UPM-Biofore-Magazine-1-2016-ENG

TEXT VESA PUOSKARI

PHOTOGRAPHY ELISA NILSSON

be adopted immediately. Our target is to fully replace fossil fuels with renewable biofuels by the year 2020,” confirms Reijo Mäkinen , head of public transportation at HSL. The tests are being conducted on four identical, low-emission Volvo Euro VI Class buses with efficient engines. The buses will be operated by Transdev Finland on HSL’s regular bus routes. Two buses are using UPM BioVerno renewable diesel and the other two are fuelled with conventional fossil diesel. Both VTT and the bus manufacturer Volvo will check the test buses before, in the middle and at the end of the testing period. “The environment is one of Volvo’s three core values along with safety and the high quality of our products. These test drives place us at the forefront of development also in this field,” confirms TomRönnberg , who is responsible for product technology at the Volvo Bus Centre. “The new Volvo Euro VI buses perform a continuous cleaning process of the exhaust system during normal driving conditions. Using clean fuels in the engines will reduce the process and the need for maintenance for the vehicles. With a clean fuel the maintenance costs will decrease,” he adds. St1 is the distributor of the fuel used in this project. UPMBioVerno has been available at St1 filling stations in Finland as part of their Diesel Plus fuel since spring.

SLUSH DRIVES GREEN GROWTH

Slush is one of the world’s most important business events dedicated to technology and growth. This year the spotlight shone brightly on green transformation.

S lush is a two-day event where eager startups share their innovations in the hope of attracting angel investors and sparring partners to support their budding businesses. Slush 2015 brought together more than 1,700 startups and some 15,000 attendees in Helsinki last November. More than ever before, this year’s event focused on themes related to the bio-based and circular economy. Jyrki Ovaska , Executive Vice President, Technology, presented UPM’s visions for sustainable growth and new partnership opportunities to a packed audience crowded around the Green Stage. “We can offer startups fantastic prospects for cooperation in several business areas like forestry and wood sourcing or production, as well as

innovations in areas such as the sales and supply chain. We can also offer our prospective partners opportunities to use our patents that fall outside our core businesses. As for the circular economy, we would like to cooperate with partners who can help us exploit our side streams more efficiently.” Ovaska notes that even well- established companies like UPM need the same boldmentality as startups in today’s business climate. “Building new technologies, products and businesses requires a lot of curiosity, new competences and determination for research and development. We can’t do all the work alone, so we’re looking for partners everywhere from universities and research institutes to startups.”

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