Browsing by Subject "Sustainable living"

Sustainable living, housing, and urbanization are essential themes in Finland and globally. The aim of this study is to determine what is sustainable living in Finland at present and what will it look like towards 2030. The sustainable living concept is evaluated from the perspective of the usage of wood and forest resources in housing in Finland at present and towards 2030 by employing Living Lab approach in data gathering. Living Lab methodology is a relatively new way to collect data and it has not been utilized earlier in the context of wood building and lifestyles. Due to that, the second object of the study is to examine how the Living Lab method works as a data collection instrument and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this method. As a methodological approach of this study, qualitative focus groups discussions were implemented and the data gathering was made two times on sequential years. First time in November-December 2015 and the second time in November-December 2016. According to the results, at present, there are conflicting characteristics in implementing human centered, social centered and nature centered values in life, which towards 2030 may be less controversial as a result of new solutions in infrastructures and wood-based innovations. Fulfillment of sustainable living concept may provide new avenues for innovations and improve quality of life. One interesting detail in the results is that in the discussions concerning sustainable living 2030, rural living gained almost no attention. However, the results of the research show that most important themes of sustainable living in Finland towards 2030 were sustainable construction, renewable energy, urban planning, food cultivation, education, and transportation.