In early 2025, the Nessling Foundation’s Board welcomed two new members: Teppo Säkkinen and Kati Ihamäki. In this article we introduce Teppo Säkkinen, who brings to the Board expertise in the green transition, public decision-making, and the mediation of environmental conflicts.
Teppo Säkkinen, who are you and where do you come from?
I’m a social sciences graduate in my early thirties from Rovaniemi. I currently work as Lead Advisor on business and climate policy at the Finland Chamber of Commerce, where my work focuses on questions related to climate, energy and industry as well as the green transition in the business sector. I am also now a newly appointed member of the Nessling Foundation’s Board.
How would you describe your own background in relation to the themes important to the Nessling Foundation: the sustainability transformation and building an ecologically sustainable future?
I join the Board from three perspectives. First, through my work I bring the business sector’s view of how companies can help accelerate the sustainability transformation. I also take part in the UN climate negotiations as a business representative. Right now it is crucial that the corporate voice encourages countries to stay committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Second, I have experience from public decision-making: I have worked both at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, gaining experience in dealing with issues related to energy, climate and natural-resources.
My third angle is environmental conflict mediation. I wrote my master’s thesis on peace mediation and have accumulated extensive experience of situations where conflicting interests had to be reconciled in various disputes, such as those concerning wolves, salmon and Saimaa ringed seals. I have, for instance, collected samples of wolf droppings in North Karelia together with hunters and researchers from the Natural Resources Institute Finland. That is a good concrete example of how different parties can be involved in producing knowledge while simultaneously increasing trust in research.
You have strong experience of business life. How do you see the role of companies in speeding up the sustainability transformation?
Companies are pivotal through their investments, consumption and economic activity. A large share of decisions is made in companies’ everyday operations.
Corporate activity produces a great deal of good. It generates tax revenues that fund the basic pillars of our society, such as education and services. That is why it is crucial to ensure that corporate activity also follows an ecologically sustainable path. Corporate investments play a decisive role in achieving climate and environmental goals.
In reducing climate emissions, Nordic companies have often been front-runners, and this also presents many economic opportunities, for example in fossil-free steel and green hydrogen.
Looking at the broader sustainability transformation, topics such as the circular economy and regenerative business models, for instance in forest management, are also interesting from a business perspective.
How do you see the role of foundations, especially the Nessling Foundation, in supporting the sustainability transformation?
Foundations can complement public research funding and take risks in supporting new initiatives, which makes their role highly significant.
In the Nessling Foundation’s background, wealth generated by business activity is combined in an interesting way with a desire to promote environmental well-being. That is exactly the kind of bridge-building we need.
From the viewpoint of the societal impact of scientific knowledge, the Nessling Foundation’s work in supporting active researchers and communication skills is also very meaningful. Knowledge produced to support decision-making must be understandable to non-experts, and therefore the value of researchers’ communication and interaction skills is emphasised more than ever.
How do you view the composition and strengths of the Nessling Foundation’s Board?
It’s great to be part of a group where, during a retreat, someone keeps jumping up whenever they spot a slightly rare parasitoid wasp! The Board – and the Nessling Foundation as a whole – includes a very diverse mix of people with broad research expertise across disciplines as well as understanding of decision-making, business and investing. I find it enormously refreshing to join the discussions of such a group, where there can also be differing views on how the sustainability transformation should be advanced. But it is definitely valuable that those different perspectives exist.
Which themes important to the Nessling Foundation would you like to see discussed more widely in our society?
In this decisive decade of action we really have to move things forward and accelerate the transformation, and therefore we must find connections between the sustainability transformation and other current, pressing themes. For example, regarding society’s resilience and security, we now have to consider in practice how defence technologies could also boost the development of civilian technologies and at the same time speed up the energy transformation. Such connections need to be researched, adopted quickly and applied on a large scale.
In August, the Nessling Foundation will once again open its general funding call under the theme of the sustainability transformation – and this year also a separate Murros-call focused on structural overconsumption. What are your expectations for these calls?
I want to leave room for academic freedom to bring different proposals under these major themes. Personally, I hope that as a research funder, we can help enable long-term work that truly builds a path towards a more sustainable future. I look forward to seeing applications that bring something completely unexpected – ideas we hadn’t even thought of in advance – and that also give us, as a Board, new insights into important issues that are in real need of research.
Finally: what would you say to all those who are still wondering whether it is worth applying for funding from the Nessling Foundation?
I strongly encourage you to apply! A well-crafted application is also a great way to clarify your own thinking about your research. The Nessling Foundation genuinely supports researchers – not only through funding but also through encounters and networks. I hope as many people as possible see this as an opportunity and dare to propose their own ideas for a sustainable future.
Pictures: Annukka Pakarinen
