2021 is a special year in Lahti, because our city has been chosen to be a European Green Capital of the year. With this nomination we are the northmost European Green Capital ever.
The journey to become European Green Capital started in the 1970’s. Back then the city started their water conservation work when they stopped discharging wastewaters into lake Vesijärvi. Over the decades there has been major environmental acts done in Lahti for cleaner nature. The Vesijärvi project can be cited as an example; the decades of work for the conservation and restoration of Lake Vesijärvi have brought important environmental expertise into the city.
The city of Lahti has a shared vision for the green city’s future and bold climate targets for realizing the vision. The city aims to be carbon neutral by the year 2025, ten years before the target set by the Finnish Government and 25 years before the EU. The city also aims to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions by 80 % compared to the level of 1990 by the year 2025.
Did you know that Lahti Fringe Festival is part of the official programme of European green capital? At our event the environmental theme comes to the fore in the content of the presentations and in our operations. The venues are located in the city centre area in walking distance from each other, so the visitors are able to participate to the festival in carbon free way. We are also taking care of recycling at the venues so that there will not be any useless extra waste. One way to bring up the environmental responsibility is online streaming of the performances. This way we can get the international performers to join us without any travel emissions.
You can join the makers! At greenlahti.fi/en/participate you will find tips for different environmental acts that you can implement on your everyday life.
See you in September in an environmentally friendly atmosphere at the Lahti Fringe Festival!