Holistic approach in Business Cases Development by Cata3Pult

The Cata3Pult project has a goal to develop overall six business cases in the following substantial focuses:

Improving the energy and eco-efficiency of the private housing stock of St. Petersburg by reducing the consumption of natural resources for lighting and heating, and by improving the efficiency of solid waste management.

Reducing the environmental load of transport both in St. Petersburg and in Southeast Finland.

Reducing the consumption of primary natural materials by putting the circular economy principles into practice.

The Business Case means conceptualization around one substance focus aimed to support enterprises’ evaluations of business potential, business decision and business development. The development is facilitated by three regional green-cleantech clusters - Greenreality Network from Lappeenranta area, Green Net Finland from Helsinki-Uusimaa area and St. Petersburg cleantech cluster for urban environment.

Development of Business Cases organised in Cata3Pult as a holistic process, which include several types of meetings: cluster member meetings, B2B and one-to-one with enterprises, following relevant ongoing changes and trends, organising of own green business and cluster collaboration international events, study visits and three feasibility studies of selected business cases. B2B and one-to-one meetings organised and supported by cluster business experts, open for wider audience events and visibility & communication activities, such as news, posts,blogs and articles. Cata3Pult has formalized development work into an Operational Model.The holistic approach of business case development is presented below with one example of each focus area.

Under the Eco- and energy efficiency topic we develop ventilation and heat recuperation in buildings. As arguments for selection are: in Finland and St. Petersburg, the share of heating energy in housing costs is quite high due to the Nordic location, however by modernisation of heating systems remarkable savings of energy could be achieved and as result also GHGs emissions decreased. As examples of development activities are webinars on energy efficiency, St. Petersburg Market Watch report, feasibility study on ground source heating potential of SPb ITMO HIGHPARK and Juzhniy Satellite City (report in Finnish) and B2B discussions.

Under the smart green mobility we develop for example fossil free fuel, such as biogas and hydrogen. As arguments for selection are: GHG emissions of transportation in Finland is about 26% of total emissions and on road transportation and logistics enterprises remarkably increase negative environmental impact. In addition to environmental impact, high fuel expenditures have a negative impact on the economy of the businesses. In Finland renewable fuel generation has started recently, new biogas plants for example and hydrogen and methane fuels are in the developing process. Production of biogas has started in Lappeenranta, biogas is available in 5 fuel stations in South Karelia. In St. Petersburg and Russia this is still a new matter but has evoked quite a lot of interest.

Under the circular economy we develop for example textile reuse and up-/recycling. As the main argument for selection is that fact, that textile waste separate collection will become mandatory in Finland in 2023 bringing business opportunities for material recovery or recycling. However, according to priorities of waste treatment to principles of circular economy, the higher priority of utilizing the material is reusing goods/products for the same purpose or upcycling it. Recycling option following those. Due to this matter, Cata3Pult is focusing on reuse and up-cycling phases before textile will become waste. After textile disposal is put to the waste bin, possibilities to utilize into higher priorities is not possible. Higher priorities can provide more possibilities for enterprising. We are glad that we have already supported Finnish-St.Petersburg collaboration under this topic.

For supporting the business cases development, the project organized about twenty Finnish-St. Petersburg expert webinars so far, other events, wrote publications and numerous postings in social media channels and professional media. Cata3Pult project is still going on and we invite interested businesses to join the project, promote own solutions, bring ideas and questions, create new networks on further events and meetings!

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Contact for more information:

Terhi Jantunen, Advisor, development services, City of Lappeenranta; +35840 530 5958; terhi.jantunen(at)lappeenranta.fi

Evilina Lutfi, Business Development Director (Russia), Green Net Finland ry; evilina.lutfi(at)gnf.fi; +35850 436 2661