Finland has been a leading country in the development of smart cities and sustainable solutions. Many cities in Finland have made concrete plans towards a more sustainable future. To name a few, the capital Helsinki aims at being carbon neutral by 2035, the city of Espoo already five years earlier, while the City of Lahti was just chosen to be Europe’s Green Capital for 2021. Finland is leading the world in designing functional cities that are ecofriendly with smart applications in daily life.
In October 2019 eight journalists from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore were invited to Finland by Finnfacts/Business Finland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the theme: Smart Cities – sustainable recycling and energy solutions.
During this media tour, journalists got to visit some smart cities districts and meet representatives from cities and government. They also visited a Finnish home to see how daily waste sorting worked before getting to know the end products – smart solutions in relation to recycling and energy production offered by Finnish companies.
Smart cities as a broad topic interested all the invited journalists. This tour program focused mainly on waste recycling and sustainable energy solution, because China began to establish waste recycling system last year, starting from cities such as Shanghai and gradually extending the implementation to other cities.
Some journalists also conducted interviews on topics relevant to their own cities including smart city districts in Finland etc.
After the tour there have been so far 8 articles published in different channels. Below are what journalists took with them from the topics presented during their stay in Finland:
HongKong
Apple Daily: 【創業起義】香港人要學芬蘭 (2019.10.29.)
Hong Konger should learn from the Finns
Shanghai
Yicai (China Business News, CBN): 垃圾乘坐地下真空“快车”,芬兰为跑赢碳中和时间表拼了 (2019.11.24.)
Waste rides underground vacuum "fast train", Finland fights to outperform carbon neutral schedule
Yicai: 芬兰绿色经济 (2019.11.24.)
The green economy from Finland
Singapore
NewsHub, Singapore: 推广循环经济 芬兰创造优势 (2019.11.24.)
Promote circualr economy, Finland ceates advantages
Beijing
36 kr: 我为什么在芬兰钻了一周的垃圾堆
Why I was digging in the trash for one week in Finland
36 kr: 我为什么在芬兰钻了一周的垃圾堆
Why I was digging in the trash for one week in Finland
Caixin: 特写|从垃圾桶到发电厂,垃圾在芬兰的低碳之旅
Low carbon journey of the trash in Finland: from waste bins to power station
Nanjing
Nanjing Daily: 南京垃圾分类全面提速在即 记者探访芬兰循环经济“他山石” (2019.12.10.)
Nanjing's waste sorting fully implemented soon, reporter visits the success story of Finnish circular economy