Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my

What is Cir­cu­lar Clus­ter Oulu?

Close col­lab­o­ra­tion part­ners of the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my clus­ter include, for exam­ple, the Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance (OIA), ICTOulu, Oulu Auto­mo­tive Clus­ter, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. A spe­cial fea­ture of the Oulu region is a strong ICT sec­tor, which offers excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties to find dig­i­tal solu­tion providers to sup­port cir­cu­lar econ­o­my.

Since the begin­ning of 2022, our activ­i­ties have gath­ered over 400 peo­ple in busi­ness, R&D and pub­lic sec­tors to dis­cuss ques­tions of cir­cu­lar­i­ty. Our main event so far has been Kier­to­talousA­reena 2023 – Cir­cu­lar Are­na Oulu 2023, with high class sem­i­nar speak­ers and a cir­cu­lar trade fair with over 50 com­pa­nies and oth­er exhibitors show­cas­ing their cir­cu­lar solu­tions.

Seeks

We help clus­ter com­pa­nies find cus­tomers and part­ners. We organ­ise pre­sen­ta­tions, match­mak­ing events and pitch­es, as well as del­e­ga­tion and trade fair vis­its. We look for oppor­tu­ni­ties togeth­er with domes­tic and for­eign devel­op­ment com­pa­nies, clus­ters, and oth­er actors.

Con­nects

We con­nect com­pa­nies with each oth­er and with research insti­tutes to accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions and new inno­va­tions. We con­nect R&D ini­tia­tives to com­pa­nies and hel tight­en the link between busi­ness and research.

Shares infor­ma­tion and exper­tise

We share infor­ma­tion and exper­tise relat­ed to cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, such as com­pa­ny news, infor­ma­tion on leg­isla­tive reforms, fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and poten­tial part­ner­ships. We organ­ise meet­ings and events with our part­ners.

Events

Betonin kier­to­talous 16.10.2024
Kolmio­sainen ennakoin­ti­val­men­nus 31.10.2024
CircularArenaOulu2025 20.5.2025
Polar Bear Pitch­ing side event

Com­pa­nies

Our impact is vis­i­ble through­out the life cycle of con­struc­tion, every­where where we oper­ate as experts. We are com­mit­ted to devel­op­ing envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty with a goal. Our goal is to be a front­line builder of a car­bon-neu­tral soci­ety.

A‑insinöörit home­page

Afry

We are an inter­na­tion­al engi­neer­ing and con­sult­ing com­pa­ny that accel­er­ates the tran­si­tion to a sus­tain­able soci­ety. Our ser­vices for cus­tomers in the built envi­ron­ment, indus­try, and ener­gy sec­tors cov­er the entire life­cy­cle of projects from ini­tial stud­ies to design and imple­men­ta­tion, as well as sup­port for use and oper­a­tion.

Afry home­page

Arctic Rides

Arc­tic Rides’ rev­o­lu­tion­ary Skick elec­tric scoot­er enables eco­log­i­cal local mobil­i­ty regard­less of weath­er or sea­son. The scoot­ers are man­u­fac­tured in Fin­land using as much domes­tic mate­ri­als as pos­si­ble. Skick is a long-last­ing and easy-to-main­tain key flag prod­uct.

Skick home­page

Biocluster

Bio­clus­ter Fin­land is an asso­ci­a­tion of actors whose core aim is to pro­mote green growth busi­ness and inno­va­tion activ­i­ties. We sup­port green growth and pro­mote the cre­ation of low-car­bon busi­ness and cir­cu­lar econ­o­my. Bioe­con­o­my com­pa­nies and new green busi­ness devel­op in coop­er­a­tion with research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion actors.

Bio­clus­ter Fin­land home­page

Bright­plus and its devel­oped tech­nol­o­gy enables the intro­duc­tion of cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions such as coat­ings and plas­tic sub­sti­tutes along­side exist­ing oil-based ones.

Brigh­plus home­pagee

Culmentor

Cul­men­tor offers com­pre­hen­sive ser­vices for the imple­men­ta­tion of cir­cu­lar econ­o­my invest­ment projects and the prepa­ra­tion of fund­ing appli­ca­tions relat­ed to cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, both for inter­na­tion­al EU projects and domes­tic fund­ing pro­grams.

Cul­men­tor home­page

Digikier­to devel­ops a Danyel soft­ware plat­form based on research and expe­ri­ence data for sim­u­lat­ing the val­ue chain of renew­able ener­gy and cir­cu­lar econ­o­my prod­ucts. The company’s back­ground is in over 10 years of lit­er­a­ture and expe­ri­ence data on bioe­con­o­my process­es, tech­nol­o­gy pilot­ing, and func­tion­al­i­ty of imple­ment­ed process­es.

Digikier­to home­page

Our mis­sion is to clear the path for green con­struc­tion by means of low-car­bon cir­cu­lar econ­o­my. About 90% of our turnover is based on cir­cu­lar econ­o­my. All our activ­i­ties aim to increase the use of aban­doned mate­ri­als as part of sus­tain­able and resource-wise con­struc­tion.

