Finland Times

 

Located just two hours northwest of the Finnish capital Helsinki, the Tampere region is perhaps best known for its associations with the once-storied mobile phone maker Nokia. The former phone maker traces its history in Tampere back to 1865 and employed large numbers of locals at its peak.

Nokia aside, the main town and the region as a whole represent a vibrant hub, featuring industrial roots that run deep and a respected academic, technology and R&D tradition that attracts scholars from all over the world. It's also a great place to live, having repeatedly been voted Finland's best city in which to settle.

With all those credentials under their belt, city officials are now embarking on a bold plan to put Tampere on the map once more - as the home of Finland's first government-approved eco-industrial zone.

"We would like to have the designation of being Finland's first national industrial clean tech pilot program," said Petri Nykanen, Director of Business Development and Investment for Tredea, an economic development unit owned by eight municipalities in the Tampere region.

The city of Tampere will partner with two other local municipalities - Nokia and Ylojarvi - to develop Kolmenkulma, a 600-hectare eco-industrial park concept to help industrial companies benefit from active symbiosis with clean tech innovators. The concept envisions energy-efficient structures, smart energy grids, decentralized energy production and waste utilization in an industrial setting that's expected to create up to 10,000 jobs.

"It means finding ways for companies working in close proximity to benefit from more efficient resource usage. In other words, one company's waste could be another's raw material," Nykanen explained.

He noted that traditional business parks tend to focus on infrastructure such as office facilities, utilities and warehousing. While companies working in such environments may find ways to collaborate, Nykanen observed that these models "don't allow companies to pick their neighbors".

"We need to go beyond the normal zoning practices and understand the nature of the businesses and allow the relationships (between companies) to determine the infrastructure," Nykanen added.

The project's foundation is a pre-study on different energy-producing models as well as reviews of various clean tech zones, potential R&D projects and possible candidates for what city officials call a "living lab". The three cities are awaiting a green light from the Tampere Regional Council, a joint municipal body that is the final decision-making authority on projects of this nature.

Nykanen said that the key to creating a successful and sustainable real-life symbiosis between industrial players and the clean tech sector is finding between three and five of the right "anchor companies" around which a value network of complementary firms would be built.

"So the role of the public sector is to act as matchmaker between the anchor companies and other complementary businesses. And to allow companies to expand their offering, whether it be by providing waste water or steam that could then be used for purposes such as district heating," Nykanen observed.

One such anchor company is the waste-to-energy plant Tammervoima in nearby Tarastenjarvi, which is also part of the proposed clean tech zone. The investment into that plant alone reached 105 million euros. Similar investments are expected in Kolmenkulma.

Local public officials are hoping that once they get approval from the supra-regional authority, they will be able to draw down on EU funding to bankroll basic infrastructure to provide an incubator environment for the proposed anchor companies. They estimate that this will happen by late 2016.

They have also pitched the venture - which they have billed as the country's first authentic eco-industrial project - to the national government, in the hope of being designated a national pilot program as part of the government's strategy to develop and leverage the 26 billion-euro clean tech sector. Getting that "seal of approval" would help facilitate investment decisions by anchor companies, and provide an avenue to export the concept, Nykanen pointed out.

"We can expand the concept of the eco-industrial park and the living lab and package the knowledge base for export. Finland is a small market so naturally we are keen to build a package for international application," the business development director said.