The Envi Grow eco-industrial park recycles “materials, energy, expertise and information” in a closed-loop system that is kind to the environment and good for local business.
- 01 October 2014
Envi Grow Park is a modern concentration of both municipal and private, multifaceted and competitive high-tech companies. The Park has shown and will continue to show the way to a sustainable future for the bioeconomy.
Efficient zoning solutions and a compact industrial development model are boosting innovation and sustainable growth in southern Finland. Envi Grow Park is currently home to more than 20 companies, employing 200 experts, that specialise in recycling and waste management or operate with recycled materials and renewable energy. The latest addition to the Park is a new biomethane filling station for cars and trucks. Biomethane is also used in the manufacture of glass wool-based insulation materials, and the green electricity produced from biogas by the local CHP unit is used in a printing house.
The project builds upon the achievements of the Forssa Envitech area, which over the past 20 years has emerged as a major exponent of an increasingly integrated bioeconomy. The Forssa area of southern Finland’s Kanta-Häme Region is resolutely green – “Bright Green Forssa Region”, they call themselves – and Envi Grow Park is evolving into a virtuous circle where one industry’s recycled waste is another company’s fuel.
Green hub
In addition to the closed-loop or circular model synergies that make Envi Grow Park’s operations so efficient and eco-friendly, the Park benefits from the cutting-edge research and environmental expertise produced by its cluster of leading technological innovators. In this way expertise and information are “recycled” along with materials, waste products and energy.
Established and developing activities at the Park include the production of local organic food in large modern greenhouses; the production of green covers (sod turf) and bio-fertilisers; biogas, bioethanol and synthetic diesel for use as transport fuel; the use of carbon dioxide separated from biogas; industrial aquaculture using bioenergy; and innovative recovery and reuse of by-products from the food industry.
Private and public investment over the next years is estimated to top EUR 150 000 000, as plans are already in place for a wind farm and for a bio-hybrid power plant combining biogas and bioethanol production. Significant additional investments are expected from all operators in the Park.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for “Envi Grow Park” was EUR 285 600, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributed EUR 114 240 from the “Southern Finland ERDF Programme” for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.