In Finland, the state promotes sustainable urban planning and development in several ways, for example, through legislation, national land use guidelines and agreements. However, it also does so by initiating and supporting initiatives or programmes connected to sustainable urban planning and sustainable urban development, such as the Sustainable City programme (Kestävä kaupunki) (Ministry of the Environment 2021a). The Sustainable City programme is coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment. It is a partnership-based programme with the most important cooperation partners being Finnish municipalities and cities. Other cooperation partners are companies, city networks, research organisations and other ministries. A steering group appointed to the programme guides the programme, supports its implementation and contributes to communicating the results (Sustainable City n.d.a; Interviewee 1). The Sustainable City programme was chosen as the Finnish case study, representing a national support initiative originating at state level to promote sustainable urban planning in Finnish municipalities and cities according to a partnership-based approach. This case study was conducted through desk research and semi-structured interviews with a representative from the coordination team of the Sustainable City programme and representatives from the City of Hämeenlinna and the City of Jyväskylä, both of which participated in the programme.

The programme is underpinned by and aims to contribute to implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030), the goals of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the Urban Agenda of the EU in Finland. As part of the Agenda 2030 implementation plan, Finland established a national action plan for sustainable urban development; the Sustainable City programme. The objective of the programme is to accelerate the sustainable development of cities in Finland. The main themes are carbon reduction, smart solutions, social sustainability and healthy living environments, with the programme seeking new solutions, especially to questions that cut across those topics (Ministry of the Environment 2023). The Sustainable City programme aims to develop new solutions for sustainable urban development in practice, solve common sustainability challenges faced by municipalities, strengthen municipal sustainability management and scale up good practices to spread the tested solutions. The primary outcomes include both practical solutions for sustainable urban development and incorporation of sustainability aspects into the cities’ plans, strategies and operational processes (Interviewee 1).

In recent years, the Finnish government has launched several funding/support programmes to steer Finnish municipalities and cities on the path towards green and socially inclusive urban development (Huynh et al. 2022). The Sustainable City programme is one of these programmes. As mentioned above, funding is one of the forms of support that a municipality or city can apply for. The Sustainable City programme funds experiments and pilots related to sustainable urban development. The calls, which are announced and run through the Ministry of the Environment, are always open to municipalities and cities, while associations and companies working in partnership with municipalities and cities are also eligible to apply in some cases. An application with necessary information about the planned project is required to be submitted and reviewed for acceptance as a Sustainable City project. A maximum of 60 percent of the pilot is funded by the Ministry of the Environment, while the project implementer needs to cover at least 40 percent of the costs. Furthermore, the programme also provides non-monetary support to pilot projects in the form of knowledge and guidance, for example (Ministry of the Environment 2021a; Interviewee 1).

The Sustainable City programme gave consideration to the design of the application process. The representative from the City of Hämeenlinna and the City of Jyväskylä said they felt that the Ministry of the Environment had endeavoured to make the application documents simple to complete for this programme, making it easier for applicants less skilled in project writing to start the application process and start applying for funding, thereby enabling smaller and more inexperienced cities and municipalities to participate (Interviewee 2 & 3).

However, in general, finding and utilising funding or other forms of state support can be challenging for some municipalities and cities. Some municipalities/cities tend to be better at both finding and writing applications than others. That is not directly connected to the size of the municipality, but often has to do with previous experience. In addition, resources to find such support opportunities may be lacking in smaller cities or municipalities. The representative from the programme coordination team explained that as follows: “In small or medium-sized municipalities they may not have enough resources to apply for funding. There's also another kind of risk that sometimes, if municipalities don't have much experience in applying for funding, it may be difficult to formulate the project to meet the expectations and criteria of the application round – even if the idea is very good" (Interviewee 1). Similarly, the representative from Hämeenlinna stated that “The idea for applying with a project to a programme or initiative often comes when the support initiative is announced. Even if there are people that are quite good at finding and writing applications, these projects need to be run through all the decision-making levels within the municipality. If there's a municipality that is not so experienced in these decision-processes, then it can be too slow to make those decisions to be able to apply. More time and more explanations are needed for some municipalities” (Interviewee 2).

Both the Finnish national agencies and municipalities are aware of that imbalance and some potential solutions are being explored. One solution that is being tried is to organise information sessions during such open calls to increase applicants’ knowledge of how to write good applications and how to plan good projects. Another potential solution is to require the applicants to have cooperation partners. It might help if an application needs to go through various channels and actors before it is submitted. If an applicant lacks experience on how to write applications, such cooperation partners might be able to guide the work if they have greater experience (Interviewee 1).

