Intensive course of Sustainable Logistics, Helsinki 07th – 11th of September, 2009

The Intensive course of Sustainable Logistics took place in Helsinki, 7-12th of September. Participants of this course were students and teachers from Haaga-Helia, University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Niels Brock Business College (Denmark) and Kaunas College (Lithuania). Participants worked in Haaga-Helia, University of Applied Sciences and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

• The aims of this Intensive course were:
• To understand the role of logistics in each participating country;
• To learn the impact of logistics on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions;
• To learn some good practices of protecting the environment and examples of the sustainable logistics in various participating countries and CASE companies in Helsinki.

Learning diaries of some participated students

Kim Bergholm

The Sustainable Logistics intensive week was quite successful. I learned so many new things that it was quite hard to put it all to this learning diary. We had good co-operating companies with hard working students and teachers. Visiting Vuosaari harbor was maybe one of the best experiences during the week, because I haven’t been having a chance to visit there after I started to work in Containerships Ltd. In my work in the company I’m all the time in contact with the harbor and its operations. After this intensive week I know many new important things about the harbor because we got quite deep to the harbor’s operations during our visit there.
The diploma looks professional and hopefully will be useful during my career in logistics. The course was inclusive: I learned and understood so many different matters and aspects about sustainable logistics that the next time I want to learn something new, I almost have to start to make practices of my own about sustainable logistics. Thank you for the course!

Kim's learning diary

Margarita Stonytė

Personally, I am very grateful for having this opportunity. During the week, I learned at lot about sustainable logistics as well as being a member of the group, and taking part of the discussions. All were active on discussions, and every ones opinion was paid attention to. I think we all received something new from each other during the week. We were told about many different things happening in the area, and I know that we can make a difference. If you really want to do something, you have to work hard of course, but there is nothing better than the feeling that you succeeded!
The week was full of experiences. Thank You very much!

Victoria Strandberg

Quite many things were new to me and I learnt a lot during the company visit, presentations on the very first day of the course and during the last day as well.
As far as I was not that well aware of sustainable logistics in general, I did not have any idea of what was the vision of sustainable logistics in each of the presented countries, what are the Baltic and Scandinavian countries governments’ actions towards achieving the sustainability, and that is why the course was quite informative for me.
Also it was very interesting to learn some facts about how the environmental concern is implemented in real life. What are the actions undertaken by companies who announce themselves as being green. What is done to achieve the sustainability. Many companies are designing their products to be more environmentally friendly, and many are using more environmentally friendly packaging materials. Sustainable logistics is actual and an upcoming trend nowadays. Responding to environmental issues is one of the major challenges facing logistics and supply chain management in the foreseeable future.

Victoria's learning diary

Jurgita Būdvytytė

All information about logistics sustainability was very useful. During this intense week I knew a lot of new things about the biggest Finland’s companies, this information was meaningfull! Thank You!

Jurgita's learning diary

Maria Ihuoma – Hoffman

As for new thing, it was interesting to observe six companies with different business focuses but with a common aim of protecting environment and obtaining sometimes very similar strategies. But at the same time I got to realize, that even a “green” company does produce a waste itself or does not care about all its impacts on the nature. That I assume to be a loophole to be taken care of in the nearest time to come.

Maria's learning diary