Back to nature begins early

Life & society Education

The chance to get your hands dirty is also a chance to learn. That’s part of the philosophy at a “forest daycare” on the edge of Helsinki, encouraging skills and values that stem from the Finnish love of nature.

Finland is famous for its classroom performance; the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have repeatedly ranked Finnish children as top performers in school. But not all learning happens in the classroom. We visit an unusual daycare in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Vanha Kaupunki (Old City).

As its name suggests, Vanha Kaupunki is the oldest quarter of Helsinki, where the original settlement of fishermens’ cabins huddled along the shore and around a wooden church on a bluff overlooking the rapids.

The area where the daycare is located is also home to a former power station (centre, now a museum), as well as modern buildings and a nature preserve.Photo: Anthony Shaw

Nowadays the area is home to hundreds of flats in new blocks and in reconditioned industrial buildings, all of which meet stringent specifications for energy saving. Behind them lies Viikki Nature Reserve, especially favoured by migrating birds and their spotters in April and May, and a riot of burnished, reedy colour in the autumn. The neighbourhood also features a scattering of venerable wood-clad houses, looking rather plain compared to the stylish glass and stainless steel of the new architecture behind.

One wooden building stands out, with a towering maple tree shading a yard that rings with eager young voices.

This is Mörrintupa (Wood-elf’s Cottage), the daily retreat for 28 local children where they can – and indeed must – while away their daytime hours outdoors in their “forest daycare.” Starting early every morning, come wind come snow (and it surely will in winter), the house and yard form the daytime home for two groups, with all activities based outside in the yard or the local forest.

At home in nature

Saima, Iris, Minttu, Silvia and Grethe gather at the edge of the yard. The daycare is a stone’s throw from the Viikki Nature Reserve.Photo: Anthony Shaw

It was Swede Gösta Frohm who pioneered the educational role of learning through direct first-hand contact with nature in the “rain or shine” preschools. In Vanha Kaupunki and nearby, Taiga Child, a private company, runs three kindergartens with support from Suomen Latu, a nationwide association for recreational sports and outdoor activities. The concept, known as “at home in nature,” is embraced by young urban families who want their children to retain the strong contact with their natural environment that the parents themselves experienced as kids.

For the children the first priority is play, which of course comes easily to everyone in the wild. Daily walks to the local forest, the river or the nature reserve are filled with games and opportunities for play. But there are also duties and routines to be followed, which can be tougher on the children in this outdoor location.

Despite ongoing urbanisation, there are still a lot of trees in this rapidly changing corner of the city, 3.5 kilometres from the heart of Helsinki. The reed beds lining the eastern shore of the bay run for many kilometres through the nature reserve. Just over the fence from the daycare, fishermen cast for salmon and trout in the river rapids. And in autumn the colours are splendid, furbishing endless materials for these children make the most of their artistic value – just like their grandparents did.

By Anthony Shaw, October 2011

Farmer becomes maritime man of steel

Business & innovation Entrepreneurs

With his roots firmly in the countryside of southwestern Finland, Hans Langh branched out into international shipping and steel cargo transportation. His success story is based on curiosity and innate problem-solving ability – he has no formal technical training.

The Langh family has been farming at Alaskartano, near the small town of Piikkiö, for generations. Hans Langh’s grandfather dabbled in making agricultural equipment, and when he passed away, his grain dryer project was completed by his grandson. Hans Langh Cleaning Services started in 1973, emulating a Herculean task in removing muck from byres, chicken factories and piggeries using his first patent: a combination high-pressure water hose and vacuum did the job better than rival methods.

“By the mid-1970s we were doing the same in ships’ engine rooms, wastewater tanks and the like, and then in 1983 I became a shipowner,” says Langh, explaining how he drifted into shipping. Langh Ship was enlarged in 1989 when three newbuildings came into service, then transporting paper and pulp for Finnish firms. “But for the last 20 years, Langh Ship has carried stainless and carbon steel for Finnish producers Rautaruukki and Outokumpu. We now have about 30 patents for our steel transport innovations, with the last ten years seeing proactive R&D cooperation.”

