LUT x Sustinaires morning coffee series #2

LUT University and Sustinaires invite you to a morning coffee webinar series in Q1/2026, designed to spark meaningful dialogue between academia and the business world. The series introduces current doctoral research while providing a practical platform for discussion, knowledge exchange, and collaboration between researchers and industry practitioners. Each session offers a rare opportunity to explore how the latest research can be translated into tangible value in the fields of digitalisation and IT consulting.

The second webinar on February 25th, 2026 features Larry Abdullai, PhD, who will explore how collective action across the ICT ecosystem can drive the sustainability transition, and introduce practical approaches for turning sustainability ambitions into concrete action.

ICT is deeply embedded in daily life and has driven prosperity, but it also creates major sustainability challenges such as carbon emissions, high energy use, resource depletion, and electronic waste. These challenges are complex, systemic, and involve many interdependent stakeholders, and existing responses have been insufficient. This dissertation develops a framework for Finnish ICT organizations to support sustainability transitions through collective action using a qualitative, multi-stakeholder ecosystem approach. It identifies four necessary stakeholder engagement approaches - top-down, bottom-up, formal, and informal - and provides practical artifacts to help translate sustainability visions into action. The study emphasizes that collective action among producers, organizations, policymakers, and end-users is essential for advancing sustainability in the ICT sector.

Agenda for 25.2.2026

08:15 Welcome & Sustinaires and LUT intro

08:20 Topic introduction by Larry Abdullai / LUT

08:35 Panel discussion by Larry Abdullai & TBA

08:50 Q&A

09:00 End of morning coffee webinar

Topic introduction: Larry Abdullai from LUT

Host & moderator: Maija Typpi-Häkkinen / Board member, Sustinaires

Panelists: Larry Abdullai & TBA

About the speaker:

Larry Abdullai is an interdisciplinary early-career researcher at the School of Engineering Science, Department of Software Engineering, LUT University in Finland. He holds a master's degree in business administration, specializing in strategy, innovation, and sustainability, from the same university. His research focuses on multi-stakeholder engagement within ICT (Information and Communications Technology) ecosystems, with an emphasis on orchestration for sustainability transition. Larry studies how key actors in the ICT ecosystem, including governments, organizations, employees, and end-users, perceive sustainability and their role in advancing the sustainable design, development, and use of technology. As a 2024-25 ASLA-Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan's Erb Institute and School for Environment and Sustainability, Larry collaborated with technology organizations and surveyed end-users, gathering valuable insights to support his dissertation on fostering sustainability through collective action and a multi-stakeholder ecosystem approach.