Kesko granted 25,000 euros in awards for sustainable development
Kesko’s awards for sustainable development were distributed in Helsinki today. The biggest award was granted to the web education project of the Department of Chemistry, Teacher Education unit, University of Helsinki. Six awards were distributed and they totalled EUR 25,000. There were 62 applicants, including non-governmental organisations, voluntary and municipal organisations engaged in recycling and social work, colleges, researchers, journalists and other applicants distinguished as individuals.
The EUR 10,000 award was granted to the web education package project produced by the Department of Chemistry, Teacher Education unit, University of Helsinki.
The EUR 5,000 award went to Marja-Leena Andelmin and Pekka Leppänen who have built an ecological wooden house for their dwelling at Suomusjärvi.
The EUR 2,500 awards were granted to the Martha Organization, to Nonfiction Writer Ulla Lehtonen of Varkaus, to ’Biogas Farmer’ Erkki Kalmari of Laukaa and to Editor Pertti Harju and Environmental Inspector Jari Lampinen, who run a recycling programme on a regional radio channel of the Finnish Broadcasting Company in Satakunta.
The jury comprised of the representatives of the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development, the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Helsinki School of Economics, the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers, and Kesko.
As in the previous years, the jury valued high the work done with children and young people. Kesko wanted to recognise voluntary work in particular, which meant that in paid work any normal standard had to be exceeded by far. Awards were above all directed to the parties who had not received recognition from elsewhere. When determining the sums, the extent of activities and finance from other sources were taken into account. Thus the sums granted do not reflect any ranking order.
More information about the activities and merits of all awardees are given in the attachment.
Kesko distributed awards for sustainable development now for the fourth time. Kesko has made systematic work for environmental protection and sustainable development and reported about its performance in public. This work has been recognised in many ways. Correspondingly, Kesko wants to give recognition to those promoting sustainable development and bring this work before the public.
Further information:
Jouko Kuisma, Senior Advisor, Corporate Responsibility, Kesko Corporation,
tel. +358 1053 23140, +358 50 5143 043, jouko.kuisma@kesko.fi
Printable photos of the awardees’ activities are available from the image archive on Kesko’s web pages at www.kesko.fi/materialservice
ATTACHMENT:
KESKO’S 2003 AWARDS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Department of Chemistry, Teacher Education unit, University of Helsinki (EUR 10,000)
In spring 2003, the Teacher Education unit of the Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki produced web education packages during the course ‘Chemistry in society’. The project is the first course that combines education in sustainable development with the education of subject teachers in Finland. Eight education packages have been produced: Gases on our Living Environment, Environmental Chemistry in Energy Production, Glues – stick to them, Chemistry of Milk, Chemistry of Sea Water, Chemistry of Plastics, Chemistry of Water Treatment, and Environmental Chemistry. The 2002 course produced 10 education packages, most of which also support sustainable development, though it was not yet the main theme of education.
Students have prepared packages working in teams with the organisations of industry and commerce, business companies and the eChemicum learning centre of the Department of Chemistry. These education packages are aimed at active students who participate in obtaining, processing and critical evaluation of information and understand the principles of sustainable development. In the packages, chemistry is also integrated with other subjects such as biology, physics, home economics, mathematics, history, civics and study counselling. The packages are freely available to everyone on the unit’s web pages. The ‘Chemistry of Milk’ package has also been prepared in Swedish. In May 2003 the web pages offering the education packages had about one thousand visitors. The ‘Chemistry of Sea Water’ package was selected as ’the link of May’ on Science03 pages of the Academy of Finland.
Further information: Project leader, University Lecturer Maija Aksela,
tel. +358 50 514 1450
www.helsinki.fi/ml/Chemistry/opettajakoulutus/opetuspaketit/
Marja-Leena Andelmin and Pekka Leppänen (EUR 5,000)
Pekka Leppänen – retired Senior Research Scientist, Building Technology of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland– and his spouse Marja-Leena Andelmin, the Project Activator in the Association for Western Finland’s Rural Development, have built an ecological wooden house called Rannanpeltotalo at Suomusjärvi. This low-energy house, completed in 1997, uses only half of the usual amount of energy and operates all year round with renewable domestic energies. It has been mainly built of renewable local materials and is easy to repair and transform.
There are plenty of technical information and monitoring statistics available of the Rannanpeltotalo house. Its size is 155 m2/600 m3. The annual consumption of electricity is 3,600–4,700 kWh, solar energy accounts for 10-13% of the total consumption, 8-10 m3 of firewood is used per year, burning emissions have been measured, etc. With the Ministry of Environment, Rakennustieto Oy has published a book called ’Ecological wooden house’, in which Pekka Leppänen, one of the two writers, presents the solutions of this house. The book also presents the Marjala eco house in Liperi. The Rannanpeltotalo house participated in the international Energy Globe Award competition in the Housing category and was ranked number six out of the 500 participants.