Stabilising the onboard situation

Plying the seas: Many of Langh Ship’s vessels are named after female family members – in this case Hans Langh’s mother, Hjördis.Photo: Langh Ship Ltd

Shipping steel coils and plate doesn’t sound challenging – but the field was ripe for innovations to prevent damage to cargo and ships and ensure personnel safety. “There was so much damage when heavy steel was transported,” Langh says. “Steel plates on the bottom of the ship were stacked, and separated by wood planks in between.”

His original idea was to place coils (weighing 26 tonnes) in Cradle Tween Decks cassettes, higher up than normal in a ship – a previously forbidden practice. This was augmented by the Cradle Cassette at the bottom of a ship’s hold. From these simple creations stemmed a catalogue of products tailored to transport steel more efficiently.

The cassettes yielded impressive results. Without getting into complicated technical jargon, we can say that the ships’ stability improved greatly, while loading time was cut in half and labour reduced to a single operator. “In the ten years they’ve been in use [there are over 500 leased worldwide], there’s never been a single damaged cargo,” states Langh proudly.

A flow of inventions

In the Cradle Tween Decks system, coils of steel are loaded into “cassettes” for a comfortable ocean voyage.Photo: Langh Ship Ltd

The latest invention is the Hard Open Top Cradle Container (HOTCC) and its duplex version. The HOTCC carries up to 40 tonnes of large steel coils, which can be loaded either directly aboard ship, or in advance on shore and then transported via road, rail or water. The duplex (a stainless steel composite mix) holds an extra ten tonnes of payload, has a longer working life and needs no painting.

In addition to the removable cover, the HOTCC design incorporates doors at both ends, enabling delivery of other freight on the return voyage, such as scrap metal for recycling, while the duplex can carry foodstuffs or difficult bulk cargoes securely.

Hans Langh has garnered recognition over the past few years. He was appointed Maritime Counsellor in 2008, and received an honorary doctorate from Turku School of Economics earlier this year – his sole qualification apart from two years at agricultural college.

Are there more inventions on the way? “You can’t only develop – ideas must also be marketed – but I still have plenty on my mind,” says Langh.

By John Pagni, September 2010

Alpine land without Alps

Business & innovation Sports

Levi Fell ski resort in Finnish Lapland rose rapidly to become one of the country’s biggest tourist centres. Local experts have played a key role in this fairytale development.

Experience teaches lessons, but it can also be a shackle. At Levi, many things were different from other places in Lapland. The most important of these was land ownership: Levi was not controlled by Metsähallitus, Finland’s Natural Heritage Service. Also, the core of the winter tourism business infrastructure – the downhill ski slopes and lifts – remained in local hands. The ski lift company has been the engine driving Levi’s growth, and there have been bitter battles over its ownership. In the late 1990s, the local municipality of Kittilä gained majority ownership, which has remained stable ever since. Now, in any case, there is certainty that the work in Levi and Kittilä is solely targeted at developing the resort.

Taking the helm at the Levi lifts company, now called Levi Ski Resort Ltd, was Jouni Palosaari, a young building engineer from Kittilä. A tireless background champion of Levi, municipal director Aarne Nikka, wrote in his memoirs in 2003 that the company’s decision to hire Palosaari was “one of the most important in its history”.

In fact, Palosaari did not have to start from scratch, although from the current perspective the 3,500 hotel beds available at the resort in 1988 seems paltry.

An active policy of land acquisition was the basis for development – and all sellers were paid equally well. Good plans were made, but many of them were undermined by the recession of the early 1990s. Financing almost dried up completely, as ski lifts were declared to be impossible investments. The leaders at Levi did not give up:

Jouni Palosaari’s perseverance contributed to making Levi what is today.© Breakthroughs

“We decided that if there are already enough ski lifts in Finland, then they are in the wrong places,” says Palosaari.

