CS Grad Show 2026: Livia Solin
Livia Solin's thesis identified leverage points for lowering barriers to repair, reducing the consequences of temporary phone loss, and aligning broader incentives to better support smartphone repairability.
CS Blog
CS Blog offers a collection of experiences from Creative Sustainability studies, collaborations and events at the Aalto University.
CS Grad Show 2026: Ronja Tammenpää
“Urban Soil Literacies” by Ronja Tammenpää explores how to learn with soil in an urban environment through a multispecies perspective.
Crust x CS Alumni Talks
Three Creative Sustainability students share their insights on an Alumni Event organised by the student association Crust. They discuss the importance of alumni engagement with current students as a way of showcasing possible future workflows, while alleviating stress about post-graduation uncertainty.
Creative Sustainability Graduation Show 2025
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.
Introducing CS Students' Sustainability Initiatives: Aalto Foodsharing
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.
Introducing CS Students' Sustainability Initiatives: Smoothies & Movies
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.
Introducing CS Students' Sustainability Initiatives: Sustainability Game Nights
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.
Introducing CS Students' Sustainability Initiatives: Aalto Repair and Rewear
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.
Why do we need to learn how to repair again? Introducing Broken II, a new repair course
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.
Sustainability in Action: How CS Studies Shape Ramboll’s Regenerative Design Approach
An excursion to Ramboll offered valuable insights into how systems thinking and regenerative design are applied in a company context.
Insights from CS x Crust Alumni Panel Discussion on Careers in Sustainability
Four CS alumni share their experiences from working in sustainability.
10 Questions to Alumnus Savannah Vize - CS Design
CS Design alumnus Savannah Vize shares her experiences before, during and after studies in Creative Sustainability.
10 Questions to Alumnus André Helgestad - CS Design
CS Design alumnus André Helgestad shares his experiences before, during and after studies in Creative Sustainability.
Creative Sustainability master’s student Michael Buchta shares his experience in the programme
A Creative Sustainability master’s student shares his experience studying the programme at Aalto.
Ten Nonconsumerist Christmas Gifts for Those Who Already Have Everything
This is a list of ten Christmas gift ideas that don’t require purchases of any kind. They work for other occasions as well!
Do you see the blue sky? Ponderings on climate poetry
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.
Systems Thinking students visiting Longinoja
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.
Ten reasons to study at 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.
Alumnus Nicolas Dolce: Sustainability is only going to become a more important topic, one that practitioners of many different professions will need to be familiar with
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.'
Master's student Noah Peysson: ‘I learnt problem solving from the holistic aspect of the Creative Sustainability programme’
The program also helped me develop a more critical perspective on the information and solutions that are given to us.
CS Participation in Circular Innovation Fair 2020
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!
Biochar - the future of the forest industry?
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 Teamwork 2020
Launching the CS journey in a hybrid mode during corona times.
Greetings from The Test Site and year 2019 in a nutshell
The Test Site, a student-led community doing projects in practical sustainability, summarises its eventful year 2019. Text by Mayumi Itoh and Jinook Hwang.
Suggested readings for starting Creative Sustainability students – and anyone interested in critical and creative exploration on a more sustainable world
Master's Programme in Creative Sustainability: Suggested readings for starting students
CS Thesis work in progress: Growing a leg to my T
Creative Sustainability design student Salla Lahtinen shares her personal insights about finding one's own interests and developing competencies.
Lifelong experiences from Sustainable Global Technologies course: Researching sustainable reconstruction after a natural disaster in Nepal
Course project story by Creative Sustainability Master's students from Sustainable Global Technologies Programme 2019 at Aalto University
The CS community celebrated the end of the year 2019
The Creative Sustainability students, alumni and faculty gathered together to celebrate the end of the year 2019 in a Finnish Pre-Christmas party.
Starting Autumn 2019 as a 1st Year CS student
Autumn semester 2019 from a Creative Sustainability student's perspective.
Towards an eco-welfare state – how to direct the transition?
Interview with Mikko Jalas, Creative Sustainability Programme Director and Professor of Practice, about Towards Eco-Welfare State: Orchestrating for Systemic (ORSI) joint research project.
Sharing a CS Thesis work in progress: Design research project – construction materials and circular economy
Creative Sustainability student Delphine Rumo shares her insights from the Thesis process.
CS featured in Financial Times “Special Report: Responsible Business Education”
Creative Sustainability Master's Programme is listed in the best practices of teaching in Financial Times 'Special Report: Responsible Business Education'.
Sharing a CS graduate experience in Korvaa – multidisciplinary collaboration in practice
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 Capstone 2019
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.
Urban Transitions and Futures 2019
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.
CS featured in PRiMEtime blog
CS featured in PRiMEtime blog
SGT Studio 2019
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.
How to Change the World: Innovating toward 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.
Alumna Anna Pakkala: I wish that even more young people would see entrepreneurship as a considerable career path
Anna Pakkala was the 2018 Head of Sustainability at Slush. At the moment, Pakkala is working as a Brand Manager at Compensate (2020).
Participatory Methods and Facilitation Skills 2018
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.
Sustainability in Business 2018
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 Teamwork 2018
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 Kick-Off Day 2018
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.