From Foraging To Five-Star Hotels, Helsinki Redefines Green Travel

It only takes a quiet moment in the forest outside of Billnäs for the idea of Finnish sustainability to come into focus.

If you’re lucky, someone like Sami Tallberg will be there to guide you through the experience. Tallberg, a master forager and chef, searches the base of spruce and silver birch for chanterelle, woolly milkcap and penny buns hiding amid the moss.

“These mushrooms are here for us now, and they will be here for us next year,” he says. “They’re the essence of sustainability.”

Helsinki aspires to be the world’s most sustainable destination. If you ask, tourism officials will also show you presentations on their sustainability goals, outlining their plans to become carbon-neutral and then carbon-negative within a generation.

But there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself — walking through the woods with Tallberg to understand how foraging keeps the region’s cuisine sustainable. Or visiting Billnäs Gård, a historic villa that’s been turned into a luxury boutique hotel. Or seeing a new five-star hotel in Helsinki that has sustainability built into it.

Recycling furniture and a villa at Billnäs Gård

About a one-hour drive east of Helsinki, a remarkable story of sustainability is unfolding at Billnäs Gård, a six-room boutique hotel.

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability,” says Taina Snellman-Langenskiöld, who founded Billnäs Gård with her husband, Chris. “But when I started at university, there was no sustainability as such that you could study — all we had was environmental management.”

Snellman-Langenskiöld found her way to sustainability anyway as a designer with an interest in antique furniture. That’s what led her to the doorstep of a dilapidated Billnäs Gård Manor House, designed by architect Waldemar Aspelin in 1910. Three years ago, the couple had a vision of bringing the building back to its former glory.

It took more than two years of restoration to return the Art Deco villa to its former splendor. Carpenters had to replace rotting timber and rip up the decaying floors. They rebuilt its crumbling stairs and meticulously matched the original color before repainting the building. They moved from oil heating to a geothermal heating system and fine-tuned a silent, gravity-based ventilation system in the rooms. And, of course, they had to redesign the floor plan to accommodate the needs of modern guests, which included a bathroom and shower in each room.

Snellman-Langenskiöld says the restoration also prioritized natural materials and showcased traditional craftsmanship and expert carpentry.

“We avoided the use of plastic materials and used recycled materials like old doors and spare parts as much as possible,” she says.

Chris Langenskiöld had a complementary vision of sustainability, which focused on wellness. He helped turn the cellar into a spa and sauna and designed a garden with a pool, modeled on other exclusive European boutique properties. He took Billnäs Gård’s chef on a food tour of France to infuse the new restaurant with a French flair. Langenskiöld says his food philosophy is based on seasonality and local ingredients, coming from a few nearby small farms, and a strong preference for organic ingredients.

“We wanted this to be a place where you could come to feel like you had traveled far away, but were actually close to home,” he says.

Billnäs Gård is meant to be a retreat for people from nearby that feels like a faraway place, like Southern France. Doing so would encourage locals to vacation close to home and reduce their carbon footprint.

The idea of recycling an old building is happening in Helsinki, too.

Hotel Maria: An office building gets a second act

One of Helsinki’s newest hotels is also recycled. It’s a series of four different buildings built between 1885 and 1930, around the same time as the original Billnäs Gård villa. The buildings, which had served as offices and quarters for the Finnish armed forces, needed a top-to-bottom remodeling.

Heli Mende, the Hotel Maria’s director of business development, says Finnish regulations required that the new hotel have certain sustainability features, such as adequate insulation and a recycling program. But the new owners wanted to take the concept even further.

“We have advanced systems that help us save energy and water,” she explains. “The hotel has state-of-the-art technology for heating control and food waste monitoring.”

The Maria has the paperwork to prove it, including a Green Key certificate, the approval of the Finnish Heritage Agency for its refurbishment, and a commitment to buying local produce for its restaurant. Over 40 percent of its wine list is dedicated to organically farmed grapes.

You might not notice any of that when you check into one of its spacious rooms. But pay attention to the iPad on the wall and you’ll see that there’s a lot of technology behind the scenes. The lights and temperature controls are meant to ensure the building saves as much energy as possible.

Mende says the Maria didn’t want to lecture its guests about sustainability, but rather to make it easy to be green. The hotel decided to bake its green initiative directly into the new five-star property instead of separating the two. Still, the telltale signs of a sustainable hotel are all there, from the absence of single-use plastics to the presence of green certifications. Mende says guests can rest assured that the hotel is doing everything it can to preserve natural resources and to be sustainable.

That’s a message Helsinki tourism officials hope will resonate in the city, no matter where you go.

Helsinki wants to be number one for sustainability

The Finnish capital does not mince words when it comes to its sustainability goals: It wants to be number one. It is currently working toward the top position in the large city category, according to the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDSI), a key measure of sustainability.

“Every year, we do better,” says Jukka Punamäki, Helsinki’s senior advisor for tourism. “I think maybe next year we’ll get there.”

After our interview, Helsinki did indeed do better — it is now number one on the list.

The GDSI rates places based on factors such as air pollution levels, quantity of cycling paths and eco-friendly hotel rooms. Helsinki’s sustainability efforts are sprawling. They include programs for social, ecological, economic and cultural sustainability.

Punamäki, echoing what many of his colleagues in the tourism industry say, notes that Helsinki isn’t being sustainable because it will attract more visitors, but because it is the right thing to do.

“People here feel this is the way we need to go,” he says. “And we’ve also seen that there is a demand for a more sustainable destination, which is why we’ve been doing this for many years now.”

Punamäki says the city still has some work to do, notably with traffic and reducing its emissions so it meets its emissions goals for 2030, by which time it plans to be carbon-neutral. But it’s clear that the real sustainability progress is made incrementally, with hotels that go beyond what’s required and visitors that support these common-sense goals.

It is easy to lose focus on overall sustainability amid all these programs and projects. And certainly, most visitors from abroad are unlikely to visit a place based solely on a Green Key certificate or GDSI score. But still, having a sustainability program may tip the scale in Helsinki’s favor.

Foraging in the forests of Billnäs

Back in the forest of Billnäs, Tallberg is also talking about sustainability, but of a different kind. Finnish people have a legal right to forage on land, called Jokaisenoikeus, or “Everyman’s Right.” It gives people the freedom to roam the forest to gather berries and mushrooms, no matter who owns it.

Perhaps it is Jokaisenoikeus that gives Finland an edge when it comes to sustainability. There’s an understanding that everyone has a right to the environment but also a responsibility to maintain it. And in exchange, the forests of Finland will be there for them year after year, providing them with mushrooms and lingonberries.

“We’re finding our inner balance,” he says. “We’re finding our harmony. And that’s how we are sustainable.”

Helsinki’s approach to sustainable tourism is as multifaceted as the chanterelles hidden amid the pine trees. It’s about recycling historic buildings, embracing green technology, and honoring ancient traditions. But more than that, it’s about fostering harmony between people and nature, between progress and preservation. Helsinki may not be at the finish line when it comes to sustainability, but it is getting closer.

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