Further information: Pekka Leppänen, tel. +358 440 701 379, Marja-Leena Andelmin, tel. +358 44 520 9347
The Martha Organization (EUR 2,500)
The Martha Organizationis a national Home Economics Extension Organization which has about 50,000 members in a total of 1,600 associations and clubs. In its values, the Martha Organizationis committed to operate for sustainable development. These themes issue are in many ways presented in Emäntälehti (Home Maker Magazine) and on the Internet pages updated monthly. The organization’s practical home economics consulting brings sustainable development close to the everyday life of consumers.
In the 2000s, the Martha Organizationhas implemented several projects that support sustainable development. The 2000 project was called ’Ecological rucksack – future choices’ which gave people practical information about the way of life that agrees with sustainable development – of everyday choices, local food, households’ energy consumption and sorting of waste. In 2001-2002 the organization implemented the local food project and produced ’Vegetarian food on the web’ study package. In 2003 they launched a project which looks at how our choices affect the climate. The Martha Organizationhas also participated in two co-operation projects: the game launched on the Internet in spring 2003, which helps to evaluate the relationship between the office work and sustainable development, and the theme package dealing with our living environment and the traffic.
Further information: Executive Director Pirkko Ruuskanen-Parrukoski and Department Manager Asta Kuosmanen, tel. +358 9 618 7411
www.marttaliitto.fi, www.kekepeli.net, www.mintc.fi/www/sivut/suomi/ymparisto/elli/
Nonfiction Writer Ulla Lehtonen, Varkaus (EUR 2,500)
Ulla Lehtonen, 76, is a nonfiction writer and editor from Ruokokoski, Varkaus. She has promoted, above all, comsumption of vegetables and organic gardening. She has published more than ten guides on cooking and gardening (WSOY, Otava, Valitut Palat, the Finnish Broadcasting Company/TV Education) and has co-edited nearly ten other books. She has been a contributing writer of the ’Terve Elämä’ magazine since 1975 and also continues as a columnist in the ’Warkauden Lehti’ paper and ‘Eläkeläinen’ magazine. Since the early 1990’s, she has edited many series of programmes for TV 2 and various radio channels. She gives advice on many Internet pages and has given free consultation on home gardening, composting (6,000 visitors have seen her composting toilet) and eco-housing in her home yard since 1981.
Ulla Lehtonen has received many different awards of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and been the Finnish candidate for the international Slow Food Prize in 2001. She can been a member of the municipal council since 1997.
Further information: Ulla Lehtonen, tel. +358 17 556 3260
’Biogas Farmer’ Erkki Kalmari, Laukaa (EUR 2,500)
Erkki Kalmari has 40 milking cows and sixty young animals growing on his milk farm. Kalmari’s biogas plant built in 1998 is one of the first operating farm-specific plants in Finland. 2000 tons of liquid manure and about 60 tons of biodegradable waste from food industry are annually fed into the plant. Heat and electricity are produced with the help of a biogas heat boiler and a biogas plant unit. The energy generated is sufficient for the farm’s own needs. Electricity has also been sold outside the farm, and Kalmari uses any extra gas cleaned and pressurized as fuel for his car. He has the first biogas car in Finland. This duel-fuel car that runs with gas and petrol was introduced after an exceptional permit by the Government has been obtained.
Further information: Erkki Kalmari, tel. +358 14 633 324, +358 400 546 590
Editor Pertti Harju and Environmental Inspector Jari Lampinen (EUR 2,500)
Editor Pertti Harju of the Finnish Broadcasting Company and Environmental Inspector Jari Lampinen of the City of Pori launched the ’Recycling radio’ in the Satakunta region in 1994. The programme was based on the idea of Harju. At first, the programme came out every fourth week, then every second week, and now once a week. The programme wants, through communications and participation of listeners, to shape people’s attitudes in a more environmentally friendly direction. The programme deals with lengthening the life cycles of products, reducing the amount of waste with the help of recycling, decreasing the flows of materials ending up in landfills, encouraging consumers to repair broken products and the importance of consumers’ choices. Listeners are given advice on the use the region’s recycling centres, guidance on waste and hazardous waste, etc.
The programme has so far been broadcast over 200 times. An average number of listeners is 50,000–60,000. The comperes use no traditional radio language, but chat jovially way, not forgetting the local dialect. The Nature Conservation District of Satakunta gave an environmental award to the programme in 1998 and named the editors as the first ’recycling counsellors’ in Satakunta.
Further information: Pertti Harju, tel. +358 50 5465 660 and Jari Lampinen, tel. +358 2 621 1218
