‘Half Better’: Helsinki to Replace 50% of Meat & Dairy with Plant-Based Food by 2030

The Helsinki City Council has voted to halve meat and dairy procurement and replace it with plant-based options in schools, hospitals and other municipal institutions by 2030.

Finland’s capital is emerging as a trailblazer in sustainable protein policy, after committing to replace half of its animal protein with plant-based food.

The City Council of Helsinki has voted 57-23 in favour of a landmark initiative called Puolet Parempaa (or “Half Better”), which will cut its procurement of meat and dairy products by 50% by the end of the decade.

The motion received broad cross-party backing and will see these proteins replaced by nutritious plant-based options across schools, hospitals, daycare centres, and other public institutions.

The initiative was introduced in the Finnish capital by City Councillor Mai Kivelä, who said the vote was a victory for “climate responsibility, animal welfare, and children’s right to a sustainable future”.

“This decision is about coherence and responsibility. It does not make sense for a city to fund climate mitigation on one hand while accelerating biodiversity loss and emissions through its food procurement on the other,” noted Kivelä.

Helsinki builds on sustainable protein policy legacy

Launched by climate organisation Greenpeace, Half Better is a nationwide campaign that challenges municipalities to make half of their food offerings “better” for public health and the environment, since a quarter of Finland’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system.

In fact, Greenpeace suggests that up to 70% of the country’s farmland is used for livestock production, and more than half is reserved for beef and milk. And around half of its methane emissions come from cattle, whose digestion and manure processing alone account for 5% of national GHG emissions.

While the active phase of the Half Better campaign has ended, by April 2025, councillors in over 60 municipalities were contacted, and a total of 35 council initiatives were submitted across Finland.

And in the spring 2025 municipal elections, nearly 300 candidates committed to the campaign’s goals (representing over 70 municipalities) were elected. So Greenpeace expects more initiatives asking for a plant-based transition to be filed in the 2025-29 term.

Helsinki, for its part, has already been at the forefront of sustainable procurement policies, having ditched meat (except seafood) from all events hosted by the city in 2022.

Its latest decision, however, affects all municipal foodservice operations. Jukka Kajan, executive director of trade association Plant Based Food Finland, told Green Queen that this would amount to millions of meals annually.

“Helsinki is not only strengthening climate action and improving public health, but also creating long-term market predictability for companies developing plant-based solutions,” he said. “This is essential for enabling Finland’s world-class innovations to scale and expand internationally.”

Can public procurement shift consumption habits?

With the passage of this motion, Helsinki is looking to normalise plant-forward eating patterns and align public spending with its climate and biodiversity commitments.

The move will also offer fiscal benefits. Preliminary research by Aalto University has revealed that plant-based meals are already more cost-effective for Helsinki’s food services. If half of current meat purchases are replaced with plant proteins, it would save the city over €3M a year.

It also acts as a precedent for policymakers, food industry stakeholders, and institutional caterers across Europe, demonstrating how public procurement can be used as a policy lever to speed up the protein transition.

“By building on this momentum, Helsinki sends a strong signal to the entire food sector. It reduces investment risk, encourages innovation, and supports Finland’s position as a competitive player in the global protein transition,” said Kajan.

Helsinki’s vote aligns with Finland’s latest update to the national dietary guidelines, which urge citizens to lower red meat consumption by 30% and limit processed meats as much as possible, and replace them with plant proteins. But the country’s share of meat-eaters reached a four-year high in 2025, and that 53% of shoppers say they would not support a policy recommendation to halve meat consumption.

But Kajan believes the decision opens a pathway for the entire plant-based industry in Finland, whose retail market for these foods is growing at double-digit rates, bucking the trend seen in other European countries. For instance, the country’s largest retailer, S Group, saw tofu sales grow by 14% last year, while plant-based meat was selling nearly 70% faster in January than the same month in 2025.

Another example of a government leading the protein transition through public procurement comes from New York City, whose ‘plant-based by default’ approach in hospitals cut food-related emissions by 36% and saved hundreds of thousands in costs. The city has launched a Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge for companies, too, and replaced processed meats with plant proteins in 11 of its agencies this January.