Water Conservation Business Arising from Company’s Environmental Responsibility

Vapo Oy is a Finnish, non-listed, joint-stock company owned by the Finnish State (50.1%) and Suomen Energiavarat Oy (49.9%). It was established in 1940. Vapo has 1000 employees and the annual group turnover is about 500 M€. It produces energy and environmental peat, forest fuel and pellets for heat, steam and electricity customers in Finland, Sweden and the Baltic countries. Peat energy fulfills 4–5% of the total energy demand in Finland, although only 0.7% of the total area is used for energy purposes. Finland has a remarkable area of peatland: 1/3 of the total area (9.3 million hectares) of which 13% is under conservation, 52% is in forest land and 32% is still untouched (Anon 2011). Peatland area is a valuable energy storage with energy content of 13,000 TWh (Virtanen et al. 2000).