Towards a sustainable adult education centre

Helsingin aikuisopisto has taken a step towards sustainable practices. The first aim is to identify practices that need to change and then to create a plan for integrating sustainable practices into our everyday activities.

Ecosocial Bildung and transformative learning project

Venla Rainio, our Service and Administration Coordinator, and Katri Seppälä, school secretary at our Basic Education, took part in the Ecosocial Bildung and transformative learning (Ekososiaalinen sivistys ja uudistava oppiminen) project, organised by Vapaa Sivistystyö ry, Bildningsalliansen, the OKKA Foundation and Suomen Kansanopistoyhdistys ry. Funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education, the project focused on the concepts of ecosocial Bildung and transformative learning and presented strategic and pedagogical tools for developing the operating culture and leadership of educational institutions to meet the educational needs of the 2020s. One of the frameworks was the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Agenda 2030, whose goals were discussed during the contact teaching days in Tampere in 2019. The participating institutions carried out project work, which was presented to the project participants in webinars held on 1 October and 23 November 2020.

Our project work

The title of the Helsingin aikuisopisto project work was Towards a sustainable adult education centre – identifying practices that need to change and a proposed action plan for achieving the goals. The project was linked to our move in summer 2020. During the summer, the adult education centre and Basic Education moved from a 1960s office building on Töölöntullinkatu to a school building on Runeberginkatu 22–24, built in the 1920s and renovated in 2019–2020. During the move, we wanted to pay attention to ecology and create a plan for running the centre as sustainably as possible in the new premises. As part of the project, we set up a sustainable development working group, which has been meeting since autumn 2020.

During and after the move in 2020, we have taken the following sustainable development measures, among others:

A schedule has been drawn up for the OKKA Foundation certificate application process, and the first self-assessment was carried out in autumn 2020
A proposal has been prepared for communicating our responsibility programme
Our energy source is green electricity
MTB-Siivouspalvelu, which is committed to a sustainable environmental policy, has been chosen as our cleaning company
Waste recycling has been made more efficient in staff and student areas
Collection bins have been acquired for plastic and cardboard
Furniture left over after the move has been donated to those who need it
We have decided to add sustainable development as one of the selection criteria for all new purchases, for example Pelican Rouge coffee machines and mats and art and lab coats from Lindström.
Real-time HSL public transport timetables are shown on the information screen in the lower lobby
Staff have been encouraged to cycle by providing a locked and covered space for storing bikes
Preliminary planning has started on putting our yard to practical use

Ecosocial Bildung (in Finnish) Koulu ja ympäristö (in Finnish) Liberal adult education as a driver of change (in Finnish)

Photo: Noah Buscher, Unsplash