Urban And Local
The Sustainable Food Ecosystem of the Future
The Urban & Local – Sustainable Food Ecosystem of the Future project focuses on developing innovative solutions, practices, products, and services within the local food and restaurant sectors. It also aims to build a foundation for industry collaboration and sustainable business development.
A key goal of a sustainable food system is to bring urban food supply chains closer to the consumer. In this project, Perho Culinary, Tourism & Business College is piloting an ecosystem-based indoor farming model that expands the current cultivation work of Green City Farm. The project also seeks to map out the roles of various partners operating within the local food chain.
The project is coordinated by Forum Virium Helsinki, with project partners including Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Perho Culinary, Tourism & Business College, and the City of Vantaa. Funding is provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Publications by Urban&Local project
Two recent publications produced in the Urban&Local project offer a comprehensive overview of how cities can be developed into sustainable, distinctive environments that value local food.
One of the guides is aimed specifically at entrepreneurs and producers in the food sector, while the other targets urban developers and decision-makers. Together, they form a complete package that provides both practical examples and strategic tools for building a future-proof food system.
Empowering the Edible City
The publication Empowering the Edible City focuses on the vision of an edible city, where urban regions are developed as part of more sustainable, local, and distinctive food systems. The publication highlights the strategic role of municipalities and cities as drivers of this transition. Building a sustainable food system cannot be outsourced to rural areas and primary production alone; instead, the transformation requires contributions from businesses and urban developers.
The guide provides concrete methods for advancing local and sustainable food chains. In addition, it discusses the importance of new indoor farming technologies, agroecological local production, nutrient cycling, as well as supporting food tourism and business clusters. The guide brings together practical experiments from the project, such as growing mushrooms at Restaurant Perho using biowaste, new kinds of food-driven market events, and the tested potential of urban cultivation in promoting carbon neutrality.
Towards the Edible City
The guide Towards an Edible City highlights the role of entrepreneurship in the transformation of the food system, as well as the importance of networks and ecosystem-based business models. In today’s markets, working alone as an entrepreneur is often no longer enough. The publication offers companies tools and perspectives on the power of collaboration—whether it’s about finding new customers, sharing resources, or developing products together.
The publication includes concrete case examples of experiments carried out during the project. For instance, in Metropolia’s UrbanFarmLab, indoor farming technologies for growing wasabi and tomatoes were tested in collaboration with companies. The guide also presents new market events and a sales pilot at Hakaniemi Market Hall, which helped the dumpling restaurant Tian Tian grow into a popular dining spot.
In addition, Towards an Edible City explores the potential of short food chains, agroecological local production, and artisan foods, presents pioneers of direct sales in Uusimaa, and provides guidance for entering the public sector as a supplier through a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). Nutrient cycling is highlighted in experiments such as mushroom cultivation from coffee grounds at Restaurant Perho, and the development of a new snack bar from apple pomace.
Read more about our project experiments
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Plant Hydroponics Experiment As part of the Urban & Local project, a circular economy hydroponics system was implemented in collaboration with the Tampere-based […] Plant Hydroponics Experiment – Read more -
Indoor cultivation experiment of Mushrooms In this indoor cultivation experiment, we grew oyster mushrooms for Restaurant Perho. Indoor cultivation experiment of Mushrooms – Read more -
Indoor Cultivation Platform Students from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences designed and set up an indoor cultivation platform in the lobby of Proffa […] Indoor Cultivation Platform – Read more
Entrepreneurship Experiment
Organizing the event requires commitment and responsible action from students, and teaches teamwork skills. The local food kiosk event is an engaging and inspiring learning experience for students, offering insight into the diverse opportunities within the restaurant industry.
Further information:
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Heidi Hovi-Sippola
Farming Expert +358 40 150 4252 heidi.hovi-sippola@perho.fi