Speakers November 16 2024

Skellefteå is facing a unique social transformation. The transformation includes, among other things, a focus on the climate, housing construction, more residents, digitization, electrification and the connected society. This is the region in the EU that ranks the highest out of 270 when it comes to social development. Security, trust, access to higher education and healthcare are important assets. There are also world-leading skills and an innovative approach, large assets in renewable energy and other location-bound resources that are valuable for society’s transformation.

Kuusakoski Recycling is a major player within the recycling area. The activities performed by us is based on the vision of the company that Kuusakoski shall be the preferred partner for our customers through excellence in recycling and sustainability. Er support the customer in all steps of the recycling chain. With a focused and dedicated work, Kuusakoski Recycling can help to restore the value in the recycled materials to new valuable materials. This has been the business idea from the start of the company since 1914 and it has not been changed since then. The introduction of circular economy and focus on sustainability makes this more important than ever. This required a deep cooperation based on long term relationship, where both parties are engaged in the process. By joined efforts the work will lead to reduced CO2-emissions and a sustainable path for the future. Recycling is more important than ever and will be even more important in the future

As part of the Swedish ministry of industry innovation partnership programme “Climate neutral industry” Larshans has chaired the responsibility as a spokesperson for the working group “material flows”. Summary of the results from the working group will be shared at the conference.

Phosphorus is a primary nutrient in mineral fertilisers. Without mineral fertilisers, global food production could be halved. Rare Earth Elements (REE’s), a group of 17 metals, are essential for innovation and the green transformation. In the ReeMAP project, LKAB is developing innovative technology and processing capabilities to extract phosphorus and rare earth elements, classed by the EU as Critical Raw Materials, from today’s mine waste.

Building with wood is a priority in Europe as part of the strategy to move from fossil dependency to a sustainable, bio-based economy. In Sweden, wood is a traditional building material and most houses are today industrially built wooden houses. Multi-family houses of wood are increasing in number, as well as schools, and other public buildings. At the same time the competition on wood resources will increase when wood will also be used for fuels, textiles, packaging to replace fossil products. The InFutUReWood project aimed to answer the question: “How should we build today to be able to circulate tomorrow?” The project investigated how building methods and wooden components should be developed so that new buildings can be reused in the future to assure an increased resource efficiency.