The sustainability change theory

People's concern about the future of our planet is growing. Sustainable life choices, business practices, and purchasing decisions are easy and efficient ways to make an impact. In most cases, the deployment of products or solutions supporting sustainable development is neither more difficult nor less productive than the old, unsustainable alternatives.

We believe that companies will have the leading role in promoting sustainable values and practices in society, however, this sustainability must be rooted in genuinely effective actions.

In collaboration with leading sustainability experts and professionals, we ensure that all of our actions - whether in sustainability design, product development, category management, communications, media production or marketing - are based on researched data.

Sustainable consumption will change the future

57% of people are willing to change their purchasing behavior to reduce negative impact on the environment and 77% find sustainability important.

*BM Institute for Business Value & National Retail Federation, 2020, N= 18,980 consumers in 28 countries

When people have the ability and tools to lead a sustainable lifestyle and buy sustainably…

… and companies that have proved to act responsibly and produce sustainably win in the market…

...our planet will be able to sustain the consumption of 10 billion people.

August 2018

Infine is founded

The decision to start the company is made in August 2018 and Infine starts to build at a record pace. In the founding phase, a lot of time is spent defining and developing the ethos and impact goals; the issue is approached through several different business logics and with multiple clients.

August 2019

400 000 € / 12 months

In the first 12 months a turnover of almost half a million euros in achieved, and keeping that as an indicator, we continue moving towards the development of a platform based on sustainability, efficiency and sustainable solutions.

September 2019

Vastuullisuus&shypaneeli kutsutaan koolle

The Sustainability Panel is a group of leading Finnish experts who curate the products and services presented on the Ostavastuullisesti.fi. -website. All members of the Sustainability Panel are long-term experts in various areas of sustainable production and consumption.

Read more about the Sustainability Panel members >

January 2020

Building the product data model begins

Building the data model for product information from a sustainability perspective begins. Taking a life-cycle approach as a starting point, product sustainability is considered holistically across 9 dimensions: climate, environment, water, biodiversity, circular economy, decent work, human rights, sustainable consumption and good business ethics. The assessment of product sustainability is based on the thinking and curation decisions of the Sustainability Panel.

April 2020

The rising of sustainability and effectiveness trends

Sustainability and effectiveness are becoming increasingly important throughout society. In the areas of social and environmental responsibility, comprehensible results are needed to maintain people’s ability to function. The COVID-19 pandemic changes consumer behavior and working habits, as well as highlights the importance of e.g. domestic and local production. We develop our sustainability design thinking and our network of experts to create positive change and give people the tools for making an impact.

November 2020

The Ostavastuullisesti.fi is website is opened

We launch a website focusing on sustainable consumption, providing consumers with a range of sustainable products and services as well as information to support their sustainable lifestyle and everyday purchasing decisions. The website brings together people who want to live more sustainably and companies providing sustainably produced products and services. The main reason behind the webpage is that we are developing sustainability evaluation for products – and we want to do that automated with technology. All the products that are on the website are evaluated.

Explore the Ostavastuullisesti.fi website >

May 2021

258 000 PAGE VIEWS IN 6 MONTHS 100 COMPANIES ONBOARD
In 6 months

During the first 6 months, Ostavastuullisesti.fi reaches over a quarter of a million page views and almost 40,000 individual users. About 15% of all views are returning visitors, and users browse an average of 5 pages upon visiting the website.The data models start to form and we are slowly starting to guide our internal development on textiles, food and groceries. We also start to sell just product evaluations without the webpage.

February 2022

Finland's most sustainable product competition launched

We launch the Finland's Most Sustainable Product competition, focusing on sustainable products and services. The winner of the competition is selected by an independent Sustainability Panel from among the products and services curated for the Ostavastuullisesti.fi website. JCDecaux is a partner in the competition, providing the winners with nationwide digital outdoor advertising visibility.

August 2023

Already 500 products evaluated

In cooperation with the Sustainability Panel, 500 products from food to clothing, household goods and services have already been assessed using the Product Sustainability Data Model. The analyses have been hand-crafted and used to model product sustainability.

Extensive cooperation

We’ve had the privilege of working with a variety of different actors along the way. Our partners include Sitra, the Central Chamber of Commerce, Aalto University’s FINIX project, the Finnish Textile and Fashion Agency, The Finnish National Agency for Education, The UN Association of Finland, JCDecaux, Perho Culinary, Tourism & Business College, The Martha Organization and The Planet Company. We are learning from them and we are putting in the practise their thinking on sustainability on a product level.

towards a sustainable life

We are developing a scalable model to identify sustainability of products and services. We provide sustainability reports for company’s products and action points on how to improve both marketing and product management. We are able to do the evaluations from the existing product data.

The Sustainability Panel

Our independent Sustainability Panel of leading experts curate the products arriving to the Ostavastuullisesti.fi -portal.
Curation is a lean and quick assessment of a product's or service's sustainability features, as well as the position of this being a more sustainable choice compared to other products on the market serving the same customer need. During this process, the Sustainability Panel focuses on the following factors: combating climate change, reducing environmental footprint, respecting human- and workers' rights, adhering to good business ethics, and domestic or local production. The evaluations are based on information given by the company and information from public sources

Minna Halme (D.Sc. Econ. & Bus. Adm. , Professor) is a Professor of Leadership studies at Aalto University School of Economics and Head of the Aalto Sustainability Hub. She has worked in impact business since 1990 in Finland, International Institute for Environmental Economics at Lund University, Sweden and at Georgetown University in the United States. Her research interests include responsible business, business innovation that promotes ecological and social sustainability, and the social impact of corporate responsibility. Halme is the chair of the panel.

Jyri Seppälä (Ph.D., Professor) is the Director at SYKE's Center for Consumption and Production and Member of the National Climate Panel. He has done his scientific work on different life cycle assessments of various products and services alongside leading various climate and sustainability reviews of the production and consumption sectors. He has carried out numerous large-scale projects, participating in various legislative or executive working groups and providing the necessary background material. He is also the responsible director of the HINKU (Towards a Carbon Neutral Municipality) project and a member of the National Climate Panel.

Mikko Mönkkönen (PhD, professor) is a Professor of Applied Ecology and a dean of the faculty of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Jyväskylä. He’s special interest and research area is sustainable use of natural resources. Mönkkönen also leads the international multidisciplinary research team Boreal Ecosystems Research Group (BERG), that aims to identify the ecological, economic and functional values of the landscape for better planning and decision-making.

Antti Majava (MA, Ph.D. candidate) works at the BIOS Research Unit on the Impact of Environmental and Resource Crises and is preparing a doctoral dissertation in the Doctoral Program in Multidisciplinary Environmental Research at the University of Helsinki. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2008 and is one of the founding members of the Mustarinda Society, addressing ecological issues and combining them with scientific and artistic perspectives. Majava has worked as an expert in the energy and forest sectors for over 15 years. His particular interests are the building of new relationships with nature, the preservation of forest biodiversity, experimental forms of energy and the cultural change towards a post-consumer society.

Markus Terho (M.Sc. Tech.) has been working in leadership roles in the field of sustainable development for decades. As the leader of Sitra's Resource Wise Citizen project, he encourages Finns to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. He also helps companies that develop sustainable products on the B2C market to grow through various experiments. Terho holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering.

The sustainability change theory