Markku Koivisto, Director of UPM ProFi was awarded Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame nomination during the Cleantech Venture Day in Lahti, Finland, on November 4th. He joins two people that are already in the Hall of Fame, Lassi Noponen and Alf Björseth. They have both received this peace of art from raku-artist Dan Leonette who resides in Gotland, Sweden.

The theme of this year’s Cleantech Venture Day is “cleantech goes mainstream”. This will of course not happen by itself, but needs the help of driven individuals in big industrial companies who see business opportunities where others may see threats, or simply costs. We are very happy to give this award to someone who is one of these, often unsung heroes who initiate and change things in their respective companies.

Markku saw tonnes of clean plastic and paper being buried in landfills or burned. Since he hated the idea of buying an expensive raw material and throwing it away he instead turned this into a business area producing good looking and long lasting wood plastic composite, a valuable material very similar to hardwood.

During a tough time, when his company has cut personnel with 5,000 people, he has grown this unit from nothing into 60 people, two production sites, a rapidly increasing turnover and is looking at further rapid growth with sales now covering all of Europe and initial sales also happening in Asia. This business unit is now the fastest growing unit of a parent company UPM, one of the world’s leading forest products groups.

The official motivation is: For changing the way a big company does business by turning waste and CO2 emissions into a business opportunity. The rapid growth of the UPM ProFi business unit shows by example that a cleantech business area inside a company can achieve superior results even in hard times. Markku Koivisto, director of UPM ProFi Business Area has given the Nordic industry an inspiring success case of how a wastestream goes mainstream.
Read the press release»

Alf Björseth is the founder of Norwegian company REC, one of the world leaders in the solar industry. The company went from idea to a stock listing of 50 billion NOK in little over ten years providing the Nordic region with a clear-cut success story of cleantech growth along the way. Alf moved on to manage Scatec, a cleantech venture capital/incubator focusing on renewable energy and environmentally friendly materials that has new potential world leaders such as Norsun, who attracted the largest cleantech investment in the Nordics in 2009, OceanWind and Scatec Solar in its portfolio.

Alf Björseth thereby joins Lassi Noponen, chairman and founder of WinWinD in the Hall of Fame.

Read the press release»

During the Cleantech Venture Day in Lahti we gave a special award (a pice of raku art by Dan Leonette) to Lassi Noponen from Finland. This was the first award of this kind and also marked the opening of a Scandinavian Cleantech Hall of Fame, where we will continue to award people like Lassi who have inspired others in the Nordic cleantech industry, helping to accelerate Nordic cleantech development and growth. Lassi was a true early mover in the Nordic cleantech industry. He started cleantech focus investment firm Proventia as early as 2000. WinWinD was the result of a spin-off in that time and Lassi was the chairman of WinWinD when the investment from Masdar Cleantech Fund went into the company.

The official motivation is: “For showing by example that big capital injections from international actors are possible in the Nordic cleantech sector. The investment by Masdar Cleantech Fund in WinWinD was a milestone for Nordic start-ups looking for investors in the commercialisation stage. It was the single largest cleantech investment by far in year 2008 and helped place the Nordic region on the international cleantech capital map.”