Twin Transition – Digital and AI based solutions for green transition and responsibility

Welcome to the final theme issue of UAS Journal in 2025, Twin Transition – Digital and AI based solutions for green transition and responsibility. The articles in this issue provide a topical view for the theme issue especially from the point of UAS. Across the articles, we identified four standpoints, which we hope will give readers a roadmap to the content presented in this issue. We named those standpoints as follows:

• Sustainability reporting in higher education and twin transition
• Learning, competencies and twin transition
• RDI and twin transition across sectors
• RDI and twin transition in developing countries.

When we take a closer look at the megatrends – green transition and digitalization – as broad and transformative as these, it is reasonable to approach the theme through different actor levels. At the macro level, twin transition is referenced by EU-level policies and national strategies. These affect us in Universities of Applied Sciences at the organizational level. The strategic orientations of UAS and the development of degree programme content ultimately affect the actor level, where the contents of twin transition become visible as competencies of individual students and teachers, in career and study guidance, or in teacher education.

The green transition refers in particular to a societal transformation driven by the shift away from fossil energy sources toward clean energy solutions. It affects all areas of society, such as industry, energy production, food production, mobility, and the protection of biodiversity.

Digitalization and the green transition are two mutually reinforcing directions of change that are shaping the future. Green transition aims for sustainability and for combating climate change and environmental degradation, while the digital transition provides digital technologies to strengthen sustainability, prosperity, and inclusion. Both of these transitions are interconnected through, for example, data collection, analytics, energy efficiency, and the sustainable use of natural resources (European Commission, 2022).

The European Union’s Green Deal aims to achieve climate-neutral Europe by 2050 (European Commission, 2021). In addition, the EU has declared the 2020s as the Digital Decade (European Commission, 2025). The twin transition formed by these two parallel transformations — the green and the digital transitions—is considered a key societal and economic shift that creates new competences to which UAS must also respond. However, the twin transition also involves tensions: for example, the rapid growth of AI systems and data processing significantly increases energy demand and forces the need to develop more sustainable infrastructure solutions.

We know that Finland is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2035 (Ministry of the Environment, 2025). This transformation is changing labour demand, creating new jobs, and competence requirements. For this reason, vocational education plays a key role in training experts for the green transition, as education providers carry a mandate to develop field of work and readiness to respond to changing competence requirements. In the OECD report examining the green transition from the perspective of VET, Finland’s particular strengths—alongside strategic declarations—included a flexible and modular degrees and the integration of sustainable development into curricula. Nevertheless, a lot of work remains to be done. For example, career guidance does not sufficiently highlight the career options enabled by the green transition, such as in clean energy or the circular economy. Nor are green transition competencies integrated systematically in VET (OECD, 2025).

The role of UAS in twin transition is essential. It can be strengthened through the content of degree education. For example, GreenComp for the green transition and DigComp for digital competence are competence frameworks that define the generic skills and competence areas needed in green and digital transitions. Pathways for continuous learning, commercial education services, and micro-credentials offer flexible ways to respond to the needs of rapidly developing green and digital fields. Such growing sectors include, among others, the hydrogen and battery industries, low-carbon construction, and the energy efficiency of data centres and clean energy infrastructure. The research, development, and innovation activities of higher education institutions, as well as lab environments, support this change by strengthening regional industry and creating shared platforms for piloting and development. At the same time, higher education institutions can act as promoters of entrepreneurship and new, sustainable career paths. Alongside carbon neutrality targets, higher education institutions should also increase the visibility of digital energy consumption and its environmental impacts, so that twin transition is realized in a genuinely sustainable way.

Next, we introduce the authors and articles of this theme issue.

Sustainability reporting in higher education and twin transition

In their article, Mirva Juntti and Vappu Kunnaala-Hyrkki present how the network of UAS collaboratively produced a sustainability and responsibility reporting model aligned with CSRD principles. The article also introduces the role of digitalization and new AI-based solutions as part of the developing reporting process.

Taru Konst and Johanna Krappe, for their part, examine the “sustainability handprint” of education in UAS. They consider how the handprint can support higher education institutions in twin transition.

