Carbon neutral Finland by Kati Berninger

Hiilineutraali Suomi (Carbon neutral Finland), a book by Kati Berninger (Gaudeamus, 2012) describes the means and problems of building a carbon-neutral society and presents positive solutions to them.

She writes about the concept of carbon neutral society and country but getting there involves us all: consumers and businesses. On my mind map I´ve listed some of the possible challenges there might be. Investments and the fact that the change takes time are, in my opinion, the obvious challenges. Contributing to the idea of a carbon neutral society requires changes for example in the production and usage of electricity, heating, and water. Energy effectiveness can be achieved for example through switching to use renewable energy, making sure logistics is operating as green as possible and paying attention to the right kind of packaging of the goods.

Berninger writes that cities and towns may have energy effectiveness agreements and businesses should join these agreements by first ordering an energy review. The review will find out about the current situation of the company’s energy usage and present ways to go ahead with becoming more responsible and cut the costs. These changes equal investments and this may be a stumbling block to many companies. However, the investments will pay off eventually in lower costs and decrease in emissions. Berninger also says that in 2009 the greenhouse gasses were mostly produced by the industrial energy use and emissions from traffic.

There are different ways to force businesses to become greener: higher taxes for using non-renewable energy, benefit packages for green investments etc. These different ways of pressuring and persuading the businesses to “do the right thing”might very much the motive for some companies.

Berninger suggests that renewable energy sources are solar energy, wind power, bioenergy,

hydropower and eco-energy. Other ways to cut emissions are using public transport instead of driving, cycling, packing the goods effectively, joining forces with other businesses by building a joint logistics network for more efficient operations. Not more than 10 years ago we were talking about changing regular bulbs to LEDs but nowadays that is more a norm than exception. It’s comforting to look back and see that we are moving in the right direction one step at a time, slowly but surely.

But all this comes down to the costs. According to consumer surveys, consumers do want greener products and are willing to pay more for them but at the same time this is not possible for all. There are a lot of consumers that are forced to buy the cheapest thing available even if they would like to buy according to their values. If a company is considering the costs and calculating that the return time is something between 5-10 years, this might make them drop the whole plan. Costs are, in my opinion, the biggest threat for the company deciding to make or not to make the investments.

Berninger, K. 2012. Hiilineutraali Suomi - Miten luodaan ilmastoystävällinen yhteiskunta. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.