The Helsinki Region is the most densely populated area in Finland with about 1,5 million inhabitants (Uusimaa). The Region is on the southern coast at the Gulf of Finland, which is the easternmost part of the Baltic Sea. The metropolitan area is growing rapidly and the growth requires strong integration of environmental matters with other issues. Uusimaa has a great biodiversity with a large number of species and a great variety of habitats.

Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre

Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre promotes sustainable development and is responsible for environmental protection, nature conservation, protection of the cultural environment and exploitation and management of water resources and the Centre also supervises land use and building. The centre compiles information on the state and use of the environment at a regional level and promotes environmental awareness.

Green Net Finland

Green Net Finland is a network organization seeking to forward enterprise networking and public - private co-operation. The broad aims of Green Net are to promote project activities in environmental field. The solution of the environmental problems that are predicted to become the challenge of the century demands new and effective models of operation. The organization operates in the Helsinki Region, other cities in Finland and internationally.

Green Net Finland stems from a from a project of EVITECH, The Espoo - Vantaa Institute of Technology who started the environmental networking project in Helsinki Region in 2000. Helsinki Region covers 1.5 million inhabitants and there are hundreds of environmental companies (ca 1400 total in Finland) in this province.

LEIJA - the Environmental Business Center

Green Net is situated in LEIJA, a building that is a new-generation complex of corporations concerned in the environmental technology in Vantaanportti close to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

LEIJA, a new-generation complex of corporations in the environmental technology is situated in Vantaanportti close to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The location of LEIJA has important benefits compared to other possible locations. The target is that companies can focus on their key-expertise and that many other jobs could be carried out by the net in the building and outside it.

The Environmental Cluster Research Programme

The Finnish Environmental Cluster Research Programme is a collaborative programme between researchers, the business sector, public authorities and funding organisations. This programme aims at raising the level of environmental know-how, improving the state of the environment, creating favourable preconditions for entrepreneurship, and integrating environmental issues more closely into the Finnish system of innovation.

The main financiers of the programme are the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the National Technology Agency, and the Academy of Finland. The Finnish Ministry of Environment is responsible for the coordination of the programme.

The central issues of the programme are the control of the climate change, prevention of waste production, recycling, promotion of a good and healthy environment, sustaining biodiversity, economic instruments and their effectiveness, and the anticipation of environmental technology

For further information
Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre
Green Net Finland
The Finnish Environmental Cluster Research Programme
www.environment.fi - The website of Finland’s environmental administration