Councillor Biographies
Kaarin Taipale, Sustainable urban development expert
Kaarin Taipale, educated as an architect, now works as an independent researcher and columnist. She has over thirty years of professional experience with issues of local government, urban sustainability, urban development and the built environment, both at local and global levels, and in private, public and civil society sectors. She has headed a global association of cities, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, participated both as a Local Authorities' and as a Finnish government delegate in several intergovernmental meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, UNFCCC COP13 in Bali, and UNEP and UN-Habitat Governing Council meetings. She is fluent in four languages. She has worked as an architect in Zurich, New York and Helsinki; as Editor of the Finnish Architectural Review; for ten years as the Chief Executive of the Building Control Department of Helsinki and as Visiting Professor (Sustainable Urban Development) at Chalmers in Gothenburg. Kaarin is currently working on her Ph.D., and is an expert advisor of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction and Chair of the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Buildings and Construction with Finland as lead country.
Watch interviews with our council members
