Fab­Patch was award­ed at the ACEF event in Kemi

Busi­nes­sOulu’s Cleantech depart­ment par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Arc­tic Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Forum (ACEF) in Kemi on June 3rd, 2026.

The morn­ing start­ed with a refresh­ing cof­fee, after which we moved to the 2nd floor of Lumilin­na to hear the day’s speech­es. The open­ing words were heard from Kim­mo Hei­ka, who is the CEO of Kemi Digipo­lis. Kemi May­or Mat­ti Ruot­salainen offered a city sit­u­a­tion review, and after this, the inter­est­ing sto­ry of Fab­Patch was told by CEO Tai­ja Sailio.

Kari Ala-Kaila from Met­sä­Group pon­dered aloud how to make the indus­tri­al cir­cu­lar econ­o­my flour­ish. Hen­ri Sim­pa­nen from Out­okumpu pre­sent­ed the Kemi mine’s cir­cu­lar econ­o­my ecosys­tem mod­el, which aims to make more side streams avail­able. After a short cof­fee break, Digipo­lis Project Man­ag­er Janne Rautio spoke about the con­nec­tion between the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and secu­ri­ty of sup­ply. After Janne, PhD Har­ri Gustafs­berg jumped onto the podi­um and pon­dered aloud how our minds can with­stand the cross­fire of var­i­ous upheavals. Before lunch, the 2026 Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Award was pre­sent­ed to Fab­Patch from Oulu. The award cri­te­ria includ­ed, among oth­er things, pro­mot­ing the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my through easy repair, main­ly domes­tic pro­duc­tion and the use of recy­cled mate­ri­als in prod­ucts. Read more about Fab­Batch and the award here in Finnish. (Link opens in a new tab.)

After a tasty lunch, some went on to con­tin­ue the day else­where, or alter­na­tive­ly, vis­i­tors dived into the ICE CAVE work­shops, where var­i­ous themes were dis­cussed in more depth.

Learn more about the event and the pro­gramme here. (Link opens in a new tab.)

Text: Han­nele Ter­vo