Two new projects have been selected for funding in the Nessling Foundation’s one-million-euro Murros-call, each seeking solutions to the root causes of structural overconsumption. In this blog post, Ilari E. Sääksjärvi, Nessling Foundation’s Chair of the Board, shares the background and thinking behind the Murros-call.
Text: Ilari E. Sääksjärvi
I’m writing this blog post on Friday, 28 November 2025 – a date widely known as Black Friday. This now well established discount day marks the beginning of a month-long Christmas sales season.
Unfortunately, Black Friday lives up to its name when viewed from the planet’s perspective. For decades, we have consumed natural resources far beyond Earth’s carrying capacity, disregarding how this undermines the very foundations of our economy and wellbeing. This overconsumption of resources has continued despite scientists having warned, for just as long, that the climate is changing and biodiversity declining.
The developments that erode the conditions for a good life for us and future generations have been driven particularly by wealthy countries, where resource consumption has long exceeded sustainable levels. In Finland, per-capita material consumption exceeds the global sustainability threshold by nearly sevenfold, and Finland’s overshoot day occurs already in April. Despite this – or perhaps blinded by it – we still find ourselves chasing discounts at the end of November.
Overconsumption is not the fault of individuals. We all sometimes fall for discounts and tempting offers. Ultimately, it is the systems of our economy and infrastructure that sustain the continuous overconsumption that threatens our future, driving us to use natural resources beyond planetary boundaries. To ensure that consumption becomes sustainable, change must reach deep into these structures. At the Nessling Foundation, this is precisely the transformation we aim to support in the coming years.
In the 2025 funding call, we decided to allocate an additional one million euros through the Murros-call to research groups that generate deeper understanding, new perspectives, and science-based solutions for breaking away from structural overconsumption.
The call exceeded our expectations. By the deadline, we received 41 excellent applications which demonstrate that structural overconsumption is being actively considered from diverse perspectives in Finnish universities and research institutes. The applications were evaluated in two stages by an expert panel convened specifically for the Murros-call. Ultimately, two excellent projects were selected for funding. Over the next two years, these projects will delve into the core of structural overconsumption.
BLINK – Root causes and opportunities for change in structural overconsumption in the construction value chain – concrete as a lens examines the structural overconsumption embedded in construction. It focuses not on individual mistakes but on established norms, guidelines, decision-making structures and incentives.
ResPro – From a false sense of protein security to protein resilience: building bridges for advancing protein sustainability seeks realistic compromise solutions that improve both environmental and animal wellbeing while addressing the overconsumption of animal-based products.
The Murros-call is a new type of funding instrument for the Nessling Foundation, and we aim to draw lessons from it for future calls as well. As a foundation, we continuously monitor changes in our operating environment. This work is carried out actively by our staff, expert panels and board. This year we once again gathered together in Nuuksio to discuss the themes and phenomena on which we should focus in the future.
Our strategy discussions also highlighted the need for future special calls. In 2026, we will not organise a new Murros-call, but we will continue exploring options for special calls and hope to establish opportunities for jointly funded calls with other foundations. This would allow us to support larger initiatives that strengthen the foundations for a sustainability transformation that protects natural systems.
Global challenges that manifest as symptoms of the ecological crisis are still often referred to as “environmental problems”. However, researchers have long pointed out the limitations of this term. The developments that threaten our planet are not merely environmental problems but fundamentally stem from the actions of a single species whose behaviour strains the rest of the biosphere.
At the Nessling Foundation, we know that sustainability transformation is driven by individuals and groups who are willing to advance the wellbeing of both humans and the rest of nature in ways that inspire others to join the change. We hope that the Murros projects will also inspire others to engage with this crucial topic and pave the way for new research ideas.
I warmly congratulate both of the funded Murros projects and extend my sincere thanks to all research groups who prepared high-quality proposals for this special call. You all did excellent work – thank you. I also wish to thank the Nessling Foundation’s staff, expert panels and board for their dedicated work on the Murros-call. Let’s ensure together that the journey we have begun continues into the future.
Ilari E. Sääksjärvi,
Chair of the Board, Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation