In old times, people were real masters at reusing and recycling, they let nothing useful go to waste and lived close to nature. They fixed things that were broken instead of throwing them away, they mended clothes, and they certainly used every part of the tree when they chopped one down or every part of the animal at slaughter.
At Stundars, we strive to be even better, and we consider the environment in all parts of our daily work.
You can help us by putting all your litter in the plentiful waste baskets in the open-air museum, by recycling your bottle and by returning the map you got at the entrance to the yellow Information kiosk (if you don’t plan to keep it as a memento).
Sustainable development Topp
For many years now, sustainability have been integrated into everything we do at Stundars and we are continuously striving to evolve and deepen our environmental work. A milestone in this process was reached in December 2022, when Stundars had successfully applied an environmental management system and received the certificate EcoCompass from The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. The next step for Stundars was to become certified as a sustainable travel destination through Visit Finland’s programme Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) in 2023.
Gunilla Sand is the museum manager at Stundars and she sees sustainability as a vital part of the museum work in general.
“As an open-air museum we preserve and display the crafts, the built heritage and the traditions of the cultural heritage of the Swedish-speaking parts of Ostrobothnia. Museum work is not only about the past, it is just as important to exhibit, explain and give our cultural heritage meaning for us today. The certification has been helpful in visualising this process.”
The environmental management certification process was done alongside several other tourism destinations in the region in 2022 and 2023, and with Visit Vaasa as a driving force. Stundars’ building manager by that time, Jonathan Hemming, was pleased that Stundars had reached such an important milestone in this area.
”This is indeed an important acknowledgement for the environmental work that we have been doing for a long time. But the extensive review we now have completed, including the updates every third year, have given us new perspectives and improvements that we will take with us when we continue to make Stundars even more sustainable.”
Sustainable development is becoming more and more important in the tourist business, and in a few years Visit Finland will no longer promote destinations that are not STF-certified. Stundars is off to an early start, and hopes that other tourist destinations in the region will soon join in so that Ostrobothnia can be considered an attractive destination in the future too.
Stundars’ Environmental Promise Topp
Stundars r.f. maintains the Stundars Open-Air Museum in Solf, Korsholm. Stundars collects, preserves and displays the tangible and intangible culture of the pre-industrial period in Swedish Ostrobothnia between 1870 and 1920, focusing primarily on architectural heritage and traditional crafts and working methods. The museum’s collections consist of relocated and reconstructed Ostrobothnian timber buildings with their interiors and objects.
At the museum, the historical buildnings are in use, and we want to inspire others to choose to reuse, both in terms of buildings and culture, and to have a greater awareness of the importance of materials and ecology for a sustainable future. We have implemented the Ekokompass environmental management system and have also completed Sustainable Travel Finland’s environmental certification.
Here are some things we are focusing on particularly during this period:
We sort our waste, and also help our visitors to sort their waste during our events.
We choose to purchase goods and services with sustainability in mind.
When we make purchases for building maintenance or public events, for example, we primarily choose environmentally friendly, locally produced products and services. We maintain building parts and materials and reuse and resell things we do not need ourselves.
We economise with materials and our buildings.
We use our spaces more efficiently by cleaning up and organising storage spaces or putting them to other uses.
We show the way to sustainable development.
We teach schoolchildren and our visitors how to live on fewer resources and give lectures and organise courses on how to make your house last another 100 years. We communicate the importance of environmental work to our customers and partners.
EcoCompass certificate Topp
Stundars recieved the EcoCompass certificate in December 2022. It is audited and renewed every third year.
The EcoCompass certificate demonstrates commitment to continuously improving and complying with the following 10 criteria of EcoCompass. Link to EcoCompass home page.
Sustainable Travel Finland Topp
In april 2023 we were granted Sustainable travel Finland label as a recognition of valuable and long-term work for sustainable tourism.
Sustainable travel Finland is a national sustainable travel programme managed by Visit Finland. It takes into account environmental, socio-cultural, and economics sustainability. Link to Visit Finlands homepage.