City of Lappeenranta commits to EKOenergy

The city of Lappeenranta has entered into an EKOenergy agreement with Lappeenrannan Energia Oy. This means that only EKOenergy certified Metsävoima (forest power) and Tuulivoima (wind power) will be used at the city’s properties in the future.

Mayor Kimmo Jarva and the CEO of Lappeenrannan Energia Oy Reijo Kolehmainen signed the agreement on 21 April 2016, guaranteeing the supply of EKOenergy to the city of Lappeenranta for 2017–2020. The EKOenergy certificate granted to the city of Lappeenranta was handed over at the signing ceremony.

Requesting a tender on green energy from Lappeenrannan Energia Oy was proposed by Kimmo Jarva in the autumn of 2015.
By committing to the use of EKOenergy, the city is leading the way for companies and residents of the region while also taking a significant step towards its goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 80% from the 2007 level by 2030. Our status as the National Earth Hour Capital of Finland also requires us to be environmentally friendly, says Kimmo Jarva.

Reijo Kolehmainen from the energy company says that the possibility of switching to EKOenergy was discussed last year, and he is pleased that the agreement became a reality.

– We at the energy company are pleased with the way the city examined the EKOenergy option from all angles and ultimately became convinced, Kolehmainen says.

According to the EKOenergy Programme Manager at the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation Riku Eskelinen Lappeenrannan Energia Oy’s EKOenergy certified electricity generated with forest and wind power has met the strict European criteria for the production of ecological electricity.

– It is awesome that the city of Lappeenranta is switching to using renewable energy that meets strict sustainability criteria. Many cities in Europe are already using renewable energy but, as far as we know, Lappeenranta is the first city in the world to also adopt sustainability criteria for the procurement of electricity.

EKOenergy is the only ecolabel for electricity used in Finland with publicly available production criteria as well as third-party monitoring independent of the electricity market.

Mayor Jarva encourages companies and city residents to start contributing to the mitigation of climate change.

By making environmentally friendly choices, we can improve the status and cleanliness of our environment, as well as stimulate green business activities, and thus improve the employment opportunities in the region, Jarva envisages.

In 2014, Lappeenranta was named the National Earth Hour Capital of Finland by WWF Finland when the city was selected among the 14 finalists in the worldwide Earth Hour City Challenge.

Lappeenranta is also participating in the Earth Hour City Challenge 2016 as the only Finnish city and has become a finalist along with 44 other cities. The jury selects the global winner and a shortlist of national winners from among the finalists, but the public also get to vote for their favourite.

The voting period starts on 26 April and lasts until 19 June. To vote for Lappeenranta and tell your ideas for making the city even better, go to welovecities.org/lappeenranta. Share what you love about Lappeenranta on social media, #weloveLappeenranta.

Further information

City of Lappeenranta
Mayor Kimmo Jarva
tel. +358 40 844 2000
kimmo.jarva@lappeenranta.fi

Lappeenrannan Energia Oy
Managing Director Reijo Kolehmainen
tel. +358 40 548 6360
reijo.kolehmainen@lreoy.fi

Finnish Association for Nature Conservation
EKOenergy Programme Manager Riku Eskelinen
tel. +358 50 572 7782
riku.eskelinen@sll.fi
www.ekoenergia.fi