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Photo: BusinessOulu

The CarbonWise project promoted the carbon wisdom of companies through training, coaching and sparring. Companies were taught how to calculate their carbon footprint, interpret the results of the calculations and prepare targets for reducing and compensating for their carbon footprint.

In Oulu and Turku, the target group of the project included all companies, regardless of sector. In Espoo, the target group consisted of companies in the tourism industry. All in all, over 200 companies took part in the project.

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Results of CarbonWise

Oulu

  • A new Carbon-wise clinics model in cooperation with Macon Oy. The clinics were attended by 120 representatives of companies and other organisations. Companies were also provided with individual sparring services.
  • New operating model: An agile collaboration between the project and an educational institution resulted in the creation of an agile model that will be utilised in Oulu Business School’s Service Design for Circular Economy study programme in the future.
  • Guides:
    • Promotion of the carbon wisdom of BusinessAsema’s FabLab. Groups of students from the University of Oulu and Oulu Business School were tasked with coming up with ideas on how to utilise FabLab’s leftover materials and minimise their generation, for example.
    • Webinar series in collaboration with the Digitarjotin project; Developing carbon-wise business through digital means.
    • Pilot; Kiertokaari & Trilleco / Virtual visit to and guided tour of Rusko waste station.
  •  In Oulu, CarbonWise will be followed by the start of the building of the Oulu circular economy cluster, one of the sub-measures of which will be carbon footprint calculation. Other projects that are a continuation of CarbonWise: InnoAID project, Digitarjotin project, DesignOulu start project. CarbonWise also resulted in the creation of a new service product for BusinessOulu: developing carbon-wise business.

Espoo

  • Carbon-wise clinics model for the tourism industry. A total of 17 tourism industry companies based in Espoo and neighbouring areas participated in small group and company-specific coaching that provided them with tailored carbon footprint calculation templates and guidance on how to calculate their carbon footprint.
  • Coaching for tourism industry companies on how to communicate about responsibility issues.
  • Introductions to environmental programmes aimed at the tourism industry. As a result, 12 tourism industry companies joined environmental programmes and completed environmental certifications.
  • The project also carried out a Moder pilot in Espoo. Moder is a reservation system for accommodation entrepreneurs that also features a carbon footprint calculation function. The pilot provided participating companies with a clear and easy-to-use tool that helps accommodation entrepreneurs collect data on the carbon footprint of their own services and lowers the threshold for carbon footprint calculation.
  • The work started in the CarbonWise project will also continue in the Kestävää nostetta matkailuyrityksiin, Etelä-Suomi (‘Sustainable growth for tourism companies in Southern Finland’) project.

Turku

  • Nine workshops/webinars, in which companies were provided with guidance on why they should calculate their carbon footprint, how to calculate it, what the most effective reduction measures are, how to market their carbon footprint and how to compensate for it.
  • Pilot on the importance of digital marketing that involved organising a vegetarian food week at a local restaurant. Further two pilots, one in the cleaning industry and one related to event organisation.
  • Thinglink – ‘The path towards more carbon-wise operations at companies’. To be published at the turn of 2021 and 2022: includes materials for companies that help them get started on the path towards carbon wisdom independently.
  • As a follow-up to the CarbonWise project, local municipalities and companies will be provided with training in low carbon operations in collaboration with Valonia, the expert organisation for sustainable development in the municipalities of Southwest Finland, and Varsinais-Suomen Yrittäjät. The preparation of the next European Regional Development Fund project is also underway. The aim of this project will be to support SMEs in Southwest Finland in preparing responsibility plans.
  • Guides:
    • A carbon footprint calculation guide that is available to everyone.
    • Carbon wise events guide for the Kupittaa area.

The objective of the CarbonWise project was to promote companies’ understanding of the composition of their carbon footprint and capacity to monitor and analyse the parameters of their carbon footprint in order to minimise it. The project helped numerous companies realise the importance of carbon wisdom, spurring several companies on to participate in the project activities. Based on the feedback received, the project provided companies with concrete help for calculating their carbon footprint. The project ran from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2021 and had a budget of approximately EUR 450,000. The project parties were BusinessOulu, Oulu Business School, the University of Oulu, Turku University of Applied Sciences and the City of Espoo.

Further information

Tiina Haapaniemi
Project Manager, BusinessOulu
tiina.haapaniemi(at)businessoulu.com
tel. +358 (0) 50 3023196
CarbonWise Oulu website

Karoliina Korpela / Paula Greus
Project Manager, City of Espoo
karoliina.korpela(at)espoo.fi
tel. +358 (0) 43 827 3271
CarbonWise Espoo website

Sonja Lankiniemi / Maarit Jaakola
Project Manager, Turku University of Applied Sciences
firstname.lastname(at)turkuamk.fi
tel. +358 (0) 50 598 5881