Through this video capsule, Prof. Eeva Furman dives us into evidence-based governmental action for sustainable development, from her perspective as Secretary-General for Finland’s Commission on Sustainable Development and her experience as expert in the intersection between science policy and society.
No section of society can alone build a sustainable natural and social environment, states Prof. Furman, “We are all needed and for this we need a common mission, a goal to which stride for.” This goal is a sustainable positive future and wellbeing to be achieved through transformation bringing systems approach to the sustainability efforts.
Furman underlines the role of governments as key to revise policies and set new strategies accompanied by science-based discussions on alternative futures and paths for achievement. Sustainability transformation is a process requiring coordinated action and demanding new types of thinking, learning and placing knowledge at the service of society. All in all, Higher Education Institutions are called to reinvent their action for a sustainable future.
Prof. Furman has been appointed Secretary-General of the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development in August 2022. Previously, she was Director of the Environment Policy Centre of the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. She had also served as Chair of Finland’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Development, an independent group of scientists who wrote the UN’s Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.