Levi has had reason to be grateful for the stubbornness of Palosaari and his partners.

The harsh truth of the recession years was that the death of one business was often the salvation of another, and this was equally true in the downhill ski industry.

“Three ski resorts, Muurla, Juupavaara and Kivesvaara, were going bankrupt, so I bought all of their equipment.”

Thus Levi got the country’s newest lifts for next to nothing. Therefore, it was better positioned than its competitors to invest in other areas when construction costs were low.

The strongest part of Levi’s marketing has been to attract major competitions, which is the hardest-fought battle in downhill sports. Success – “in an Alpine country with no Alps” – is quite a trick in itself.

“The factors that were blocking us from landing major events were darkness, cold and distance. We had to turn these to our advantage. The international ski federation FIS requires 90 lux of light on the slopes, while television requires 800. We built 900 lux worth of lighting on our competitive slopes. Now we can offer conditions that suit prime-time viewing hours in central Europe.

“Even the cold has turned in our favour. In February 2004, we had an amazing atmosphere at the opening ceremony of the women’s World Cup event. The next morning, the thermometer showed a reading of -36 degrees Celsius. I thought everything would be ruined. But the Slovenian team was enthusiastically posing for pictures next to a thermometer. No-one complained, and during the day the temperature rose to zero. Some central European resorts had had to cancel competitions that winter because of mild weather, so we were praised for offering real winter conditions.

“When we applied to host the opening event of the World Cup season in November 2006, we were able to demonstrate that is actually closer in some ways. Whereas in continental Europe you have to drive over winding mountain roads, we have an airport right at the foot of the slopes.”

In marketing events, organisers have found it good to emphasise the contrasts: on one hand Lapland and winter in seemingly primitive conditions, while on the other hand journalists are offered “Nokialandia” information technology services that far surpass those at other venues.

As proof that this combination works, the FIS has recently decided that Levi will host the opening event of the World Cup Slalom season annually until at least the year 2012. The television exposure that such events provide is massive. Its value in terms of marketing not only Levi, but all of northern Finland’s winter tourism industry, as well as to the sport itself, cannot be overestimated.

Originally published in “Breakthroughs – 90 Success Stories from Finland”, 2007

By Pentti Jussila, March 2009

For Finns, French Films now means music

Arts & culture Music

If there’s one word that defines the Finnish rock band French Films, it’s “fresh.”

They move with self-assurance on a stage at one of Helsinki’s most prestigious indie music festivals: happy, jumping, laughing and playing their guitars as if they were playing at an American high school on their own graduation day. Their wild, festive atmosphere doesn’t quite fit the general tone of Finnish music, which is sometimes characterised by heavy rhythms and a certain air of nostalgia.

“Well, if you live in Finland, it’s practically impossible to avoid a melancholy touch in the lyrics,” vocalist Johannes Leppänen tells us from behind his sunglasses while enjoying a well-deserved post-concert beverage backstage. At 22 years of age, the carefree air that he exudes is at the same time a very confident one for someone that considers it a privilege just to be on stage: “A few years ago I didn’t even have the money to come to the festival. I use to tell my friends that one day we will come here to play. And look! This year it came true!”

A future of films

They give it everything they’ve got at Flow Festival in August 2011.Photo: Antonio Díaz

In spite of having to play at an early hour, in spite of the organisers opening the doors late and in spite of a guitar not working, French Films manages to make the audience dance and jump as if possessed during a half an hour of scintillating guitar riffs, youthful energy and cool vibes.

This band has been coming on strong, and with good reason. It is considered by the Finnish trade press to be the most promising band on the scene, a future sales-chart topper. Its members Johannes, Joni, Mikael, Santtu and Antti have already achieved something beyond the reach of many new bands: They are well known only a year after publishing their first EP, Golden Sea.

“The truth is that internet promotion has helped us a lot,” says Johannes. “Ten years ago this would most probably have been impossible. Now Facebook, MySpace and all the blogs help us. Sometimes fans send us messages commenting that they loved some French movie or other. I am no expert in that field – the name of our band came from a conversation with Joni, our guitarist. But as long as they are fans, anything goes!”

