News
Green Office – the year 2011
Once again, we have a successful year as a member of the Green Office environmental program behind us.
As an example of the goals we achieved during the year 2011, one is particularly worth mentioning, and that is the fact that we have become a so called paper-free office. In other words, we are essentially capable of carrying out our work by printing all documents into only an electronic format, without using paper. We have also developed tools suitable for this specific purpose. In the field of patents, where large numbers of different documents are generated and sent from one party to another, this has a considerable overall effect on the paper consumption. At the same time, our service level has advanced, for example regarding our reaction speed and the technical quality of our reports.
This development is a natural result of a long-lasting project that has resulted in a constant reduction in our paper consumption from year to year after we joined the Green Office program. Despite this development, also the consumption of electricity has reduced every year, and we trust that we will be capable of keeping up the same direction of development also in the future.
We also aim at motivating our staff to give their own green contribution. In the beginning of this autumn we, among others, participated in the Finnish national telecommuting day, and during that day we achieved a considerable reduction in the CO2 emissions caused by our commutation (according to one counter, we saved more than 60 kg of CO2) without anyone’s work contribution suffering.
However, we have reduced CO2 emissions also in other ways, such as by supporting commutation, when possible, by common means of transportation, by car pools, and, particularly during the summers, by bicycles. The total for the summer of 2011 was more than 4500 bicycled kilometers.
New ideas for the next year are already under development.
<<Back to News archiveThe Nordic Chemist Meeting
In September, three of our patent attorneys attended the so-called Nordic Chemist Meeting directed to the chemists of the patent industry.
This meeting is arranged in Northern Europe every 2–3 years, alternately in the different Nordic countries. This year it was Denmark’s turn, and the more specific destination was Bornholm, which is a beautiful island just off the coast of Sweden.
The main focus of the meeting is a series of lectures and workshops covering current subjects related to patenting, particularly from a chemical perspective. Our US patent agent Joshua Wert gave a lecture on some special features of the US patent system. Among others, Josh dealt with the various means that can be used to facilitate the processing of a US patent application. This “After Final Practice” lecture can be accessed via the link below.
<<Back to News archiveKathy Wasström qualified as European Patent Attorney
Our patent agent Kathy Wasström has continued our successful traditions by passing the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) this year. Kathy will serve our clients as a qualified European Patent Attorney in the field of chemical (and biochemical) technology, in which she has gained experience for seven years now. We express our warmest congratulations to Kathy!
Due to the success of Kathy we have now six European Patent Attorneys working evenly on each field of technology. Taking into account our U.S. patent agent Joshua Wert, we have now an extraordinary possibility to represent our clients directly and efficiently in patent matters of the most important market areas of the world. Ongoing EQE-oriented training of our young patent agents will ensure the freshness of our knowhow also in the future.
<<Back to News archiveGREEN OFFICE NEWS
Green Office
WWF Green Office is an environmental service for offices, which aims to reduce the ecological footprint of offices and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. With its help, offices can reduce their strain on the environment and at the same time gain savings in material and energy costs. Green Office is a light and practical environmental programme, based on the general principles of the ISO 14001 and EMAS environmental programmes. WWF grants offices that meet its criteria the right to use the Green Office label.
Office premises and workplaces have a key role in energy consumption and sustainable solutions. The Green Office scheme encourages personnel to co-operate and to do ecological deeds, while at the same time improving the actions of the organisation in other areas as well.
At present, the Green Office network includes 193 organisations with a total of approximately 53,000 employees. The network includes companies, the public sector and third sector operators. The international programme is at present also in use in Turkey, Indonesia and Vietnam, for example.
In 2010, Finnish Green Offices saved a total of 2,440 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the previous year by cutting consumption.
Green Offices report annually to WWF on their consumption with at least three different consumption figures. The most common indicators include, for example, the consumption of paper, electricity, heat, and road traffic, air traffic and the amount of unsorted waste. The most popular consumption savings targets in 2010 were electricity, paper and heat.
The Green Office programme has a positive impact on the work day of over 53,000 employees. Last year Green Offices offset over 245 kilogrammes of greenhouse gas emissions per person compared to the previous year. The amount corresponds to approximately one hundred litres of fuel. “A hybrid car could travel for about 2,600 kilometres with this amount of fuel, so each one of the network’s 53,000 employees could travel once from Helsinki to Barcelona as the crow flies”, compares Helka Julkunen, Head of WWF’s Green Office programme.
The consumption of electricity was reduced by a staggering 32 per cent per person in the Green Offices. The amount of money saved by cutting consumption was almost 235,000 euros.
The consumption of heat in the network has reduced despite the cold winter.
The consumption of paper in the network has again declined steadily. The Green Offices used up to 15,645,000 fewer sheets of copying paper compared to the previous year. In monetary terms, that means almost €110,000, and the amount of paper saved would create a pile over 1.5 kilometres high.
Annual reporting applies to Green Offices, where the environmental programmes have been inspected and which have been granted the right to use the Green Office label. Consumption figures have been collected from those offices, which have an indicator for comparison to the previous year. Examples corresponding to savings are based on WWF’s Climate Calculator (http://www.ilmastolaskuri.fi/en/user/page/show/name/page1).
<<Back to News archiveMs Solveig Strömsholm was been working for our company for 30 years
Ms. Solveig Strömsholm (BA Econ.) has worked for 30 years for our company. Solveig has been actively involved in building up the company from the very beginning. Initially, Solveig worked primarily as a patent and trademark assistant but she has over the years taking an increasing responsibility for the administration of the company and HR matters. Today, Solveig is a Member of the Board and CFO. For many years Solveig was our brisk external voice on the switchboard, and for us, her co-workers, she represents with her cheerful and spirited manner the very heart of the company.
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