production? How should we study and contribute to sustainable and resilient food and water systems? What is the state of the climate and the ecosystems, and what do scenarios show about their changes and impacts? How does biodiversity loss affect the ecosystems’ functions and carbon sinks, and what scenarios do we have about these? What are the limits of climate science and species distribution modelling, and how do these affect our understanding of possible futures? What are the current and emerging threats of infectious diseases for humans and other species? What aspects should be considered in other species susceptibility to infectious diseases? What systems perspectives can we take into multi species co-habitation? What is multispecies justice, well-being or sufficiency? What structures/regulations need to be revised? What are the needs of other species for being able to continue living with humans - case studies from ecology, philosophy, law, etc. What impacts does pollution/chemicalization/pharmaceuticals have on/in the environment, and reproductive capacities, health, or mortality of human and other species? What can be done to minimize these impacts? What are the opportunities and challenges in developing sustainable/resilient/just/healthy land use (e.g. regenerative agriculture and forestry, energy, urban areas)? How to solve the problem of unforeseen segregation of filthy rich and poor to achieve just transformations, sufficient well-being, and health for all? What is “just” in the context of optimization of costs and delocalization? Can the "leaving no one behind" policy of the European Union help in the transition process towards a more resilient and sustainable society, how to achieve this, and who are at the risk of being left behind? Are there new paradigms of aging, brain health, work life, multitasking, stress, haste, anxiety, ADHD and other aspects of cognitive or emotional well-being that are recurring phenomena in our societies? How to improve human life and health in these aspects? How could the media better improve systems thinking? How could it help envision positive futures and build hope? 

 

  1. Innovations for Sustainable Futures

Sustainability-driven innovations aim at providing transformative and economically viable solutions for technologies, products, services, and business models to decrease reliance on non-renewable and pollution-intensive energy and materials as well as to reduce waste and greenhouse gases emissions. Innovations, such as renewable energy technologies, circular economy practices, and biodegradable and bio-based materials, are globally marketed and adopted as sustainable solutions that contribute to our transition towards a greener and more sustainable future. This sub-theme invites contributions that focus on different aspects of sustainability innovations, including their opportunities and challenges in solving sustainability issues in the world. Sessions may also focus on the role of innovations in enabling future wellbeing within the planetary boundaries for humans and other species.

The following list of questions being asked under this sub-theme is only for inspiration, and by no means comprehensive: How to overcome social, cultural, political, and economic barriers in the implementation of sustainability innovations? How to assess and evaluate justice, access and environmental or other impacts of innovations/solutions? How can we overcome the common ignorance of solutions developed in the Global South? What findings and innovations do we have for species conservation and cohabitation of humans with other species? What is and what should be the role of media in facilitating sustainability innovations for transformations? Both case studies and system analyses are welcome. What is the system's perspective into technological solutions? What is the overall role of technology, how much and in which fields can we rely on technological solutions in solving planetary crises? Is there an excess reliance on techno fixes? Which technological solutions are just yet another bubble? What do analyses and case studies of the social dimensions of technological fixes reveal? What are the potential and threats of AI and digitalisation in sustainability? Do we recognise and can we control the promises and risks, e.g. impacts on people’s privacy and freedom, fakes, vs. the potential of big data, and digital services.  What kinds of futures can we envision with different energy transformations? Can there be sustainable energy - are we accepting ever growing consumption or is energy saving a realistic scenario? If energy saving is an option, where should it happen? What motivations and incentives for saving energy are necessary to make a change? What pros and cons do energy innovations and massive novel investments in infrastructure bring? Is improvement of efficiency a viable target and how much can that solve the problem of growing consumption? How can we create ways of producing/storing energy without consuming huge amounts of rare minerals? Can there be sustainable mining and what would be its characteristics? What is the current state and demand for material innovations? What is the future of sustainable packaging, natural and other fibres, or other materials? What is the role of transportation in sustainability solutions, and what will future sustainable transportation look like? How effective is technological carbon removal and storage expected to be as compared to ecosystems’ capacity to remove carbon? What kinds of sustainability innovations does regulation support? Can it direct towards high efficiency in systems and production? Can Jevon’s paradigm be hammered straight with global regulation? What can and should regulation do to hamper greenwashing?