The sustainability transition requires that evidence-based knowledge and workable solutions are included already at the preparatory stage, when problems are defined and the means to address them are chosen. But what if sustainability work were not about adapting to regulation — but about influencing it?
Regulation Does Not Emerge in a Vacuum
Before a government programme is published, there is a long preparatory phase: problems are defined and decisions are made about which tools are worth using to tackle them. Once this framework is locked in, subsequent legislation and policy instruments begin to fall into place.
Sustainability work is still too often carried out reactively. Organisations sit and wait to see what regulation will bring, and then adjust accordingly. The focus remains on fulfilling obligations, ensuring correct reporting, and adapting operations to given boundaries — rather than actively participating, based on one’s own expertise, in defining the goals and the means.
For the sustainability transition to move forward, knowledge and solutions to accelerate it must be included already during preparation. Expert knowledge matters most at the point when decisions are made about which problems are considered worth solving — and how they should be addressed.
In the Preparatory Phase, Knowledge Is the Greatest Currency
Right now, preparatory tables are not only dealing with individual policy measures, but with the bigger picture: how Finland remains safe, prosperous, and capable in a world where geopolitical uncertainty is rising, planetary boundaries are being reached, and traditional economic models are being shaken.
The economy, security, climate, supply resilience, and people’s wellbeing are intertwined in ways where the impacts of one solution quickly ripple into others.
Simply appealing to sustainability is no longer enough. The fact that a solution reduces emissions or supports climate targets, biodiversity, or resource efficiency is not necessarily a sufficient argument on its own.
Decision-makers are primarily interested in comparable evidence about the impacts of proposed solutions:
What drives emissions down without costs spiralling out of control?
What strengthens societal trust and resilience?
And what creates conditions for long-term growth without new dependencies?
The answers to these questions do not emerge solely within party structures or the civil service. Information exists, but the bottleneck is often that research-based knowledge does not reach political preparation at the right time and in the right form.
Preparers are approached by many different actors, and not all messages are grounded in careful analysis or facts. That is why the ability to provide evidence-based solutions, compare alternatives, and explain impacts clearly is extremely valuable in decision-making.
Power and Responsibility Grow Hand in Hand
If research and the best expertise are not present in the preparatory phase, regulation and policy measures will inevitably be built on an incomplete knowledge base.
Influencing, therefore, is not only an opportunity — it is a responsibility for those actors who understand solutions and their impacts.
Influencing is a way to ensure that shared rules truly guide us toward effective, feasible, and sustainable outcomes.
In that sense, influencing is one of the most responsible acts in the run-up to elections.
Get in Touch!
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Mikko Kivenne
Public Affairs Communication Specialist, Kaskas
Elisa Seppänen
Strategic Communications Specialist, Kaskas