Jaaana Pelkonen
Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Foundation
Jaana Pelkonen is senior advisor Smart & Clean Foundation and she is responsible for co-creation of change projects for Helsinki Metropolitan area in co-operation with the cities, companies, universities and research organization. Jaana has extensive experience in management consulting and she is specilized in advisory services for strategy and business development especially for energy and climate sectors.The Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Foundation is a five-year step change project. The task is to make the Helsinki capital region and the City of Lahti the world’s best test bed for smart and clean solutions.
The question is: can disruption be led? The term itself implies no, but it can be initiated and managed. If its impact can be controlled with proper planning, society can be resilient and benefit from it. Brave trailblazers directly benefit from the change rather than those, who follow the crowd and work on someone else’s terms.
Testbeds can be used as tools for managing change. We mean here both digital and physical platforms. For example, a digital data bank, a building or a city district can be a platforms. The platforms allow a change to be created in a limited, controlled environment, prepare for it and thus lead disruption. While new ways of working and solutions have been developed and tested in Finland, they create new scalable businesses for the world.
Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Project is a testbed itself - we will create and initiate several significant changes which will lead to new, permanent business and processes that will improve the quality of life for the citizens.
Currently several S&C projects / testbeds are being created in the Helsinki Metropolitan region:
Urban Stormwater Quality Management Project develops natural quality management solutions for urban stormwater. The solutions have market and export potential in all urban areas that face changing weather conditions. Business ecosystems supported by research organisations offer cities integrated solutions. Information generated in the process is shared on an open digital platform.
Smart Elements for Renovation Leap Project aims to create fast, repeatable and integrated renovation solutions which take buildings’ life cycle into account better than before. At the same time, it creates new purchasing and funding models, improved opportunities for smart energy solutions as well as smarter housing and buildings. Public private partnerships cocreate and test fast and affordable complete renovation concepts.
Helsinki Air Quality Test Bed Project has built the world’s first comprehensive city-wide IoT air quality system to Helsinki Region. A new cooperation model of businesses and public bodies in the project creates the foundation to export the solutions developed in the region to cities, where air quality is a significant problem.
When the data from all different platforms is collected together and used to create innovative, cross sector solutions, it will lead to a better and more sustainable world. This would allow the sustainable creation of new disruptive solutions that would enable citizens to choose the ones that benefit themselves, cities, and businesses globally.
