LUT’s campus cities work ambitiously to promote sustainability and carbon neutrality. Clean nature and climate action are strategically important pull factors for both cities. Lappeenranta has established itself as Finland’s climate capital, and Lahti is a green city that emphasises a net positive impact. Both cities consider university students as an important stakeholder group whose message they want to hear.
LUT Business School planned its sustainability communication course in close collaboration with both cities. Students analysed the websites and social media contents of either Lahti or Lappeenranta on channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. The extremely popular course produced as many as 28 idea proposals for the cities.
“We were pleasantly surprised by how interested the municipal representatives were in our ideas. I think it’s great that the city wants to be in touch with its students – it’s a win–win situation. We’re curious to see how our ideas are implemented in Lappeenranta,” says Pyry Miettinen, fourth-year student at LUT Business School.
The city wants to connect with its students
Lappeenranta is currently planning a brand update, and the ideas from the course will be handled immediately and presented to the municipal communications team and management.
“It is feedback from an important stakeholder group. We received good proposals for developing the city’s strategy and brand. Students have worked hard on their course projects and presented many interesting ideas, such as utilising mobile or VR applications for sustainability communication,” says Siiri Viinikainen, marketing specialist for the City of Lappeenranta.
“We are especially interested in elements that engage the audience and in implementing them in collaboration with students. We could have an annual social media challenge, such as a sustainability problem to be solved on Instagram. This would be a great way to continue collaboration with students – instead of just welcoming new students to the city. We also plan to explore how to make our feedback service available in English.”
Students hope for more interaction
Students hope for more two-way exchange with the cities’ communications departments instead of one-sided distribution of information. This could be achieved by means such as interactive website functionalities, surveys, and live feeds. Rich content, such as videos, illustrations featuring nature, and active social media communication would attract followers to the cities’ communication channels.
“The students’ ideas support the direction into which we want to take our communications,” says Anu-Liisa Rönkä, head of communications for the City of Lahti.
“The means and channels of communication keep evolving, and it is important to keep up with the development and rethink our approaches. The students presented valuable views, and we also want to connect with them better than before. We will review the ideas and consider how the City of Lahti could apply them in its communications.”
Sustainability communication is important to the city’s image
In addition to their main websites, both campus cities have a special website for communication on sustainability issues. Lahti has Green Lahti and Lappeenranta has Greenreality. Users struggle to find the special website content and recognise it as part of municipal communications. Therefore, the cities would benefit from integrating those sites more closely with their main websites or presenting sustainability contents on the main website or social media.
The cities could accomplish much more if their sustainability messages reached young people better. Panu Moilanen, who is finishing his studies at LUT Business School, agrees:
“We haven’t heard much about Lahti’s municipal sustainability communication before this course. It came as a surprise that Lahti does pioneering sustainability work. Sustainability is important to young people and affects the image of the city. It could be a reason to move to Lahti in addition to its central location.”
Students are interested in sustainability communication
Students are increasingly interested in sustainability communication. Also LUT Business School’s new sustainability-focused Bachelor’s Programme in Sustainable International Business (SIB) drew hundreds of applicants.
Panu Moilanen finds the programme’s case study courses and assignments especially relevant, because they link theory to real-life situations. This increases the desire to learn and deepens understanding.
“Both parties benefit from the collaboration. Students can offer fresh knowledge and perspectives on sustainability communication and reporting. The cities receive new ideas and feedback on how their communications work and support a sustainability-focused strategy,” says Päivi Maijanen, associate professor in charge of the course.
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