Japan on the horizon

Looking forward to the future: French Films performs in the Land of the Rising Sun in late 2011.Photo: Flow Festival

For the time being the band is busy showing the world that French Films refers to more than Godard and Truffaut. The band’s first album, Imaginary Future, appeared in September 2011. They will continue touring Europe and will visit Japan for the first time at the end of the year:

“I’m excited about our trip to Japan,” says Johannes enthusiastically. “It’s an incredible place and I’ve never been there. It’s fantastic that our music gives us the opportunity to visit places like that.”

Even though French Films’ music invites you to relax and be transported by the party atmosphere, these Finns have their feet firmly on the ground: “We’d like to thank the public for everything,” Johannes tells the audience. “We hope you enjoy the concert, buy the new album and keep away from fascism because it’s never a good thing!” He shouts out his farewell message with a mischievous smile.

By Antonio Díaz, September 2011

Close encounters with the mighty moose

Life & society Travel

A male moose with a fine crown of antlers is an impressive sight. At Moose Manor, Finland’s first and only moose-based tourist attraction, visitors can meet, feed and pet moose before enjoying tasty meals filled with local ingredients – including moose meat.

Bull moose Jorma proudly waves his stately crown of antlers as he eagerly strides over to browse on the leafy branches we offer him in the woodland corral behind Moose Manor. Female moose Annikki is warier, making a mock charge before leading her leggy calf Suvi away to a secluded corner of their enclosure.

“Our three adult moose have all come from zoos, as in Finland it’s illegal to take wild animals into captivity, but our two calves, Laila and Suvi, were born here,” explains Susanna Partio, who set up Moose Manor in 2008 on an old farmstead at Jämsä in central Finland.

Moose Manor is a family business. Susanna, an experienced chef, runs the kitchen, while her son Paavo looks after the animals and guides visitors.

Individual personalities

Photo: Fran Weaver

Moose eat up to 40 kilogrammes of food each day. “We’ve made friends among local landowners by clearing their willow thickets to get branches to feed our moose,” says Susanna. “Sometimes we also feed them apples, potatoes or hay to reproduce their natural seasonal diet, and as a result our animals have all stayed healthy.”

Moose can quite easily get used to people, though their limited attention span makes it practically impossible to train them for any useful work. “Looking after moose isn’t too hard though – except in the October rutting season, when the males don’t even eat, and can only think of one thing!” adds Paavo.

The Partios are clearly attached to their unusual “pets,” and keen to explain their distinct personalities to visitors. “Our oldest male, Matti-Esko, escaped a couple of years ago, but he really didn’t know how to behave in the forest with the wild moose. When he eventually came home, tired and skinny, he licked me all over my face,” remembers Susanna.

Moose on the menu

Moose Manor is a popular winter destination for holiday-makers based at the nearby Himos ski resort, including many Russian, Dutch and German visitors. In summer most of the guests are Finnish and Russian tourists. “The chance to see moose close-up is the main attraction, but almost everyone stays to dine in our restaurant too,” says Susanna.

Moose Manor’s menu includes moose meat from local hunters.Photo courtesy of Moose Manor

The kitchen serves traditional Finnish fare including locally sourced forest mushrooms, wild berries, woodland herbs and lake fish, as well as moose meat. The latter is supplied fresh by local hunters in the autumn and a supply is kept in the freezer for the rest of the year. “Though our own moose will never be sold as meat, we think it’s natural to eat moose meat, and people should understand where their food comes from,” says Susanna.

After savouring Moose Manor’s braised moose meat with buttery mashed potatoes, lingonberry sauce and pickled cucumbers, we head out to the corral where a young Finnish moose-fanatic, Anni, is lovingly stroking her new friend’s snout. “Matti-Esko is my favourite. He’s so big but very friendly, and his antlers feel so funny with their soft, warm covering,” she says delightedly.

