Community‑Driven Sustainable Solutions Explored at the Kemiönsaari Living Lab
Altogether 24 participants spent an inspiring and collaborative weekend at KUBU (Björkboda Kulturhus), a former village school now operating as an art and cultural centre. Together with the Xamk‑managed GreenCCircle Academy, KUBU provided a platform where people and ideas met around a shared sustainability theme.
Friday brought together invited professionals, while Saturday was open to the general public. Content developed within the GreenCCircle Academy was tested in practice through joint workshops, allowing participants to further develop ideas collaboratively.
The central theme of the weekend was the role of the creative sectors in addressing environmental challenges related to Baltic Sea catchment areas. Workshops explored how creative industries can help reduce environmental impacts and support nutrient load management. The archipelago areas of Kemiönsaari, Turku, and Salo offered a natural and timely context, as the region both experiences the effects of eutrophication and hosts numerous environmental actors.
Participants represented creative professionals, small entrepreneurs, and education and research organisations, including Aalto University and the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as actors from the Archipelago Sea UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and entrepreneurs specializing in mycelium cultivation. Xamk participants joined from Kouvola and Kotka, where catchment‑area issues are also highly relevant.
The workshop process produced concrete solution concepts and identified potential paths for further development, such as projects or network‑based collaborations. Networking emerged as one of the most significant outcomes of the event.
Saturday featured practical workshops on topics such as mycelium cultivation and the use of willow in soil improvement and environmental construction, with a focus on willow’s ability to bind nutrients from catchment areas. Participants were also introduced to the GreenCCircle HUB as a tool for global visibility and international networking.
The weekend concluded with an ice carousel —a large rotating circle cut into sea ice—symbolizing the shared commitment to concrete action for the Baltic Sea and the environment.
The Kemiönsaari GreenCCircle Living Lab demonstrates how creative sectors can bridge science, practice, and communities, how a local cultural organisation can operate as a Living Lab platform, and how sustainability challenges can be addressed in a professional, experimental, and community‑driven way. The event highlighted that the GreenCCircle Living Lab is not only a method, but also a way to build trust, networks, and long‑term collaboration for sustainability.
GreenCCircleis an EU‑funded project, supporting the green transition of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) by developing a comprehensive support model. The project identifies skill gaps, strengthens sustainability competences through training, and builds a multi‑stakeholder collaboration ecosystem across nine countries. Xamk acts as an educational expert in the project, leading work focused on closing skill gaps in the CCI sector and promoting sustainable operating models.
Also check out these articles
How to Combine Adult Studies with Everyday Life
Learning Business by Doing: How Digital International Business at Xamk Prepares Students for Real-World Challenges
