< All news

ECO3: a hub for circular and biobased innovation

Nokia, the city

Nokia is part of the Pirkanmaa region, with Tampere as capital. The region has about 550,000 inhabitants and its population is growing. Tampere has 255,000 and Nokia, located to the east of Tampere, 35,000. The region has a strong industrial character. Tampere’s industrial history goes back to around 1800 with the construction of factories, powered by the rapids that connects two lakes north and south of the city. The region has developed a strong industrial profile, with initial strengths in paper, rubber, and machine building, later broadening towards medical technology, mobile technology and ICT. Over the decades, the regional economy has managed to adapt, diversify and became more knowledge intensive, with an important role for the universities as innovative engines and talent developers/attractors. The industrial ecosystems are now powered by R&D and service activity. Meanwhile, much of the industrial heritage of high quality has been preserved; iconic factory building have been transformed to host restaurants, bars, services, but also service companies, and startups. They give the city  unique industrial character even though the share and number if industry drops has declines in recent decades. Nokia, located 15 km west of Tampere, also developed as industrial powerhouse, with the Nokia tyre factory as most important employer but also many more industrial firms. Industry in Nokia is still growing (in turnover and size, not in employment) but also transforming to more sustainable production, seeking to increase the use of renewables, become more circular and resource efficient, and lowering the CO2 footprint.

ECO3 for circular and biobased industry

To facilitate the green transformation, since 2016 the city of Nokia has been developing the ECO3 concept: a business area for ecological production. The area focuses on industrial-scale circular and biobased activities. It wants to become Finland’s leading bio-and circular economy business area. The area is 130Ha large, and investments so far have amounted to 100m euros. Eco 3 is being developed by a public company named Verte Ltd, which is 100% owned by the City of Nokia. Verte Ltd developed the strategy of the area and takes care of the acquisition of new companies, ecosystem building, and relationship management with existing and new companies. Not all companies are welcome. To safeguard the concept, Verte Ltd applies a set of criteria for new firms: they must contribute to the mission of the area, have a minimum size, a proven technology, and be able to implement the project. Also they must commit to contribute to the local ecosystem and to the livability of Nokia.

The land of ECO3 is publicly owned, the city of Nokia sells or leases the plots to the companies that locate there. The city provides for the planning and infrastructures. Since 2016, many companies have settled there, most of them working on the edge of green industrial innovation. The company base is diverse, Verte Ltd is constantly looking for synergies between the companies (industrial symbiosis) and monitors their need for infrastructures. To reach its specific target group, ECO3 has its own marketing approach, it is developed as an independent brand rather than being part of the City of Nokia’s branding.

Verte Ltd’s staff work closely and smoothly with departments of the City of Nokia, but also with Circular Pirkanmaa, a publicly owned entity that is tasked with driving the circular transition in the region, focusing on the built environment and industrial material flows.

ECO3 is in full development, demand for plots is high, and hence there are ambitious expansion plans. Two key infrastructure investments are under consideration: a hydrogen pipeline (running to the port of Rauma, 130km to the west) and a dry port to facilitate the turnover of goods. Both would support circular industrial development. Hydrogen is a key future energy solution for industrial purposes. From a European perspective, Finland is attractive for the hydrogen economy because of low electricity prices.

What are the succesfactors of ECO3?

Several factors drive the success:

• There is a strong growth of circular and biobased industrial activity. Green industry companies look for well-accessible locations where they can run their space intensive business, connect to a variety of energy infrastructures (grid, heat nets, hydrogen pipes), and benefit from industrial symbiosis (as one companies’ waste can be the input of another). ECO3 plays into this with its clear focus on industrial-scale biobased and circular activities with proven technologies.
• ECO3 is actively managed by a small but strong team, that maintains close contacts with the companies in order to know their needs, develop infrastructures, find opportunities for collaboration. They also catalyze investments in new infrastructures such as the H2 pipeline or the dryport, being able to mobilize resources in the city region. The team’s director is a well-known and respected, has good relations with the companies and also in the relevant public sector bodies.
• The development has backing from the City of Nokia (responsible for planning, permits), that has a hands-on and pro-business attitude and reputation; cooperation between Verte Ltd and the city is smooth.
• The development of ECO3 benefits from being embedded in ambitious regional circular strategies, such as the Circular Green Deal, and has good collaboration with Circular Pirkanmaa. Also, there are strong relations with the University of Tampere that runs an interdisciplinary competence centre on circular development. Thus the developing team benefits from the latest knowledge and innovative circular practices, which helps the team to apply circular principles in the development, to assess the credibility of potential investors, and to be a credible partner for industry.
• Dedicated marketing and branding: ECO3 has its own branding approach, specifically directed towards the target group, see https://eco3.fi/en/
• Strategic collaboration with the Port of Rauma: The supply chains of the circular clusters strongly rely on shipping of secondary and biobased materials. The Port of Rauma (130 km to the west) is key in this respect. There are regular strategic alignments between the this port, Nokia, the region and Eco3 to address the demand for new infrastructures such as the dry port and the H2 pipeline