Kokkola Industrial Park and the city of Kokkola participated in a virtual visit to learn more about industrial initiatives and city developments in Skellefteå, Umeå and Örnsköldsvik in the north of Sweden.
The first stop was a visit to Umeå and Marielle Boman at Umeå Energi, who also represented the project Sustainable Industrial Environments of the Future, a three-year-long EU project in the Umeå region. The project will lay the foundation for sustainability cooperation between industrial companies and public actors in the Umeå region. The aim is to contribute to a sustainable future for society, companies and their employees. Marielle presented some of the current interesting cases and activities, such as the sustainable industrial area Klockarbäcken.
The next visit was to Skellefteå, where Malin Burlin Lundmark at Skellefteå Science City let the participants know more about what is happening in Skellefteå – the most expansive growth region in Europe and the hub for the development of the future sustainable industry. The transformation can be seen in the establishment of Northvolt, the world’s greenest battery factory, and the initiative to build one of the world’s highest wooden building, the Sara Culture house.
The visit continued to Urban Walter at Boliden Rönnskär, one of the world’s most efficient copper smelters and a world leader in electronics recycling. Urban presented two major investments at Boliden Rönnskär – a deep repository and a new leaching plant outside Skellefteå. The investment is fully in line with the strategy to extract as much metal as technically possible and economical feasible from existing raw materials. This significant improvement in Rönnskär’s resource efficiency will both enhance the smelter’s competitiveness and reduce the volumes of materials for disposal.
The last visit was to Örnsköldsvik and Jon Moreus at Örnsköldsvik Municipality. Jon introduced a new innovative employer-owned and member-driven platform called Jobba & lev (Work & live); a platform for attracting expertise to Örnsköldsvik and create awareness of Örnsköldsvik’s labour market.
Finally, the visitors got a glimpse of a 3D virtual tour at RISE Processum’s biorefinery pilot hall in Örnsköldsvik.
– I´m thankful that around 50 persons from different companies and organisations in Kokkola showed a great interest in knowing more about Northern Sweden. There was a curiosity about how we meet the challenges of climate, how we are facing the expansive industrial investments and how we cope with the need of talent attraction, says Nina Rismalm, international business developer at Smart City Sweden North.
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