NIB President hands out climate solutions award

The winners of the international competition “Practical solutions to combat climate change” were announced today in Turku during a sustainability conference. The competition, aimed at the Baltic Sea region and the Nordic countries, was looking for new or as of yet unestablished business concepts, practices and technologies to assist municipalities and other local and regional actors to better control the effects of climate change.

First prize was shared by the collaboration between Snowpower AB and the local council of Västernorrland in Sweden, and the City of Tampere from Finland. Snowpower’s winning solution is called “Snow cooling”. It is a method for storing snow during the winter and using it for cooling purposes during warmer seasons. The solution is already used in one hospital in Sweden, where energy savings of up to 90% have been observed,  and at Sapporo Airport in Japan.

The winning solution of the City of Tampere is a project called “ECO2: Eco-efficient Tampere 2020”. This is a strategic project with the objective of implementing the climate commitment of the city. ECO2 was started in 2010 and the scope contains the development of new, low-carbon city planning methods to facilitate growth in sustainable business and become a forerunner in climate policy.

Seventy-nine organisations from seven countries participated in the competition. NIB was represented in the jury, and the President and CEO Johnny Åkerholm handed out the prizes during the ongoing conference “Solutions, local, together”. In his speech to the winners he commented on the initiative of the competition:

“This competition addresses the urgent importance of turning words into actions. At the same time it puts focus on regional cooperation, as well as on concrete technical solutions ready to be implemented.”

The competition was arranged by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the local and regional authorities of Finland, Norway and Sweden.