Sustainable Consumption: The Political Economy of Sustainable Food textbook and the Food Futures app now available in Finnish

was published to complement the massive open online course, , which was initially held in November of 2022 at the University of Helsinki. The book was the result of the research project which received funding from the programme. The text of the book and the Sustainable Consumption course, were designed by Global Politics and Communication Programme Director, Adjunct Professor S.M. Amadae, in collaboration with a team of MA researchers. This team consisted of Shreya Sood and Ruta Jumite from Aalto University; and Maija Harju, Juuso Kortelainen, Marianna Laine and Sonja Sorri from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Additionally, András Rátonyi from Aalto University provided digital assistance, while Diana Wear conducted professional editing and Jooeun Park provided graphic design. The main themes of the textbook include the inability of the free-market system to adequately address the environmental tragedy of the commons, individual consumers’ sense of powerlessness to significantly contribute to the solution of global problems, the utilization of data to understand and improve humans’ environmental impact, and the development of tools which enable more sustainable individual and collective lifestyles.

One such tool, introduced in this course, is the Food Futures app, a digital innovation that facilitates and encourages sustainable collective action through well-informed dietary choices. The app provides its users with data about a meal’s carbon footprint and uses blockchain technology to measure, record and validate individuals’ sustainable meal choices.  The app was developed in collaboration with Unicafe as part of the Food Futures project.  The Food Futures team was recently among the 12 out of 46 applicants that won the University of Helsinki grant, a funding programme that seeks to promote a culture of sustainability and advance environmental consciousness in our university community. The app was translated into Finnish using the Sparkle grant. Learn more about the ongoing Food Futures project .

In order to enhance the accessibility of the book and the app for Finnish speakers, they are now also available in Finnish. The new Finnish app design was implemented by the TX team working with Juuso Kortelainen. Furthermore, under the guidance of Adjunct Professor Amadae, the book was implemented into Finnish with Juuso Kortelainen and Jooel Heinonen. Kim Keskiivari proofread the text. Therefore, Finnish speakers can now enjoy the book’s exploration of sustainable consumption and the app’s guidance about the sustainability impact of UniCafe meals in their native language.