The Public Sauna-Bathing Charter
Ten principles for public sauna as common good
The Charter sets out shared principles for developing and caring for public sauna responsibly. It gives communities, operators, governments, funders, and researchers a common reference point. Signatories commit to showing how these principles guide their decisions and daily practice.
Version 1.0, August 19, 2026. Available in other languages soon.
Ten shared principles
01–03 · Practice– Foundational values
Access for All
Public sauna-bathing is for all people. Access means a door everyone can afford to walk through, a building every body can use, a culture where all people are welcomed and safe, and locations communities can actually reach.
Shared Heat, Shared Space
Built on equality and presence, the public sauna-bath is a shared civic place, promoting the health of people and the living world. Community takes work: everyone who enters helps tend it, and is supported to do so.
Honour Tradition
We honour and support the many cultures and knowledge holders who keep sauna and sweat-bathing alive, entering each tradition as guests.
04–06 · Keeping– Run for public good
Public Good Before Private Gain
Whatever the ownership model, a public sauna-bath is run for the public good. Profit may serve that mission, but never override it.
A Sense of Place
At its fullest, a public sauna-bath is a community sauna-bath, shaped by its place: in design, story and benefit. It is built with care for where it stands, carrying both the traditions it comes from and the stories of where it now lives, and keeping value in community rather than extracting it.
Community First
A community sauna-bath answers to its community, shaped by the hands and voices of the people it serves. Visitors are welcomed as guests, in ways that sustain the place rather than strain it.
07–08 · Tending– Ongoing care
Tended With Care
Built to evidence-informed best practice, maintained for safety, and operated on safer-space principles, a public sauna-bath is stewarded responsibly, so people are treated with dignity and protected from harm.
Reciprocity with the Natural World
Public sauna-bathing lives in reciprocity with the natural world that sustains it: powered, built and run to tread lightly, giving back more than taking. It draws people into deepening relationship with the living world, with reverence for the peoples who have long bathed in balance with their surroundings.
09–10 · Stewardship– Shared futures
Wellbeing That Circulates
Public sauna-bathing builds relational well-being, spreading care outward: for body, mind and spirit, for the bonds between people, for healthy, regenerative local economies. What we learn, we share across borders, building a common body of practice.
Recognised and Resourced
Resilient social infrastructure, built responsibly today so communities can thrive for generations to come, deserves recognition and support: from local and regional government in planning, regulation and funding, and from investors who value it as a public good, not a private bet.
Putting the principles into practice
Sign up for news to receive practical guidance on applying each principle, along with case studies, resources, and invitations to online meet-ups with operators and communities doing this work.
Sign upBuilt by, and for, everyone shaping sauna in their communities
Anyone working to strengthen public sauna as a common good can sign. You don’t need to run a sauna. You simply state what you will do, in your own role, to support the Charter’s principles.
Those who build and run public sauna. Operators and keepers, community sauna organisations and networks, designers, builders, and suppliers.
Those who shape the conditions for it. Governments and public bodies, funders and investors, researchers and educators.
Those who use and champion it. Bathers and advocates.
Want to join the movement? See how signing works →
Four steps to joining the movement
Signing is free and takes about 15 to 30 minutes. You choose the principles closest to your work and say, in your own words, how you will put them into practice.
1. Read the Charter
Get to know the ten principles and talk them through with your team, board, or council.
2. Find a reference
Ask an existing signatory, a person or an organisation, for a few words of support. We can help if you don’t know anyone yet.
3. Complete the questionnaire
The form has three parts: Commitment, Contribution, and Consent and Affirmation.
4. Welcome
The founding stewards review applications together, two to four times a year. Once confirmed, you join the signatories and the wider network, and we check in on your commitments as your work grows.
The first intake round is open now. We’d love to have you with us.
- A shared set of principles. A common basis for developing and caring for public sauna responsibly.
- A common reference point. For communities, operators, governments, funders, researchers, and industry.
- A guide. For planning, governance, operations, investment, and policy.
- A commitment. To public sauna that is safe, accessible, culturally respectful, and trustworthy.
- A foundation. For shared guidance, resources, and learning across the movement.
- A certification. It does not certify, audit, or rank public saunas.
- A rulebook or technical standard. It sets out shared principles, and leaves technical detail to local codes and expertise.
- A replacement for regulation. It works alongside existing laws and safety requirements.
- A single model for everyone. It respects diverse cultures, traditions, and local contexts.
- Fixed in place. Its principles are written to endure, and any revisions are rare, considered, and made in the open.