CS Blog | Aalto University

At this year's Arts Grad Show, held at the beginning of the academic year, visitors were captivated by the innovative works of 2025 graduates from the Creative Sustainability program. This annual showcase is a testament to the collaborative efforts of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, the School of Business, and the School of Chemical Engineering, all united in their commitment to addressing today's pressing sustainability challenges such as climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and socio-ecological disturbances.

Creative Sustainability

Aalto foodsharing team posing for a group photo at Design Factory's kitchen.

Aalto Foodsharing is a grassroots community focused on saving and sharing food otherwise going to waste. The initiative was started in the spring of 2024 and has saved thousands of kilos of food waste. In addition to running a community fridge, the Foodsharing team organizes various events and practices advocacy around the topic. In this post, Ronja Tammenpää, one of the founders, tells us more about the inspiring and impactful community.

Creative Sustainability

Students attending a Smoothies & Movies film screening in Space 21. The host it setting up the movie.

Smoothies & Movies film screenings were started in the spring of 2023 by CS student Andrzej Tarasiuk. The sustainability-focused movie nights have since gathered a wide audience and included a discussion of sustainability themes in each film. This post opens up Andrzej’s initiative’s background, impact, and future.

Creative Sustainability

Students at a sustainability game night in Space 21.

In 2024, CS Design student Beste Polatkal started hosting Sustainability Game Nights, where participants could learn about sustainability through board games, card games, and role-playing games. In this post, Beste explains her motivation behind the project and offers tips to those considering starting a sustainability initiative.

Creative Sustainability

Aalto Repair and Rewear co-founders posing for a photo in their workspace.

Aalto Repair and Rewear is a mending-focused community initiative founded by Thekla Weißkopf and Regina Kazanjian, two Creative Sustainability master’s students. This blog post tells more about Thekla and Regina's (Kaz) motivations for the initiative.

Creative Sustainability

Students fixing a phone during the course Broken 2.

This blog post introduces the new Aalto course called Broken II, where students get to learn repair skills. The post was written by Creative Sustainability alumna and current Ph.D. student Goeun Park, the Co-teacher of Broken II.

Creative Sustainability

An excursion to Ramboll offered valuable insights into how systems thinking and regenerative design are applied in a company context.

Creative Sustainability

A photo from the panel discussion. Students are sitting in the audience listening to the panelists and host.

Four CS alumni share their experiences from working in sustainability.

Creative Sustainability

CS Design alumnus Savannah Vize shares her experiences before, during and after studies in Creative Sustainability.

4.12.2023 News

CS Design alumnus André Helgestad shares his experiences before, during and after studies in Creative Sustainability.

10.11.2023 News

A Creative Sustainability master’s student shares his experience studying the programme at Aalto.

Creative Sustainability

A self-made Christmas ornament on a Christmas tree: a felt heart that says love.

This is a list of ten Christmas gift ideas that don’t require purchases of any kind. They work for other occasions as well!

Creative Sustainability

Sibelius monument photographed from underneath

Climate change inspires literature, not only of the nonfictional kind, but also fiction and even poetry. I want to share with you some of my ponderings on a poem that struck a chord with me the first time I read it years ago and that I still keep finding more meanings in every time I come back to it.

Creative Sustainability

Students on the banks of the Longinoja stream.

Systems Thinking 2021 course visited Longinoja, one of the most well-known streams in Finland and a very interesting area in terms of its species and related civic activity. Mikko Jalas, the teacher of the course, now shares this experience with us.

Creative Sustainability

Creative Sustainability has existed as a study option for more than ten years at Aalto University. It has catered for different needs and evolved in course of time. Yet fundamental commitments remain the same. The reasons to get involved in sustainability through creativity also remain the same. Here is my list of ten good reasons to join.

Creative Sustainability

School of Business alumnus Nicolas Dolce

Study course projects and a Social Hackathon competition helped Nicolas Dolce, our Creative Sustainability alumnus, to prepare for working in sustainability consulting. 'The Capstone course sharpened my project management, client interface, and business development skills.'

28.1.2021 News

Creative Sustainability -alumni Noah Peysson. Kuva: Roope Kiviranta / Aalto-yliopisto

The program also helped me develop a more critical perspective on the information and solutions that are given to us.

20.10.2020 News

VTT organized the Circular Innovation Fair pitching and networking. There was an audience of more than 400 persons and almost 100 different companies/ organizations, from about 10 countries!

