Towards eco efficiency

A 'clean technology' conference in Helsinki shows how Finland and its high-technology economy are taking the environment seriously. Government strategy and company implementation combine to give Finland an increasing reputation for clean technology.

Research and development helps companies create more effective processes and products, increasing eco-efficiency at the same time.

Now businesses are improving productivity dramatically while also reducing pollution, encouraged in part by government regulation and consumer pressure.
How industry is meeting the challenges of eco-efficiency formed the subject of Cleantech Finland, a recent conference
in Helsinki. The event also covered the role of government in enabling the process.

Kirsi Sormunen, vice president and head
of environmental affairs at Finnish mobile communications giant Nokia, spoke at the conference.

When asked what steps Nokia is taking to reduce energy use, she says, "The energy embedded in our products has reduced over the years as we have made them lighter — from 4.8 kilos for the Nokia Talkman back in 1984 to around 80 grams today. We have also increased the functions within one device so a modern phone can replace a phone, an MP3 player and a camera." The energy needed to make a mobile phone has decreased over the years, and many of the materials can be recycled.

Sormunen adds, "We are also very conscious of how much energy is used by phone chargers, whether they are actually charging a phone or just left on. Our phones are becoming more efficient, from needing around 0.5 watts in 2000 to 0.3 watts today — and we aim to reduce this by half by 2010.
"But the highest use of energy is when people leave their chargers on — about two-thirds do this, enough to power 100,000 homes.

We can try to change behaviour with our phones now telling their owners when they are full, but we have also redesigned our chargers so they only use a few per cent of the power they used to when on standby." And are these moves in response to government regulation?

"Obviously regulation is one factor, but we aim to be ahead of regulatory requirements," says Sormunen. How can industry reduce its environmental footprint? Metso is an international technology corporation serving the paper, energy and raw materials industries.

Pasi Laine, president of Metso Automation, says Metso does not set specific targets for energy reduction, but rather has a continuous programme of research aimed at making its own and its customers' production processes more efficient.

— The writer is a science journalist based in London.
Courtesy: Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland