This morning, when I resurfaced from the underground metro station, there was snow floating in the air. Finally, a scene I miss so much in the Finnish winter.
The photo I took in Aalto Otaniemi campus on exactly the same day two year ago. A lot of white snow covered the whole campus. It’s so peaceful and beautiful.
Otaniemi campus was covered with snow in Feb 2019.
Global warming has changed the landscape in Helsinki severely this winter. In January, the temperature in Finland was 10 degrees more than regular. The temperature in Helsinki during the daytime in this winter barely drops under 0°C. There had only few snow in the past months and the snow on the ground hardly stayed overnight.
Three years ago, I moved to Finland to study the Master’s Program of Creative Sustainability cause I felt the urgency of climate change. Since then, I experienced the hottest summer ever in Finland, high temperature recorded over 30°C lasted almost a month. This year, Finland is going through the warmest winter in a century.
Climate crisis is everywhere in the world. For example, Australia went through the worst bushfire for months, which was followed by a terrible flood. Plague of locust hitting east Africa leads to a food scarcity. Inevitably, climate anxiety is a rising issue worldwide.
Aalto University is keen on building a green campus. I am glad that the university I chose to study sustainability actually takes actions in sustainable development. A lot of buildings install solar panel on the roof and use geothermal heat. Since 2012, the carbon emission in Aalto has dropped 40%. Väre, the building shown in the beginning of the vidoe, is the home of School of Arts, Design and Architecture, which achieves 90% self-sufficient in heating and cooling.
The urgency of finding solutions to fight climate change has grown stronger and stronger during my study. Aalto has many programs related to sustainable development, except for International Joint Master’s Program of Creative Sustainability (Master of Arts, Msc in Business, Msc in Technology), there are also Advanced Energy Solutions – Sustainable Energy Conversion Processes, Advanced Energy Solutions – Sustainable Energy Systems and Markets, Chemical, Biochemical and Materials Engineering – Sustainable Metals Processing, Environomical Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems (SELECT) (EIT InnoEnergy), Nordic Master in Innovative Sustainable Energy Engineering and more. Please search the study options on Aalto website.
Come study at Aalto, join us to build a more sustainable future together.
More about sustainability in Aalto:
A campus geared for sustainable development
Aalto Sustainability Hub
Sustainability at Aalto University
Hsiao-Pei Liao,
Master’s Program of Creative Sustainability