Wild moose on the loose

Moose crossing the highway can cause car accidents.Photo: Fran Weaver

• Finland’s moose population numbered almost 100,000 at the end of 2010, according to surveys conducted by the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute. An estimated 60,000 moose calves were born in spring 2011.

• Wolves and other wild predators are scarce in Finland, so moose numbers are purposefully limited through controlled hunting. This helps to reduce traffic accidents and the damage moose cause in commercially managed forests.

• Permits have been granted to enable about 60,000 moose to be hunted in autumn 2011 (the moose-hunting season starts on September 24).

• There are 310,000 registered hunters in Finland. About 100,000 people hunt moose, usually in well-planned groups organised by local hunting clubs.

By Fran Weaver, September 2011

Finnish nuclear waste may rest in peace

Life & society Environment

In Finland, work is progressing on the world’s first landfill for highly radioactive nuclear waste. The 420-metre deep access tunnel to the repository is already excavated.

If X, then Y. This is the Finnish view, at least, when it comes to the final disposal of nuclear waste: X equals waste created by nuclear power plants, and Y equals barriers to prevent particles from spent fuel rods from reaching the biosphere.

Forty-one countries use nuclear energy, but Finland is the first nation in the world to line up a final storage place. They’re calling it Onkalo, which means “cave” in Finnish. Plans also exist in the US and in Sweden, which is cooperating with Finland in these matters.

Back in the early 1980s, Finland’s nuclear power plant operators realised that the nuclear waste had to go somewhere. The country has nuclear power facilities in two locations: Olkiluoto on the west coast and Loviisa on the south coast.

Enter here to follow the access tunnel that winds gradually down through the rock to a depth of more than 420 metres.Photo: Posiva Oy

“We were pragmatic, and even then knew that if we produced radioactive waste, we would also be responsible for disposing of it safely,” says Timo Äikäs, vice president of Posiva Ltd, which has been in charge of Finland’s project for a future disposal facility since 1995.

Until 1996, spent fuel from Finnish nuclear power plants was transported to Russia for reprocessing. In 1994 the Finnish Parliament had ruled to prohibit importing and exporting radioactive waste and reprocessing nuclear waste abroad. The solution was to transport highly radioactive waste from TVO’s Olkiluoto facilities and from Fortum to temporary storage in Loviisa, 400 kilometres away. After cooling down for 50 years, it will be buried forever deep in the granite.

In the future, the spent fuel from both energy companies will be sent to Onkalo, situated on the Olkiluoto peninsula on the idyllic Gulf of Bothnia, in the nuclear-energy-friendly town of Eurajoki.

Right location

Posiva Ltd, a subsidiary of the two energy companies, began construction of Onkalo in 2004. However, they started searching for a suitable location as early as 1983, performing geological, hydrological and geochemical investigations all over Finland.

“The only option we have in Finland is the crystalline bedrock,” says Äikäs. “A long search, which lasted until 2000, verified that the locations we tested are all quite similar scientifically and technically. They all meet the conditions for safe storage.

“A nuclear power plant and infrastructure already existed on the Olkiluoto peninsula. We also knew that the majority of spent fuel accumulates there, so the transport distance would be short. Loviisa, on the other hand, produces far less radioactive waste.”

Multiple safety barriers

The spent fuel will be placed inside a graphite cast iron honeycomb (right) contained in a copper canister (left).Photo: Posiva Oy

The disposal is based on a multibarrier system of technical solutions: Pure copper canisters contain honeycombs made of graphite cast iron. The canisters are surrounded with a waterproof bentonite clay buffer, as well as the natural barrier of stable granite, which is not temperature-sensitive.

There the radioactivity will be held in check for at least 100,000 years, surrounded by bentonite clay inside a shaft drilled and blasted through the granite to a depth of 420 metres.

Could the barriers withstand a new ice age? Humanity has yet to succeed in building something that will last forever. The Fennoscandian bedrock is, however, among the oldest geological formations in Europe.

