Inside the office with Riikka Tapaninaho

Photo credit to Jonne Renvall

‘Inside the office’ is a blog series based on short conversations with the members from the Business to Nature (B2N) team as we look into their individual relationships with the project. My name is Edward Gerald Hingert and I am an intern as well as a new member of the office. For this session, I talked with Riikka to introduce the second B2N team member. Edward: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your involvement in the B2N project? Riikka: Ok! I am Riikka Tapaninaho. I work here as a university teacher and PhD researcher in management and organisation studies and my PhD thesis is about paradigm shift in value creation towards sustainability. For the B2N project, I have contributed with two literature review articles on stakeholder value creation and its relation to sustainability. In addition, I have written a paper on a stormwater management case in collaboration with an architect PhD researcher Elisa Lähde from Aalto University.

Edward: What are your thoughts on the general direction of the project? Riikka: The B2N project is extremely interesting. In my opinion, the project is also very brave as it changes the perspective of how businesses are related to sustainability. The best part is that it is a lengthy project. I am looking forward to the results and I am sure that they excite others than me, too.

Edward: What intrigues you most in the B2N? Riikka: Recently, we have been talking about writing a book based on the findings of the project. This allows us to convey to others our vision and understanding of the studied phenomena and the findings the project.

Edward: Do you have any plans for yourself in the future? Riikka: For my long term plan, I wish to be part of similar kind of multidisciplinary projects, which challenge our current ways of understanding economy and business. I hope that I can influence future leaders through my teaching and research to choose a more sustainable path for business.

Edward: Finally, may I ask what have you learned that fascinates you the most after joining the project? Riikka: The thing that fascinates me the most is that this is an interdisciplinary research project and that all the members of the research team are open-minded and willing to look at things such as sustainability from various theoretical and practical perspectives regardless of their backgrounds.

Next time, I will interview another member of the team and report the story for you in this blog series. Cheers!