Dean of the School of Business has selected the award winners of the Dean's Impact Award 2026

Timo Korkeamäki, Dean of the School of Business, will present three Dean's Impact Awards this year. The awards will go to Lari Kauranen, Anna Pitkäniemi and Gloria Vösu. All the award-winning students have promoted a sustainable future at Aalto and beyond, and their actions have reflected Aalto's values: responsibility, courage, and collaboration.

Lari Kauranen is a member of the Youth Agenda 2030 group, a youth expert group operating under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office. The group’s task is to strengthen young people’s participation in promoting sustainable development and the Agenda 2030 goals. Lari has actively participated, for example, in meetings and working groups of the Committee on Sustainable Development. He is also a deputy member of the Committee on Development Policy. In both committees, Lari has delivered expert presentations and acted as a liaison between young people and decision-makers. 

As a member of the youth expert group, Lari has also been involved in the SISU research project, whose main theme is sufficiency solutions and their untapped potential. The aim of the research project is to ensure that the green transition and the fundamental promises of the welfare state can be realised even in circumstances where the economy is not growing. 

Lari has also organised a panel discussion on the sufficiency economy together with young expert groups, attracting more than 200 attendees in total. The panel received a lot of praise for broadening the public discourse on the economy. 

Lari Kauranen has also engaged other young people by organising various workshops, actively communicating on sustainable development issues and taking part in the government’s assessment of efforts to promote sustainable development. For example, at the Nordic Baltic Youth Summit, he helped organise a workshop where young people sought solutions to youth unemployment. He has contributed to the evaluation of the Finnish Government’s activities by providing an expert opinion to the Parliament’s Committee for the Future.

Anna Pitkäniemi consistently demonstrates lasting commitment to promoting responsible and sustainable practices. Beyond her work for the Sustainability Action Booster, where she oversees funded student-led sustainability projects and promotes the Sustainability Action Booster during university events, she spends her free time volunteering in several sustainability-focused organizations, taking significant initiative and responsibility. 

As examples of her actions and roles, she is the co-chair of Aalto Sustainability Club. She facilitated the creation of Plant-Based Aalto after being the first Aalto student to attend the Nordic Plant-Based Universities Summer Camp in 2025. She's been a core, active member ever since, utilizing her education in design to create the organization's visual identity and numerous campaign materials. She repeatedly represents the organization during outreach, where she passionately and positively advocates for our goal to create a significant sustainable systemic change. 

Anna Pitkäniemi connects the international and Finnish-speaking sustainability communities by repeatedly attending sustainability-oriented events outside of Aalto community. These diverse experiences translate into nuanced knowledge, positioning her to continue her path also through professional roles in the future, and providing valuable contributions for international volunteers. This is visible through her role in organizing this year's upcoming BITE conference on sustainable food systems transformation, where she, among other things, proved invaluable in contributing to the conference's conception and realization. 

Gloria Vösu has shown exemplary action in advancing sustainability on Aalto campus and beyond. In her work within Aalto Sustainability Club (ASC), she has inspired and engaged her fellow students in sustainability actions. In 2025, ASC launched two spin-off sustainability initiatives where Gloria has been a valuable member of the core team. They are Moral Ambition Aalto and Plant-Based Aalto:

Moral Ambition Aalto (MAA) received funding from Sustainability Action Booster. The MAA Summit, which took place in May 2026, gathered 160 students and dozens of guest speakers from various fields in Maria 01 to discuss meaningful, morally ambitious careers and inspire each other. The MAA project team continues to operate and build community and connections within the university and among students that want to build sustainable futures.

Plant-Based Aalto (PBA) is a student-led initiative campaigning for better quality and quantity of plant-based food on the campus. The campaign, part of a broader international movement Plant-Based Campus, seeks to collaborate with students, the university and student restaurants to create sustainable choices the default to tackle climate change and food system transformation. PBA is an example of concrete sustainability action that demonstrates how consistent small efforts can contribute towards bigger long-term goals. 

Gloria’s humble, yet consistent leadership has enabled the initiative and students to grow and learn by doing, engaging students and staff across all six Aalto schools. The work is not done, but what has been accomplished (600+ signatures on a petition to Aalto, 30+ outreach sessions and events, collaborations with Aalto Food sharing and ASC, 20+ active members, launching another campaign in University of Helsinki) was made possible by Gloria’s contributions.

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All the proposals received by the deadline (7 October 2026) were good. Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal. The Dean's Impact Award winners have been invited to a small award ceremony to be held at the School of Business on Friday, 6 November 2026.

Warm congratulations to the award winners!