“Let me think how old the rock is here,” says Posiva geologist Kimmo Kemppainen when asked about the safety of Finnish granite. “It has survived almost 1.8 million years. This is a fairly long period, during which several deformation phases have produced no huge changes.”

Ready by 2020

Four of the barriers that prevent the nuclear waste from being released.Photo: Posiva Oy

What’s next? So far the Onkalo access tunnel has been completed, and currently serves as a sort of underground laboratory. Soon the two ventilation shafts and employee shaft will be complete. Planning permission for the actual repository is set for 2012.

Next on the list are the encapsulation plant and the first of the deposition tunnels where the canisters will be housed. If all goes well for Posiva, they will request an operating license from the government in 2018 and the repository will open in 2020.

The estimated total cost of the facility equals three billion euros. It will accept nuclear waste for at least 100 years before being sealed forever. Time will tell whether Onkalo remains the only facility of its kind; Fennovoima has now joined TVO and Fortum as a nuclear power plant operator and must, within the next six years, either form an agreement with Posiva or submit plans for its own final disposal facility.

By Rebecca Libermann, September 2011

Helsinki’s new Music Centre garners rave reviews

Arts & culture Architecture

Helsinki’s brand new Music Centre, which opened its doors on August 31, 2011, is already earning plaudits from musicians and audiences for its state-of-the-art acoustics.

Finnish classical music aficionados’ long wait for a major concert hall with suitable acoustics to provide a home base for Helsinki’s two top-flight classical orchestras, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic, is now over. “After 20 years of work, our dreams have now come true!” says Helena Hiilivirta Director of the Helsinki Music Centre.

“Our goal has also been to create a living cultural centre for everybody, a meeting place in the middle of the city. We’re right on a convenient path between the railway station and the main thoroughfare Mannerheimintie,” she adds.

The centre’s pleasant café, a small record shop, an exhibition area and open rehearsals should all help to bring casual visitors in. Hiilivirta is also pleased that the centre’s mirror-like glass covering has attracted young skateboarders and street dancers to the surrounding paved areas and lawns, and she hopes they will soon venture inside.

Surrounded by superb sound

The main concert hall features a vineyard-style terraced seating layout.Photo courtesy of Music Centre

The two main aims of the centre’s architects were to create a building in harmony with the surrounding cityscape in the heart of the Finnish capital, and to create an acoustically world-class concert hall – with help from Japanese specialists Nagata Acoustics.

“We chose proven materials and acoustic structures and a vineyard-style terraced seating layout for the main concert hall with the audience surrounding the orchestra, as in the successful Berlin Philharmonie concert hall, but each hall must have its own unique acoustic design,” explains acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.

The microshaped, dark-stained birch panels covering the main concert hall’s walls have been designed to diffuse sound and prevent echoes, while also giving Finnish audiences the subliminal sense of sitting in a giant traditional smoke sauna. The seating arrangement separates the audience into intimate clusters angled towards the light-coloured pine-clad stage, which stands out among the otherwise dark furnishings.

Toyota proudly describes the hall’s acoustics as clear and rich. “Recordings on media like CDs are so wonderful today, enabling listeners to hear every single note clearly, so it’s frustrating if you don’t get the same experience in concert halls,” he adds.

Master classes for budding musicians

In addition to the 1,700-seat main concert hall, the centre includes an underground level with five smaller concert venues and ample space for performers to tune up or chill out.

The Music Centre forms a cultural centre for everybody, a meeting place in the middle of the city.Photo courtesy of Music Centre

The centre also provides a new base for the renowned Sibelius Academy, where young elite Finnish musicians learn their trade. “As well as our new teaching classrooms and studios, we’re delighted that the centre will enable our students to interact and collaborate with professional musicians and take part in their master classes,” says the academy’s rector Gustav Djupsjöbacka.

Highlights of the centre’s opening season include a gala Rachmaninoff concert by Armenian pianist Denis Matsuev with the Helsinki Philharmonic and a show by the unique Finnish rock group Apocalyptica, whose members include cellists trained at the Sibelius Academy.