EcoUp home­page

Feasib

We pro­vide expert sam­pling and lab­o­ra­to­ry ser­vices for indus­try and the pub­lic sec­tor. Our premis­es are locat­ed in Ylivies­ka and Nivala. Fea­sib Oy is a domes­tic SME.

Fea­sib home­page

Micropolis

We cre­ate busi­ness and vital­i­ty based on green tech­nol­o­gy and exper­tise in North­ern Fin­land. In our projects, we devel­op low-car­bon and resource-wise cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions for munic­i­pal­i­ties, com­pa­nies, and com­mu­ni­ties in coop­er­a­tion with uni­ver­si­ties and research insti­tutes. We also pro­vide busi­ness advi­sors’ help, busi­ness premis­es, and plots for oper­a­tion.

Microp­o­lis home­page

iprotoxi

The com­plete solu­tions we offer are espe­cial­ly suit­able for demand­ing cir­cu­lar econ­o­my appli­ca­tions out­doors. Our ready-to-use and mount­able sen­sors con­nect direct­ly to the Inter­net. Our dirt-immune and radar-based Aistin sur­face mea­sure­ment sen­sors are used for exam­ple in smart waste man­age­ment and stormwa­ter man­age­ment. Cus­tomer exam­ples include Waste­book Oy and Pipelife Oy.

iPro­tox home­page

KEKO

Keko Geopoly­mers Oy man­u­fac­tures, stud­ies and devel­ops geopoly­mer prod­ucts from cir­cu­lar econ­o­my mate­ri­als with a bold and open-mind­ed atti­tude.

Keko home­page

Kiertokaari

Kier­tokaari is a cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and waste com­pa­ny owned by eight munic­i­pal­i­ties in North­ern Ostro­both­nia. We tend to the waste man­age­ment and sort­ing guid­ance for the munic­i­pal­i­ties in our area of oper­a­tion, in addi­tion to pro­mot­ing waste reduc­tion, recy­cling and recov­ery.

Kier­tokaari home­page

Macon

Macon is a bio- and cir­cu­lar econ­o­my expert com­pa­ny from North­ern Fin­land. With our exten­sive net­work of experts, we are able to cre­ate solu­tions across dis­ci­plines, com­pet­i­tive­ly and through­out Fin­land. As a cus­tomer, your com­pa­ny gets to ben­e­fit from Macon’s best con­sul­tants.

Macon home­page

Manna Insect

Man­na Insect has devel­oped an effi­cient, mobile solu­tion to utilise black sol­dier fly lar­vae to recy­cle biowaste into valu­able ani­mal feed and fer­til­iz­er in all weath­er con­di­tions. Our solu­tion can be installed in a ship­ping con­tain­er on site around the world. Our AI-based soft­ware solu­tion makes every­one a pro­fes­sion­al lar­va grow­er with­out pri­or knowl­edge.

Man­na Insect home­page

Optotec

Optotec Group Oy devel­ops prod­ucts for the fore­front of green tran­si­tion. Our cus­tomers are envi­ron­men­tal tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies for whom we design cir­cu­lar econ­o­my prod­uct inno­va­tions. We also help our cus­tomers reduce the envi­ron­men­tal impact of their prod­ucts by con­sid­er­ing the envi­ron­men­tal effects and life­cy­cle issues of their prod­ucts in design and fur­ther devel­op­ment.

Optotec home­page

owatec

Owa­tec cre­ates envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly and cost-effec­tive water treat­ment and sludge dry­ing solu­tions for dif­fer­ent indus­tri­al sec­tors. We pro­vide our cus­tomers with tech­nolo­gies and process­es that enable waste­water and sludge to be treat­ed cost-effec­tive­ly and with respect for the envi­ron­ment.

Owa­tec home­page

Pinja

We deliv­er dig­i­tal solu­tions for cir­cu­lar econ­o­my com­pa­nies that enable smooth cus­tomer ser­vice at recy­cling facil­i­ties, reduce the work­ing time spent on inter­nal man­age­ment, cre­ate trans­paren­cy to mate­r­i­al flows, and enable effi­cient report­ing for both the busi­ness­es’ own and reg­u­la­to­ry needs.

Pin­ja home­page

Rakeistus

Rakeis­tus designs and man­u­fac­tures machin­ery for ash gran­u­la­tion and pro­vides a turnkey ser­vice of pro­cess­ing gran­u­lat­ed ash into a for­est fer­til­iz­er, along with pro­vid­ing relat­ed expert ser­vices for ener­gy com­pa­nies, indus­tri­al com­pa­nies and ash proces­sors. At the end of 2021, Rakeis­tus launched the hiilinielurekisteri.fi ser­vice where car­bon sinks acquired from for­est own­ers meet CO2 com­pen­sa­tion cus­tomers.

Rakeis­tus home­page

Sftec

We design, devel­op, and deliv­er com­pre­hen­sive dry­ing-relat­ed solu­tions which enable us to process indus­tri­al mate­r­i­al flows into new, high­er-val­ue prod­ucts togeth­er with our cus­tomers. Our cus­tomers are indus­tri­al actors of dif­fer­ent sizes who want to pro­mote the util­i­sa­tion of their own mate­r­i­al flows.