The Sustainable City programme is one of the tools of the Government’s urban policy, with one key element being deepened partnership between cities and the state. The programme thus responds to the need to further increase and strengthen cooperation and partnership between municipalities, cities and the central government. The partnership-based approach refers to an arrangement where cities, communities and state actors, together with civil society, academia and the business sector, join forces to develop solutions to the multifaceted challenges of sustainable development (Ministry of the Environment 2021a). “Cities and municipalities in Finland have expressed a need for government support in their sustainability work and urban development work also before this programme. But during the programme too, it has been very important for them that government, cities and municipalities are cooperating. This is a partnership-based approach, which refers to a way to cooperate so that it's as equal as possible. We are not steering cities to do something, but rather we are also asking what they need and what is important for them” (Interviewee 1).

Within the Sustainable City programme, the participants (e.g. cities, municipalities and other actors involved) could influence the direction of the programme to some extent by communicating what they needed, what worked well in the programme and what could be improved. During an interim evaluation in 2021, the larger municipalities and cities in the programme said that the programme could be developed to suit better the challenges they faced, which are somewhat different to those of small to medium-sized municipalities. Other participants pointed out that more attention should be given to the economic benefits gained by developing sustainability and that more help with disseminating the results was needed (Owal Group 2021). After the midway evaluation, the steering group worked to develop the programme to serve the needs of municipalities and cities of different sizes better and put stronger focus on impact and communication (Ministry of the Environment 2021b). Hence, launching such government programmes and conducting a midway evaluation to capture the changing needs of cities and municipalities sends out a positive message to the Finnish municipalities and cities that the government wants to cooperate on sustainable urban development work (Interviewee 2). The programme is state-initiated but aims to strengthen and create more forms of horizontal instead of vertical cooperation. “We are all doing it together in the government, in cities and municipalities. I like to think of it as a kind of snowball effect, it creates something more than what it is in itself” (Interviewee 1).

Programmes and initiatives, such as the Sustainable City programme, provide a direct channel between sustainable urban development stakeholders. The idea is to create an arena where agencies, ministries, municipalities, cities, organisations and the private sector can gather to discuss their perspectives, challenges and needs (Ministry of the Environment 2021b). The representative from the City of Hämeenlinna noted that “in programmes like these, there are actually people connecting with people. This enables communication between the state and us” (Interviewee 2). In addition, the “Virtual Block” (Virtuaalikortteli), a project launched under the Sustainable City programme, aims to create communication channels between sustainable urban development stakeholders. It is an online networking and collaboration platform, open to municipalities, cities and other actors interested in sustainable urban development. It is a virtual platform for information exchange, networking, interaction and problem solving among the wider sustainable urban development community (Sustainable City n.d.c.). The Virtual Block is considered an important digital platform for supporting achievement of the programme's objectives in a cross-governmental and collaborative manner. However, there is a wish to see its use further expanded and developed (Owal Group 2021).

In Finland, as in the other Nordic countries, spatial planning and sustainable urban development mainly take place at the municipal level. However, those national support initiatives enable the state to influence municipalities and encourage them to work on sustainable urban development (Huynh et al. 2022). The main objectives of the Sustainable City programme are to achieve low-carbon, smart, healthy and socially sustainable cities through a close partnership between the state and the municipalities at both the level of practical urban development and strategic management. (Ministry of the Environment 2021). The programme’s pilot projects/experiments are more focused on devising solutions to practical urban development challenges, whereas the development projects and cooperation systems focus more on how to work on sustainable urban development at a strategic management level (Interviewees 1 & 3). Organisation and leadership of implementation of the Sustainable City programme differs somewhat from the normal organisational form taken by governmental work. The programme structure allows for more flexibility and possibilities to work in a different way, for example by cooperating closely with municipalities and cities on the structure and direction of the programme (Owal Group 2021).

One objective of the programme was for the participating municipalities and cities to receive a range of support, tools and guidance so that they themselves can catalyse sustainable changes. Besides financial support, help is provided in the form of expert and peer coaching, joint projects, visibility and networking opportunities for exchange of experiences (Sustainable City n.d.d). Some projects focused solely on how the cities/municipalities themselves can work (Sustainable City 2022), while other projects in the programme also provided training for leaders of municipalities/cities on how to lead in a sustainable manner (Interviewee 2). “We are focusing on how to support cities’ own work towards sustainable urban development but also trying to find new tools for cooperation between the government and the cities” (Interviewee 1). Even though the projects in the programme often had a rather short time span and limited budget, the method of the programme was described as positive: “It's been quite a flexible programme, which is good because then you can mould it to suit different kinds and sizes of cities, their challenges and different kind of projects, and for piloting new things” (Interviewee 3).

