Free guide: sustainable event planning from Helsinki

Ranked the world’s most sustainable destination two years running (GDS Index), Helsinki now shares its learnings in a practical guide that helps event organisers turn environmental or social commitments into a sustainable meeting.

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Svante Gullichsen

Unto Rautio, Copyrighted

Business Events, Congress, Meet in Helsinki, Sustainability

Created

7 Apr 2026

| 3 min read

Heini Etsola has seen a lot of sustainability reports. As Senior Advisor, Congress & Meetings at Helsinki Convention Bureau, she knows what organisers are looking for. Ask her for a memorable sustainability moment and she doesn’t reach for a statistic. She tells you about a lunch.

A few years ago, a large international congress came to Helsinki. Its event manager had an idea: one day’s congress lunch would feature plant-based catering only. The board pushed back hard. International delegates were coming. There had to be meat. At least fish. What if no one touched the plant-based food?

The event manager held firm. The lunch happened. The food was good, the feedback was positive, and no one went hungry. Every edition of the congress has included a vegetarian day ever since – and they have the CO₂ numbers to prove it.

“It came from one person who wanted to do something,” Etsola says.

Concrete tips for sustainable meeting planning

Every year, congress organisers face the same gap: sustainability is on the agenda, in strategy documents, and in questions from boards and stakeholders – but translating it into the decisions of sustainable event planning is another matter entirely.

“You should actually do something concrete instead of just talking about how important sustainability is. You actually have to take action,” says Etsola.

That spirit is exactly what the Sustainable Meeting Guidelines is built on. This free, 20-page framework for sustainable event management is the proof. Developed in Helsinki, it can be used for planning events anywhere.

Sneak peek: Your sustainable event planning checklist

The guide covers six themes, from Travel & Transport all the way to Performance Documentation. Etsola is quick to point out what makes it different from the stack of sustainability reports many organisers have gathering dust.

“It’s really, really practical and easy to follow. You often see a lot of reports and things that are really complicated, written in a very scientific way, that are really overwhelming when you start reading. I think we managed to make it quite easy to understand,” Etsola says.

Each theme comes with concrete actions and ready-to-use checklists.

• Add meal tick boxes to cut waste from no-shows.
• Don’t print the event date on signage – reuse it next year.
• Open a lecture to the public.
• Invite local students.
• Donate leftover materials to a school.

The guide pushes organisers to think beyond the event itself – what does it leave behind? There’s even a link to a free carbon footprint calculator.

The final chapter is refreshingly honest – very Finnish, in other words – tackling transparent sustainability reporting head-on, with a nod to the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for measuring impact. Not every objective needs to be met. What matters is knowing why – and improving with subsequent events.

Why Helsinki for sustainable meetings

Helsinki, capital of the world’s happiest country for the ninth time, may also be one of the most sustainable congress destinations in Europe. Number one in the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index two years running. Carbon net-zero target of 2040 under the Helsinki Climate Action Plan. As one of Europe’s most compact congress cities, venues, hotels and the airport are within easy reach – on foot or by public transport.

Finlandia Hall, Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre Messukeskus and Helsinki Congress Paasitorni all carry ISO 14001 certification, and the city actively supports ISO 20121 event sustainability certification for organisers. Sustainability isn’t a campaign here. It’s just how things work – and it runs all the way down to the tap water, which is, for the record, among the finest in the world. Leave the plastic bottles at home.

“Sometimes we Helsinkians take it for granted. It’s just the way things are here,” Etsola says.

The guide was built with outside sustainability expertise alongside Helsinki’s own experience.

“We are not perfect and we don’t know everything. So it was also a learning process for us,” she says.

For organisers navigating ESG reporting for events, it’s a practical starting point rather than another document to file. Because behind every sustainability framework is someone who decided to do something.

Ready to write your own story? The guide is free and waiting.