Learning, competencies and twin transition

In their article, Leigh Anne Rauhala and Sofie Van Holle provide an example of integrating sustainability studies into urban life, urban planning, and twin transition in collaboration with cities. Also, they reflect on the challenges and opportunities of educational development within a European university alliance.

In turn, Elina Turunen, Kaija Saramäki, Marika Lappalainen, Anne Ryhänen and Outi Sulopuisto describe how they applied the Flash Fiction method and AI in collaborative learning. Participants from nine different countries explored the health impacts of climate change.

Appu Haapio-Karjalainen, Minna Varheenmaa, Sampo Saari and Heli Viik present a service model developed in the OHITE project, which seeks to address the manufacturing industry’s challenges from the point of twin transition by combining identification of competence needs, flexible training solutions, and strategic network collaboration together with industry actors and education providers.

In their article, Peter Hertel-Storm and Mikhail Nemilentsev invite readers to reflect on how the strong techno-optimism embedded in twin transition influences our ways of being and thinking. In addition to theoretical reflection, they offer examples of how teaching can address existential questions of humanity, social identity, and socio-technical collaboration.

RDI and the twin transition across sectors

In their article, Minna Korhonen and Antti Kukkonen examine forest growth simulations that support green and digital transition by bringing sustainable forest management and data-driven decision-making into forestry education. The free, scientifically grounded tools presented enable practice for the future professionals of the forest sector.

In their article, Meri-Maaria Salo and Veera Seikkula discuss stormwater solutions that combine nature-based methods and digital tools for monitoring effectiveness and managing flood risk. The developed solutions for data-driven decision-making and scalable models for urban planning support twin transition. The development of technology and digitalization offers significant opportunities to promote green transition in maritime logistics and port operations.

Veera Seikkula, Piia Lukkaroinen and Natalie Kylliäinen have developed digital solutions that enable the monitoring of environmental impacts and the implementation of measures aimed at carbon neutrality and energy efficiency.

Natalia Kataila’s article takes us into the world of fashion, where AI is simultaneously an important tool and a threat, for example through the limitation of aesthetics. Kataila also highlights the need to raise designers’ awareness of AI’s environmental impacts and ethical issues.

The article by Johanna Salmia and Ari Hietala describes how, through higher education collaboration, European industry innovations addressing climate challenges can also generate new ideas for teaching. Concrete examples include fungal-based car parts and packaging.

RDI and twin transition in developing countries

The article by Dimitar Nikoloski, Gjorgji Mancheski and Marija Petkoska presents a mobile application using AI as a solution for cleaning up polluted areas in the Western Balkans. Different recyclable materials found in waste, such as metal and paper, are identified, enabling future clean-up actions to be targeted more precisely.

In their first article, Richard Osei and his research team present an analysis based on extensive interview data of graduating students’ professional readiness for the green transition and digitalization from the perspective of industry. In the following article, Richard Osei and his team examine in more detail a Ghanaian university’s strategy and the preparedness of staff and students for twin transition. The results particularly highlight the importance of pedagogical leadership and curriculum development.

Although the theme issue focuses on four identified standpoints, several significant perspectives remain for future examination and research. These include, for example, the development of courses implementing twin transition and the content of vocational teacher education, which are essential for strengthening sustainable and digital competencies in vocational education.

The ethical dimensions of twin transition, such as the impacts of AI’s growing energy consumption, also undoubtedly deserve deeper study. In addition, cooperation between UAS and field of work, sustainability reporting, and technological solutions in support of carbon neutrality targets highlight areas for further research and development. RDI projects that strenghen twin transition, in turn, provide a concrete platform where digital innovations and green solutions can combine into effective higher education activities.

LISÄÄ AIHEEN YMPÄRILTÄ / RELATED POSTS

Notes on the Developing R&D Integrated Learning in Regional Knowledge Production

Current Status of Waste-to-Energy Utilisation in some parts of Baltic Sea Region

International R&D at Oulu University of Applied Sciences – practices from Raahe

Towards Innovation Pedagogy – A new approach to teaching and learning for universities of applied sciences