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BIOFORE
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
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
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.
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.”
TEXT
VESA PUOSKARI
PHOTOGRAPHY
ELISA NILSSON