Several projects in the Sustainable City programme are pilot projects/experiments that involve testing new practical solutions for sustainable urban development, which can directly affect urban planning for green spaces. Other projects aim to influence urban planning (Ministry of the Environment 2023). The representative from the programme coordination team stated that: “Things won't actually change in cities’ urban structure in just a few years. It will be more about how to fix the process, how to improve knowledge and capabilities and to make some changes relating to cooperation practices. After that it can become a more permanent practice.” (Interviewee 1). Similar ideas were expressed by the representative from Hämeenlinna, who commented: “I think what was funded through this programme particularly is not necessarily about changes in urban planning, but more in the value structure. The aim is to make the urban planning mindset more geared towards sustainability. That means considering all the various dimensions of sustainability. Then, building on that towards more actual urban planning, even if it’s done slowly” (Interviewee 2). Furthermore, projects that were launched on the basis of the Sustainable City programme can act as a starting point and be used to lay the foundation for future work and bigger urban development plans (Interviewee 3). Results of the midway evaluation showed that the programme has strengthened understanding of the cross-cutting nature of sustainable cities, as can be seen from the planning and strategies of the municipalities (Owal Group 2021). 

The Sustainable City programme originated from the need to focus on urban sustainability issues in Finland (Ministry of the Environment 2021a). The programme ends in December 2023. However, the cities and municipalities, ministries and other participating partners showed interest in continuing the work of the Sustainable City programme in some form. Despite the end of the programme, work on sustainable cities and communities will continue both in the ministries and in cities and municipalities (Interviewee 1). Herein also lies the challenge of urban policy. Its status varies depending on the government in power, funding and resources, and the coordination of sectoral policies. The level of state support, the type of national support initiatives launched and the focus and share of the budget they are assigned in governmental programmes can thus vary from one parliamentary term to another (Ministry of the Environment 2021a). That can be a challenge for cities and municipalities, given that urban development and planning is often a slow process. For it to get started, it needs to pass through many decision levels. Urban planning changes also need to be accepted in the local communities before they can be implemented (Interviewees 2 & 3). Working on sustainable development can thus be challenging for the municipal leadership, which is why efforts to promote sustainable development would benefit from being more long-term, cross-administrative and policy-coherent (Ministry of the Environment 2021a). 

One key objective of the Sustainable City programme is to increase cooperation between the government and municipalities/cities and to support the latter’s own work on sustainable urban development (Ministry of the Environment 2021b). The aim of the programme is for urban development to be more compatible with environmental, social and economic sustainability in the future, incorporating all three dimensions simultaneously in a comprehensive manner (Sustainable City n.d.d; Interviewee 1). However, cities and municipalities need more state support for work on sustainable urban development. “More networking is always positive, so we can learn from one another and put someone else’s experience and ideas to good use, as well as develop them. But it also comes down to money; if you don’t get the money, it’s always harder to get the project started” (Interviewee 3). Moreover, the challenges are broad and varied, requiring support in various forms and spanning longer time frames. “We need all kinds of support, we need funding, guidance, legislation, more programmes. For urban planning, a long-term mindset among politicians, both locally and at the national level, and longer time frames are needed so that we in the cities can feel secure that we have the support to work on sustainable development issues” (Interviewee 2).

The Sustainable City programme is a national support initiative that promotes sustainable urban development in Finnish cities and municipalities. The programme is a key tool for implementing sustainable urban policy from the state level downwards. The main themes are low-carbon, smart, socially sustainable and healthy cities. It is a five-year-programme that provides support in three main forms. The first is through funding pilot projects/experiments that test solutions for urban development and planning in practice. The second focuses more on support and solutions for incorporating sustainable development into strategic management, while the last builds on creating cooperation systems, with a focus on larger sustainability issues and challenge clusters. What the three types of action have in common is that they all focus on supporting and strengthening cities and municipalities’ own work with sustainable urban development. Results of evaluations and discussions have shown that the programme has provided multifaceted opportunities to the participants and given them more knowledge, networks and experiences for addressing sustainable urban development issues, in a practical, strategic and inspirational way.

The Sustainable City programme tested a new way of working. One objective of the programme was to find new tools for cooperation between the government and Finnish cities and municipalities. That was done by structuring the programme into a partnership-based cooperation between cities, municipalities and the government. That created a new form of cooperation on sustainable urban development. It was new in the sense that it combined different views and sustainability topics, as well as in its form of practical cooperation between the government and cities and municipalities. It also used a more flexible working model, allowing it to evolve following evaluation of what worked well and what could be improved.

The opportunities to promote and support sustainable urban development have improved in Finland, with increased and stronger informal and formal cooperation between the state, municipalities and cities. However, there are still some challenges to be met. Sustainable urban development and planning can be a slow process and the municipalities need assurance that they have enough support to work on such questions long-term. The challenges of sustainable urban policy lie in the rather unclear time frame, as the situation may change with every parliamentary election. The number of national support initiatives, their focus and the forms and level of state support may therefore change during the time that municipalities and cities are working on such questions.