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POSITIVE
Ten weeks, ten countries and twenty Finnish cleantech companies
with cutting edge technology. Energy Ambassador Pentti Itkonen is on
a mission to show what sustainable EnergyVaasa solutions have to offer.
T E X T: M I N N A TA K K U N E N P H OTO S : J U H O A R O N E N / E N E R GY VA A S A
ENERGY
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entti Itkonen and video photographer Juho Aronen are shooting a video four kilometres up in the mountains in Quito, Ecuador, the highest capital city in the world. Itkonen is having such a hard time breathing that they have needed more than a dozen takes to record the scenes over-looking the city.
But breathing difficulties are everywhere. His social media followers are also gasping for air, when reading and watching the content Itko-nen has produced on his tour since it began in August.
The Energy Ambassador’s journey is nearing its midpoint, and has already produced an astonishing amount of information in different channels. His blog posts, videos and photos are personal, informa-tive, funny, engaging and packed with cross references that make you want to hop between channels. It feels like a how to produce high qual-ity social media manual.
BURSTING WITH ENERGY.Two days after the breath-taking mountains, Itkonen is on his way to the Eden Yuturi oil fields in the Oriente jungle in Eastern Ecuador. He’s flying along a river on a roadless and remote address, where Wärtsilä provides power plants for the oil fields.
It’s 26-year-old Itkonen’s first helicopter ride, nor had he produced any video material before this world tour.
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He has a passionate attitude, an ability to adapt to whatever thecir-cumstances throw at him and a willingness to absorb new informa-tion. The stories that he produces are just what are needed in the energy market today.
Itkonen’s enthusiasm is palpable. There were hundreds of other appli-cants but it’s obvious why he was chosen to be the Energy Ambassador for EnergyVaasa, a Finnish energy technology cluster.
The twenty companies that make up EnergyVaasa are heavily export oriented – as much as 95% of their products and solutions are sold abroad. Yet few people globally or even in Finland are aware of this concentrated cleantech wonder.
The companies came up with the idea of a dynamic ambassador to spread the word to a world audience. And what better poster person than a man bursting with energy?
Now the Energy Ambassador is chasing the trail of energy innova-tions around the world. It’s proceeding according to a scripted plan and there are no risks involved, but it’s still a lot of hard work, even for a charismatic person like Itkonen, to get the attention of the right audience.
“It’s quite difficult to present complex high technology functions in a simple way.” There are other challenges, too. Besides being informed, internet audiences demand an entertaining tone from their social media. That’s exactly what he has practiced.
passion
SIMULATING THE JOB BROUGHT HIM THE JOB. Itkonen applied for the role simply because it is “the best job in the world,” he says.
“I love travelling and I’m interested in energy. It’s such a broad topic, which involves economics, politics and inter-national matters. Then it’s linked to nature, a balancing act.” His interest in energy isn’t mere words. Itkonen studies environmental engineering and plans to graduate next year. He showed his hardworking style and dedication in apply-ing for the Energy Ambassador’s job.
“Before this, I had hardly produced any written content for social media and I had no idea how to make videos.”
So he decided to put all his energy into the task and started to simulate the type of energy-related content in a style he thought would fit the job. He began by visiting a school and telling pupils about energy matters.
In his social media campaign aimed at getting the job, Itko-nen managed to gather over 500 fans in two months.
COMPETITION IN THE ENERGY MARKET – AND SOCIAL MEDIA.
Ecuador is the fourth country on the Energy Ambassador’s itinerary. Although he gets to see a lot of exciting vistas, this journey is far from a holiday. Itkonen says his days are long, stretching up to fifteen or sixteen hours.
Three or four days per week are booked for appointments with local EnergyVaasa representatives and meetings with other local business contacts and organisations.
One day per week is dedicated to writing content for social media sites. Itkonen spends his evenings updating the Energy Ambassador’s Facebook page and Twitter. Videos appear on the official site of EnergyVaasa and on YouTube. Weekends are spent travelling to the next destination.
For this interview, he managed to find an early morning slot. It is soon eight in the morning in Quito. From his hotel window, he can see clear blue skies and snow-covered moun-tain tops.
Before Ecuador, Itkonen was in New York and Washing-ton. In the US capital he met representatives of the US State Department Greening Initiative.
“They were very impressed to hear that the EnergyVaasa cluster accounts for as much as twelve percent of all the Finn-ish technology exports and thirty percent of FinnFinn-ish energy technology exports.”
Itkonen also gave a speech at a Finnish American Cham-ber of Commerce function.
The potential for cleantech companies in the United States is huge, but so is the competition. The country is the world’s biggest energy consumer, mostly generated from fossil fuels. It has an urgent need for energy efficiency and sustainability.
GROWING CONSUMPTION, GROWING MARKET. The rest of the world shares the challenges of the U.S. energy market. Elec-tricity consumption is on the rise and there is a constant search for efficient solutions that minimize environmental effects. Finnish cleantech companies are investing a lot in finding these solutions. Research and development spending in the Vaasa region has tripled in the past five years.
A growing market offers more jobs. No wonder the employment situation in the Vaasa region is among the best in Finland. EnergyVaasa companies currently employ more
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than ten thousand people, and the goal is another ten thousand jobs by 2020.
One of the dynamic forerunners in EnergyVaasa is Westenergy. Its award-winning solution converts combustible waste into fuel, pro-ducing electricity and district heating for households.
In collaboration with other companies in the area, it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from energy production by 425 thousand tonnes per year. This correlates to around one percent of the CO2 emis-sions produced in Finland.
The amount of waste utilized in the process will replace 65 thou-sand tonnes of coal a year. The waste-to-energy plant also cuts down landfilling, thus reducing methane emissions.
EQUAL AMOUNTS OF PLANNED AND SPONTANEOUS. Although the jour-ney has been carefully planned, there’s room for spontaneity. In their last evening in Norway, the second country on their itinerary, Itko-nen and his cameraman got an idea for a clip before the next stop, the United States. Itkonen bade farewell to the scenic land and said it was time to head off across the Atlantic. Then he jumped into the sea and started to swim.
“I hope my own enthusiasm shows in the content and that it is infectious.”
Even though the destinations aren’t normal tourist attractions, it’s a road trip by nature. Before they headed off on their tour, Itkonen and his cameraman watched travel programmes for inspiration. One was by Anthony Bourdain, a famous chef and author who has eaten his way around the world.
Inevitably, there are changes in the schedule and patches of time spent waiting. During these moments, Itkonen turns to social media sites and entertains his audience.
A couple of days later, there’s a photo on Facebook from his stop at Eden Yuturi in Ecuador. He’s leaning in a relaxed manner on a freshly installed Wärtsilä 32 engine that runs on crude oil and resid-ual fuel. Without Wärtsilä’s innovation, the waste would have to be transported from the site.
The engine isn’t running yet, but Itkonen is. He’s racing to the next address on his mission, a Wärtsilä service vessel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