Sftec home­page

Syklo

Syk­lo Oy offers effi­cient cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions to sup­port sus­tain­able growth for busi­ness­es. We have the tech­nolo­gies and exper­tise that help you opti­mise resources, use raw mate­ri­als more eco­nom­i­cal­ly, and pro­duce clean­er ener­gy. Our ser­vices include waste recep­tion, treat­ment and fur­ther pro­cess­ing ser­vices.

Syk­lo home­page

Taitonetti

Taitonetti’s prod­uct range con­sists of high-qual­i­ty used com­put­ers which are a reli­able and cheap­er alter­na­tive to new machines. Used com­put­ers are also part of a sus­tain­able cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, where func­tion­al devices stay in use as long as pos­si­ble and thus save valu­able nat­ur­al resources.

Taitonet­ti home­page

TWSC warming surfaces

The Warm­ing Sur­faces Com­pa­ny, TWSC, is a start-up that observes the prin­ci­ples of cir­cu­lar econ­o­my in all its oper­a­tions since the start of the com­pa­ny. The prod­uct itself, a paper-thin heat­ing ele­ment, con­tains only a small amount of com­mon met­als. The mate­ri­als can be recy­cled and are fur­ther recy­clable.

The Warm­ing Sur­faces home­page

Tracegrow

At Trace­grow, we want to give the earth a sec­ond chance. We col­lect valu­able raw mate­ri­als from indus­tri­al by-prod­ucts and recy­cled bat­ter­ies, reduc­ing the need for min­ing. With cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, we secure the vital­i­ty of human­i­ty and the earth.

Trace­grow home­page

Vaatelaastari Fab Patch

Fab Patch is a cre­ative indus­try, cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and tex­tile indus­try start-up award­ed with the Respon­si­ble Act of the Year and Design Act of the Year awards in 2022. The company’s own repair inno­va­tion, cloth­ing patch Fab­Patch, is a super-easy, cus­tomis­able, and ver­sa­tile tex­tile repair prod­uct.

Vaate­laas­tari home­page

Viskaalin farm in Muhos is a pio­neer in food industry’s cir­cu­lar econ­o­my. The farm rais­es beef cat­tle as well as slaugh­ters and process­es fresh meat and meat prod­ucts. A bio­gas plant to be com­plet­ed at the farm in 2024 will pro­duce near­ly 20 GWh of bio­gas and organ­ic fer­til­iz­ers. The raw mate­r­i­al for the plant con­sists of cat­tle manure, slaugh­ter­house by-prod­ucts, and bio-waste deliv­ered by Kem­pele Siir­tokul­je­tus Oy from near­by areas.

Viskaali home­page

wastebook

90% of waste is col­lect­ed either too ear­ly or too late. It is expen­sive for both us and the envi­ron­ment. For this rea­son, Waste­book has devel­oped a smart solu­tion to opti­mise waste man­age­ment and pro­duce data for deci­sion-mak­ing.

Waste­book home­page

weefiner

Weee­fin­er is a tech­no­log­i­cal pio­neer that offers solu­tions to chal­lenges of water treat­ment and raw mate­r­i­al recy­cling. Our rev­o­lu­tion­ary 4D Siep­pari tech­nol­o­gy effi­cient­ly cap­tures met­al and nutri­ent par­ti­cles in indus­tri­al and soci­etal waste­water for reuse and recy­cling, aim­ing to trans­form process and waste streams into valu­able raw mate­r­i­al sources.

Weee­fin­er home­page

Oth­er part­ners

The Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance is a strate­gic alliance of the most sig­nif­i­cant research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion actors in the Oulu region, strength­en­ing the region’s inno­va­tion capac­i­ty and the glob­al com­pet­i­tive­ness of North­ern Fin­land. OIA part­ners include the City of Oulu, Nat­ur­al Resources Insti­tute Fin­land (Luke), Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences (Oamk), Oulu Voca­tion­al Col­lege (OSAO), Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, the Well­be­ing Ser­vices Coun­ty of North Ostro­both­nia, Tech­nop­o­lis, and VTT Tech­ni­cal Research Cen­tre of Fin­land Ltd.

https://oulu.com/oia/

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Blogs

Kier­roksia kier­to­talouteen ‑pilotit 2023

Kier­to­talous Oulun uuden sairaalan rak­en­tamises­sa

Kier­to­talous likes digi

Kier­roksia kier­to­talouteen ‑haastek­il­pailu

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Oth­er pub­li­ca­tions

Kier­to­talousklus­terin toim­inta­malli ja dig­i­taa­li­nen alus­ta

Con­tact

Aila Ryhä­nen

Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Spe­cial­ist

aila.ryhanen@businessoulu.com

040 514 4013

Janne Hietanie­mi

Key Account Direc­tor, Clean­tech and Indus­try

janne.hietaniemi@businessoulu.com

040 649 1211