Tickets for the autumn’s events are selling out fast with Finnish music-lovers keen to see – and hear – the new €188-million centre for themselves.

By Salla Korpela and Fran Weaver, September 2011

Nordic backing for green projects

Life & society Society

Three Helsinki-based Nordic funds are financing green projects at home and abroad to address environmental problems including climate change and Baltic Sea pollution.

“NIB provides long-term loans for projects that improve the environment and competitiveness. Such schemes might be shunned on financial markets as risky investments, but for us as a government-owned international financial institution with a high credit rating, financial performance and lucrative interest rates are not the main issue,” explains NIB communications director Jukka Ahonen.

NIB mainly finances projects in the Nordic and Baltic regions, targeting sustainable growth and the use of clean technologies in areas such as wastewater treatment. Many projects aim to increase the use of renewable energy, including geothermal power in Iceland, wind power in Denmark and Sweden, and wood energy in Finland.

Helsinki’s metro goes west

NIB helps finance environmentally friendly public transport such as the westward extension of Helsinki’s metro rail system.Photo: Kimmo Mäntylä/Lehtikuva

NIB also provides loans to finance the expansion of environmentally friendly public transport services such as the trolleybus system in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Ahonen adds that, closer to home, NIB recently granted a 30-year loan of 120 million euros to Finland’s largest current infrastructure project – the westward extension into Espoo of Helsinki’s metro rail system, which will grow by 14 kilometres and seven new stations. “The first West Metro trains should depart in 2015, easing congestion and reducing fuel consumption in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area by carrying more than 100,000 passengers daily,” he says.

NIB was founded by the Nordic countries in 1975, and the Baltic countries joined in 2005. Member countries provide capital in proportion to their gross national income. In addition to providing the bank with a home, Finland subscribes to almost 18 percent of NIB’s total authorised capital of more than six million euros.

The Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation, NIB’s next-door neighbour in Helsinki’s Nordic financial hub, funds environmental projects in northwest Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic countries.

“We provide loans or share capital for financially viable investments that use proven clean technologies to improve waste management and wastewater treatment, reduce air pollution, increase the use of renewable energy and promote clean processes,” says NEFCO communications manager Mikael Sjövall. “When making financing decisions we weigh up investment costs against expected emission reductions.”

Cleaning up the Baltic Sea

One of NEFCO’s main aims is to clean up the Baltic Sea.Photo: Niklas Sjöblom/taivasalla.net

NEFCO’s two main aims are to combat climate change by curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and to reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea. To reduce marine pollution it is often more cost-effective for the Nordic countries to fund improvements in industrial facilities and sewage plants in other countries in the Baltic Sea catchment area, since the worst point sources of pollution at home have already been effectively cleaned up.

Sjövall describes an agricultural project funded by NEFCO in rural Estonia where manure from cattle and poultry farms is being converted into biogas for energy use. “This project reduces emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane, provides renewable energy for local use, gives farmers a new source of income and also reduces emissions of nutrients into local rivers and the Baltic Sea, so it’s really a win-win scheme all round,” he says.

NEFCO also runs the 165-million-euro NEFCO Carbon Fund, which invests in renewable energy projects around the world and is funded by energy companies who gain emission reduction unit credits in return.

Grants in low-income countries

The Nordic Development Fund, a multilateral development finance institution set up by the governments of Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, also focuses on climate-friendly projects. “For most of its 20-year history, NDF provided soft loans totalling approximately one billion euros for many kinds of development projects, but today our mandate involves providing grants for projects that promote climate change mitigation and adaptation in low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America,” says NDF country programme manager Hannu Eerola.

“One of NDF’s important instruments today supports renewable energy projects in Southeast Asia through the Mekong Energy and Environment Programme which was initiated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and is jointly financed by Finland and NDF,” explains Eerola. Example projects include solar energy schemes in Cambodia and small-scale hydropower developments in Laos.

By Fran Weaver, July 2011

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