Theme
Fighting the flames
– better together The fundamental questions of sustainable development are integral in our business research as well, says Professor Minna Halme. Text: Eeva Pitkälä Photo: Veera Konsti
AT THE END of 2017, more than 15,000
scientists from 184 countries issued a chilling warning to humanity: the amount of available freshwater has reduced by 26% over the last 25 years. The polluted and anoxic areas of the oceans have expanded by up to 75%. Almost 300 million hectares of forest have been converted to agricultural use. Population growth is up 35%. Carbon dioxide emissions and the average temperature are growing constantly. The numbers of different animal species are down by up to 58%. When, on top of this, you hear that some four billion people survive on less than five euro a day, that two to three billion are expected to rise to the consuming middle classes by the end of the 2030s, and that the number of urban residents is going to increase manifold, as will energy consumption, natural resource exploitation and climate-burdening emissions, you start to pay close attention to what Professor Minna Halme has to say. She is Professor of Sustainability Management at Aalto University and a Finnish pioneer in researching sustainable innovations. Halme actively promotes the objectives of her research area also in practice. “Cooperation is what’s missing from this equation. Picture a burning house, where someone is trying to put out 18 / AALTO UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 22
the fire with a squirt gun, somebody else with a toy bucket and a third person using a shovel, all the while trying to convince onlookers and the building’s residents about the superiority of their own method,” she says. “Our attitude towards sustainable development is like this burning house dilemma. We are aware of the threats of climate change, species extinction, poverty and inequality, but we are trying to resolve them using narrow and insufficient means. One person believes that sustainable development will be achieved if we just invent a carbon-dioxide-free technology for burning wood. Another will swear by a financial solution: all we need is a system where the ecological externalities are included in prices. I, however, hold the view that the complex challenges require collaboration and very serious and involved multidisciplinary research that has a societal impact.”
Market of scarcity
Sustainable business is about new types of ecologically-efficient service concepts, which don’t so much aim to produce specific products as to examine the needs that target them. “We create and research ecologicallyefficient and sustainable operating models, but not products per se. Our goal is to
get the teams fighting the Earth-destroying fires to cooperate with a greater objective in mind: find out what needs to be done so that fires don’t get started in the first place,” Halme says. The story of the common light bulb provides a good example of ecologically sustainable service provision. Back in the day, light bulb manufacturers discovered that their profits increased when they shortened the service life of their bulbs. But today’s pioneering illumination vendor sells light instead of bulbs! The service concept guarantees that the customer has access to functioning lamps. And when the lamps needed to produce light are durable, the vendor also benefits. This is a win-win scenario – with nature winning as well.
The New Global project
Halme says new types of ideas are needed especially for low-resource, but developing markets. This is what she has been working towards in recent years in the New Global project, which brings together four schools of Aalto University. The project researches business-based and poverty-reducing water, energy and housing innovations that are suited to resource-poor environments. This project, which has opened doors for Finnish companies, has also developed new ways to conserve nature – and natu-