Helsinki Awarded by Prestigious Place Marketing Award 2021

Think Sustainably digital service, launched by City of Helsinki, has won the prestigious Place Marketing Award 2021 in the category for Tourism. The award was presented at the Place Marketing Forum in Marseille, 16 September, 2021.

The winning innovation Think Sustainably digital service provides residents, visitors and business owners with practical tools to rethink their daily behavior and make more sustainable lifestyle and business decisions. The Think Sustainably service helps to choose more sustainable ways of living in Helsinki and enjoying the city, filtering content from the MyHelsinki.fi.

"We are extremely proud of receiving this award. Helsinki has a strong commitment to sustainable future and we believe that cities need to be at the forefront of combating climate crisis and implementing innovative policies. The awarded Think Sustainably digital service is a platform for action, both for consumers and service providers", says Anu Syrmä, Marketing Director of Helsinki Marketing.

The winning innovation Think Sustainably digital service provides residents, visitors and business owners with practical tools to rethink their daily behaviour and make more sustainable lifestyle and business decisions. The Think Sustainably service helps to choose more sustainable ways of living in Helsinki and enjoying the city, filtering content from the MyHelsinki.fi.

Services filtered through the online programme include restaurants, shops, events, experiences and accommodation, each benchmarked against tailor-made criteria developed by the City of Helsinki in collaboration with the independent think tank Demos Helsinki, local interest groups and sustainability experts. The service also includes a route planner feature that enables choosing emission-free transportation options to the wide variety of experiences on offer in the city.

"Helsinki is the perfect test-bed for solutions that can later be scaled-up for other cities. Operating like a city-scale laboratory, Helsinki is eager to experiment with policies and initiatives that would not be possible elsewhere. The City is able to effect change in this way because of its compact size, well-functioning infrastructure and well-developed knowledge-economy cluster", says Laura Aalto, CEO at Helsinki Marketing. "Helsinki is not finished developing its sustainable policies but is ready to make systematic efforts, both big and small, which work towards achieving a more sustainable world, we hope that others can also learn from our experiments", Anu Syrmä continues.