The road towards zero-emissions mobility

The changing face of urban transport and mobility

The way people travel around cities has been undergoing a steady but radical transformation in recent years. Air pollution causes 800,000 deaths in Europe alone each year, and forward-thinking cities, such as Helsinki, are coming up with innovative new ways to cut down on emissions.

Road traffic is responsible for around 20% of all CO2 emissions in Helsinki, with the majority of that coming from cars. Helsinki’s public transport system has a fleet of 1400 buses. A strong bus network is good for the environment in itself – it gets people on the move, on time, and stops people using more carbon-heavy transport options. Nevertheless, Helsinki’s buses still consume 40,000 tonnes of fuel annually.

Cleaner fuel for combustion engines

Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) and Helsinki City Construction Services, Stara, have a common aim of achieving emissionfree city traffic. Bio100 is part of the Smart & Clean project which aims to provide the world’s most attractive emissionfree mobility in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

This four-year project coordinated by VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland) seeks for all Helsinki Metropolitan Area buses, off-road vehicles at harbours as well as vehicles and machinery used by the City’s construction company Stara, to use 100% renewable energy.

UPM is able to play an integral role in helping make the Bio100 goal a reality with its advanced biofuels UPM BioVerno.

Estimates show that advanced biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% and exhaust emissions by up to 40% when compared to conventional fossil fuels.

On the road to emission-free city traffic

UPM BioVerno is a next-generation biofuel that comes from hydrotreating crude tall oil, a residue of pulp production. Despite its renewable source, it behaves like fossil-based diesel fuels – only with up to dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions and tail-pipe emissions. Unlike many earlier iterations of biofuels, there is no blending limit, enabling distributors to use it at 100% levels.

This high level of performance makes it the perfect fit for heavy-duty vehicles, including Stara’s fleet of construction vehicles and the 1400 buses that the City of Helsinki uses on a daily basis. While the Finnish capital undergoes rapid growth and emerges as a leading global ecocity, UPM is the perfect partner to help make a greener, more efficient future a reality for commuters and constructors alike.