As the largest film festival in Finland operating with international stakeholders, HIFF is committed to continuously work on improving its actions linked to sustainability. In April 2025, HIFF was awarded the Good Travel Seal (level 3). In 2025, HIFF also received the Sustainable Travel Finland Label from Visit Finland.
The Good Travel Seal recognised the festival’s work as well as improvement plan in the following topics:
- Food & Products
- Reducing Pollution
- Caring for People
- Caring for Water
- Good Employment
- Caring for Nature
- Caring for Climate
- Caring for Culture
- Reducing Waste
- Management & Info
Our Main Sustainability Objectives for 2025-2026:
- Establish a formal Sustainable Policy to further guide our team on sustainability actions and purchasing decisions
- Implement recycling stations at main festival venues to further improve waste management
- Making festival prices more inclusive by enabling online sale for specific customer groups (seniors, job seekers and students)
- Provide First Aid & Security Training for year-round employees.
- We plan to involve our theater supervisors (volunteers) more closely in the development and refinement of our safety protocols, as they are often the first to respond in potential threat situations. Their frontline experience is invaluable in ensuring our protocols are practical and effective.
- Improving internal processes to handle workplace harassment and conflict cases more efficiently and transparently.
Also working on
- Conduct a carbon footprint assessment of our guests’ flights to understand our emissions impact.
- Change to a renewable energy provider for our office premises
Topics to improve when it comes to sustainability
- The emissions due to international travelling of HIFF guests is our biggest challenge, as doing HIFF without them would not be possible. Because of its financial instability, HIFF cannot compensate for those flights easily.
- Waste management and energy efficiency in the festival venues