The Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme aims to create social, health, and rescue services that strengthen sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing of the planet and people.
The Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme is a public authority providing health, social, and rescue services in the Päijät-Häme region. The strategy of the county defines sustainable development as socially, ecologically, and financially responsible services for citizens and employees.
The aim of the sustainable and environmentally friendly health, social, and rescue services is to reach carbon neutrality by 2035 based on the national law.
The goal is to create social, health, and rescue services that strengthen sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing of the planet and people. Sustainable and smart use of natural resources indicates better balance between nature, environment, and people.
The Responsibility and Sustainability programme 2026-2029 of the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme was established to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly service production and to achieve carbon neutrality in the county by 2035.
This goal entails reduction of carbon emissions in transport, mobility, and logistics, while moving towards carbon neutral energy sources in the county. Furthermore, work needs to be done to reduce food waste, while promoting planetary based diets according to the national nutrition recommendations.
In the county, measures have been taken to decrease medical waste and upcycle furniture, equipment, packaging materials, and other materials. Measures to enhance biodiversity will be realised, for example in the green areas of supported housing services for older persons and people with disabilities.
The efforts for environmental sustainability of the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme was awarded with the EcoCompass environmental certification on December 16, 2024. The EcoCompass environmental management system, based on the international ISO14001 standard, is owned by the Finnish Association of Nature Conservation. The environmental certificate is an important achievement for the county in verifying the implementation of environmental efforts.
Picture: Roine Piirainen
The realisation of sustainable development principles is promoted in the everyday work conducted in the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme. Furthermore, the sustainability goals are advanced through project work in collaboration with partners.
The focus is particularly on sustainable development goals SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 3 (Good health and well-being), SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals).
The goal to create social, health, and rescue services that strengthen sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing is implemented through the Responsibility and Sustainability programme and the Nature Step to Health Programme 2022–2032.
Nature Step to Health is a 10-year Lahti Regional Health and Environment Programme. The programme coordinated by the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme and realised in cooperation with the city of Lahti and Lahti University Consortium. The programme combines the health and environmental goals of the Päijät-Häme region.
Kestävän kehityksen päällikkö
Here you can read more about the projects of the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme related to sustainable development.
You can familiarise yourself with the development projects of the Nature Step to Health programme in the programme website.
Riitta-Maija Hämäläinen, Head of Sustainable Development, riitta-maija.hamalainen(a)paijatha.fi
Anni Toivanen, project planner, Caring Nature project, anni.toivanen(a)paijatha.fi
Professor Helinä Melkas, LUT University, helina.melkas(a)lut.fi
Healthcare sector is responsible for 6,5 % of the total Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in hospitals and in other healthcare entities. In Finland social and health services are responsible for 6.5% of the total GHG of which social services cover 2.3 % and health services 4.2 %. If no action is taken, the projected annual GHG emissions of the healthcare sector will dramatically increase by 2050. Therefore, health and care providers should pay more attention to the operational costs and energy saving without risking safety of the patient care.
Caring Nature (Climate Neutral Initiatives for Growing Health and Care Unmet Initiatives) is a three year project, which aims to validate a set of ten results to reduce environmental impact of building, waste, and patient travel and to increase governance capability and staff engagement to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Greener health and care systems can be obtained only if the solutions are environmentally effective, economically affordable and acceptable by patients, workers, and citizens. The objectives are to increase the governance capability of the health care providers, policy makers and investors for green transformation, to reduce the environmental impacts of construction and energy consumption of buildings with Artificial Intelligence-based software, to reduce the medical, food and water waste, to reduce the environmental impact of patient travel with telemedicine and to obtain staff engagement in the green transition.
The Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme will play the role of pilot testing, validator and end user in co-operation with five international social and health care services organizations, five in-novative companies, one standardization institute, two construction companies and five universities including LUT University (Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology). LUT University oversees the development of the ENGAGE : Participatory Staff Engagement Model solution. In the pilot project the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme will co-develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for evaluating the environmental, social and economic return of investments and a reporting model (Knowledge Sharing System=KSS) compliant with EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis method (LCA, LCC, S-LCA).
Riitta-Maija Hämäläinen, Head of Sustainable Development, riitta-maija.hamalainen(a)paijatha.fi
Taru Pietilä, project planner, taru.pietila(a)paijatha.fi
GoGreenNext will deliver a comprehensive evidence-based policy-oriented approach and model to communicate how ecosystem wellbeing and human health are connected. The risks of climate change are currently predicted to escalate beyond planetary boundaries and pass critical tipping points with irreversible changes to our climate with commensurate negative impacts on health, ecosystems, and land-scapes. Nature-based solutions (NBS) and actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems have emerged to reverse the degradation of nature, notably in urban areas where changes are amplified. Cities offer an opportunity to accelerate a just green transition in at-risk communities. GoGreenNext will address the biodiversity-climate-planetary health nexus, delivering positive policy and city/region pilot outcomes in four biogeographic regions across Europe and with input from best practice globally.
17 partners of cooperation. Maynooth University, Ireland leads the consortium. The Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme and the University of Helsinki are involved in the project.
1.6.2023-31.5.2025
Katja Ojala, project manager, City of Lahti
Taru Pietilä, project planner, taru.pietila(a)paijatha.fi
Systemic change towards sustainable commuting in Lahti (Sycla) project aims to promote sustainable commuting in the city of Lahti. Sustainable commuting refers to work trips that are made mainly by walking, cycling, or public transport. The transition from transport in private cars to more sustainable modes of transportation not only reduces the environmental impact of commuting, but also promotes the health and well-being of employees.
The sustainable commuting project maps and develops structures and practices that support the means for sustainable commuting together with partners, employers, and employees. In the project, co-creation with employees encourages sustainable commuting. In addition, the project supports the transition to more sustainable forms of transport through means of communication within organisations and in the Päijät-Häme region.
The goals of the sustainable commuting project include:
The project has received funding through NetZeroCities from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036519. The project is part of the “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030” EU mission.
The City of Lahti, the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme, LUT University, LAB University of Applied Sciences, companies and organisations located in the City of Lahti
Minna Aho, minna.aho(a)paijatha.fi
Riitta-Maija Hämäläinen, Sustainable Development, riitta-maija.hamalainen(a)paijatha.fi
In the project, five different ways of promoting the mobility of Päijät-Sote’s employees were tested:
In addition, the project used different means of communication to influence the change of behaviour and the transition to environmentally friendly modes of transportation in Päijät-Sote. User experiences and information were collected from those who participated in the experiment to support further planning in order to strengthen work well-being, recovery, promotion of movement and sustainable commuting. The project took place in 2022.
LAB University of Applied Sciences, LUT University, the City of Lahti, the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme, service providers