Creative Sustainability

Climate change mitigation requires rapid reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases and decisive efforts to draw down and sequester atmospheric CO2. While technologies for reducing emissions in energy production have matured and are diffusing rapidly, carbon drawdown and sequestration remains a narrow discussion amongst experts and policymakers. Mobilization of further actors in carbon drawdown is needed.

Creative Sustainability

Launching the CS journey in a hybrid mode during corona times.

Creative Sustainability

The Test Site, a student-led community doing projects in practical sustainability, summarises its eventful year 2019. Text by Mayumi Itoh and Jinook Hwang.

Creative Sustainability

Master's Programme in Creative Sustainability: Suggested readings for starting students

Creative Sustainability

CS Thesis work in progress: Growing a leg to my T. Copyright Salla Lahtinen.

Creative Sustainability design student Salla Lahtinen shares her personal insights about finding one's own interests and developing competencies.

Creative Sustainability

SGT 2019 - Editorial Final Presentation, Exhibited photo by Prithivi Jung Thapa, photography by Luis Alfonso Monje

Course project story by Creative Sustainability Master's students from Sustainable Global Technologies Programme 2019 at Aalto University

Creative Sustainability

The SBC board 2019. Photo by Luis Alfonso Monje, kotomonk.com

The Creative Sustainability students, alumni and faculty gathered together to celebrate the end of the year 2019 in a Finnish Pre-Christmas party.

Creative Sustainability

Autumn semester 2019 from a Creative Sustainability student's perspective.

Creative Sustainability

Interview with Mikko Jalas, Creative Sustainability Programme Director and Professor of Practice, about Towards Eco-Welfare State: Orchestrating for Systemic (ORSI) joint research project.

Creative Sustainability

Creative Sustainability student Delphine Rumo shares her insights from the Thesis process.

Creative Sustainability

Creative Sustainability Master's Programme is listed in the best practices of teaching in Financial Times 'Special Report: Responsible Business Education'.

Creative Sustainability

Korvaa project. Photos courtesy of Aivan.

Manuel Arias Barrantes graduated as a Master of Arts from the Creative Sustainability programme this year. In this article, he shares his experiences in a multidisciplinary material research project which stems from the desire to replace fossil and animal-based materials.

Creative Sustainability

The Capstone course in Creative Sustainability is a project-based, compulsory course for CS students. The course is led by Leena Lankoski, programme leader for Creative Sustainability Business and Senior University Lecturer from the Department of Management Studies.

Creative Sustainability

The Urban Transitions and Futures course is part of the collaborative Urban Studies and Planning programme (USP) at Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. The course is led by Dr. İdil Gaziulusoy, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Design at Aalto University. It is an optional module for Creative Sustainability students.

Creative Sustainability

CS featured in PRiMEtime blog

Creative Sustainability

Sustainable Global Technologies (SGT) Studio (WAT-E2070) is an intense co-learning course for Master’s and PhD students and is led by Matleena Muhonen, from the School of Engineering. It is an elective course in the Creative Sustainability Programme.

Creative Sustainability

How to Change the World: Innovating toward Sustainability (21E10000), is an elective course in the Creative Sustainability program and is led by Prof. Minna Halme from Aalto School of Business. The course dives into ‘wicked’ sustainability challenges such as climate change, depletion of natural resources and poverty and uses them as a starting point for innovation of new forms of economic activity, business models, and organisational forms.

Creative Sustainability

Anna Pakkala was the 2018 Head of Sustainability at Slush. At the moment, Pakkala is working as a Brand Manager at Compensate (2020).

28.11.2018 News

In October 2018, Aalto students practiced facilitation of creative cooperation in the Suomenlinna World Heritage Site. The Participatory Methods and Facilitation Skills course aimed to familiarise students with participatory methods, processes, theories and communication, creative cooperation and facilitation skills.

Creative Sustainability

The Sustainability in Business course (21E16001) is a compulsory course for all CS students. It aims to equip students with the tools and knowledge to understand the field of sustainable business, corporate responsibility and sustainable consumption as well as the pressing social and environmental issues that drive them. Throughout the course students learn how to identify sustainability challenges and how to respond to them in the business setting through a range of group work and individual tasks.

Creative Sustainability

In September 2018, first year Creative Sustainability students took part in an intensive and collaborative learning experience in Kera, Espoo. The Creative Teamwork course aimed to give students a fresh outlook on Creative Sustainability as a programme, the areas of studies and particular approaches to sustainability.

Creative Sustainability

Earlier this month students gathered together for the annual Creative Sustainability Kick-Off Day. Mikko Jalas, the programme director of the CS Masters programme opened the event with an introduction to studying in Aalto and an overview of what the CS studies can offer new students.

Creative Sustainability