Water-filtering solution Nanomaji wins Finnish finals in Europe’s largest climate innovation competition

Finland is a cleantech country. Recent rankings by Cleantech Group and the WWF have placed the US, Israel, and Finland in the top 3 global leaders of cleantech. Many Finns hope that sector will become the country’s next big export after Nokia.

So what makes Finnish cleantech so special? Demos Helsinki carries out constant research on the topic and has provided some answer there, but our think tank is also active in promoting the sector’s growth in Finland.

Last week Demos Helsinki organised the Finnish finals of Europe’s largest climate innovation competition, ClimateLaunchpad (CLP). CLP aims to create new and scalable solutions for solving climate change. The Finnish entries represented 10% of all of the applications to the international programme. Submitted ideas ranged in everything from the Academic Association of Insect Economics – aiming to popularise insects as a food – to Heavy Good Vehicle, an electric motor that assists when going uphill and charges when you go downhill.

The winner and audience favourite of the Finnish finals was Nanomaji. Their team, consisting of Aalto University students, had dreamt up a new water filter specifically for African markets. The filter eliminates the need for boiling water, which could vastly reduce charcoal use in developing countries.

On second place was Loadbro, an online platform uniting haulers and consigners. Loadbro reduces greenhouse gas emissions by offering back-hauls for shippers and raising the loading ratio of trucks.

Third place in the competition went to Tuup, a new app that nudges users into better use of public transport. Tuup makes it easier for travellers to mix and match different modes of transportation, whether that’s parking, public transport, taxi, car, bike sharing, or all of them.

All three teams will now head to CLP’s European finals in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 4 September. The winner of the European Final will receive a cash prize of €10,000, the runner up €5,000 and the idea that comes in third place €2,500.

For more information, please visit www.climatelaunchpad.org.