FINWAY is an initiative to bring together designers and business decision makers with the goal to create innovative solutions for a sustainable business. It is a community of influencers who share a common belief: the road to a sustainable future is best achieved through design – and that road runs through Finland.
In June, a group of top level European business and design professionals gathered in Helsinki to talk about achieving sustainability through design-lead business. While enjoying fresh air in the National Park in Nuuksio and the sea breeze in the Helsinki archipelago, the group worked together to come up with concrete solutions. FINWAY was born.
FINWAY is the brainchild of Frédéric Jentgen, CEO of Raison Pure 100, one of Europe’s top design agencies, Frédéric visited Finland several times and was always impressed by the nature, people and passion for design that he encountered. He realized that Finland had uniqueness and was convinced that by bringing the right professionals to Finland, new solutions for a sustainable future would be found. In Finland, FINWAY is lead by Design Forum Finland and supported by Greater Helsinki Promotion.
Sustainable design is not just about designing your (recycled) cup of tea
“Design is becoming the guiding principle for opening our minds and imagining the new equations in a world which has become complex”, Mr. Jentgen states. The idea is easy adopt, once realizing that design as seen today and in the context of business goes beyond designing beautiful products or easy to use services. Design 3.0 goes even beyond product and service design towards organizational transformation design. It requires cross-discipline teamwork; it is about combining art, technology and business intelligence to create innovative solutions for a sustainable world.
“The reason for GHP being involved in this project is obviously that in the end FINWAY is about design business”, says Micah Gland, Business Development Director of Greater Helsinki Promotion. “There is a lot of potential in the Design & Creativity business ecosystem and combining sustainability and design is one of the strengths of Helsinki and Finland in this ecosystem. The success of FINWAY is one example that shows how Finland – and Helsinki – are really in the centre of design-driven business for sustainability.”
The event was proven to be a success
During the three days in Helsinki, participants shared experiences, learned from each other and brainstormed together.
The participants were extremely pleased with the experience and share a strong will to continue collaboration. They agreed that the topic of combining design and business for a sustainable world is of extreme importance and that the discussion should continue.
“I think we merely touched the surface. We are now expecting a follow up with the same teams in order to establish stronger business relationship and exchange in a more applicable degree. It was definitely a great start.” concludes one of the participants.
For more information on, please visit
http://FINWAY.fr/ | http://www.worlddesigncapital.com/
or contact Ms. Hanna Punnonen (+358 9 6220 8116, hanna.punnonen@designforum.fi) at Design Forum Finland
See also an article about the event in Helsinki Times
