Smart Cities interview series, Clewat Oy - Saving the seas

IMD Business School recently published the Smart City Index 2020, where Singapore was ranked as number 1, Helsinki number 2 and Zurich number 3. Inspired by the publication we (Ricky Foo from our Singapore office, Daniel Müller from our Zurich office and myself) started a series of interviews to learn about what makes these three cities the smartest cities in the world. In this interview series we interview leaders in academia, government and business.

Source: https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/

In the third part (read part one and part two here ) of the Smart City article series, my colleague Ricky Foo, who’s heading our operations in Singapore, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Marko Kärkkäinen from Clewat. Clewat is working to make cities smarter, through cleaning their waters. More precisely, it is a fast growing cleantech company from Finland, focusing on solving the plastic waste, excess biomass, oil spills and other pollution problems of our oceans, seas, rivers and lakes. You can read more about the company from https://clewat.com/en/ The interview took place on December 8, 2020 via Microsoft Teams.

Niklas: Thank you Marko for joining us today. Clewat is a fascinating company, with a great vision of “Saving the seas”. Could you tell us a bit more background on the company?

Marko: The man and innovator behind Clewat is Johannes Myllykoski, who is the Founder and Chief Innovator. In his previous work Johannes has been involved in the testing of oil spill response equipment at Blaxar Oy and has been developing and streamlining industrial production lines. Johannes’s strengths are product development and metal finishing. The device did not come easy. Myllykoski has devoted thousands of hours to developing it. However, a small prototype has grown in less than ten years a device that is already operational in large oceans. Myllykoski has also been able to get recognition for his work, he won the Baltic Sea project’s first prize with his invention in 2018. Clewat’s goals are high and they are supposed to be achieved quickly. The first devices have been on the seas at spring 2019 and our goal is that two years from now, 20 of our vessels will clean the oceans. Clewat is a Finnish, internationally operating company, focusing on environmental technology, whose journey is just beginning. Clewat has recently received a lot of attention and name recognition, also internationally.

Niklas: You have lived in both Singapore and Helsinki, so you have a great perspective on the Smart city topic. What makes the globally top ranked smart cities like Singapore, Helsinki and Zurich stand out?

Marko: The smartest cities are usually not the biggest cities in the world. Smaller cities have advantages - they have opportunities and potential to invest in smart city initiatives, whereas some of the bigger cities have other issues to work on. The smart cities have also found the right ways to connect with the citizens, without it feeling like monitoring or controlling. For example, if I compare Helsinki or Singapore to some of the Chinese cities I have visited and lived in, here people don’t generally feel that “the big brother is watching”, when it comes to government connecting with the citizens.  

If I, on the other hand, compare Helsinki and Singapore to one another, the difference in intensity between the two cities is huge. It’s interesting that both cities are so smart, even though the need to be smart derives from very different reasons.

 Source:  ©Mistervlad - stock.adobe.com

Ricky: What can other cities learn from these three smart cities?

Marko: Helsinki, Singapore and Zurich all have a good education. There is a lot of engineering knowledge, good start-up atmosphere and a well function collaboration between these start-up hubs, businesses, government and universities. To be a smart city, these ecosystems need to work well and there needs to be a common goal of having a positive impact on as many people’s life as possible. In many cities the focus is on controlling the people, whereas these three cities are focusing on improving people’s life.

Ricky: What is Clewat’s contribution the development of smart cities?

Marko: We reduce water waste and recycle it, which has a huge impact on the cities’ cleanness and pleasantness. For example, the canals in Amsterdam today have more plastic than life in them. Cleaning them would certainly make the city nicer to all the citizens and visitors. When it comes to smart solutions, autonomous vessels are the next steps in our industry. We see that in the future there will be “Clewat ambulances” that get a signal from a satellite or drone, when there is waste coming towards the shore and they go and clean the waters autonomously. There is 10 Million tons of plastic waste leaking to the waters every year. In 2050 there might be more plastic waste than life in the oceans. Clewat wants to clean the waste from the waters already before it reaches the ocean, and have a positive impact on cities’ and the environment.

Niklas: Can you elaborate on some of the key milestones that Clewat has achieved this year?

Marko: This year we have STARA project with the city of Helsinki (you can read more here), where we are cleaning the harbors and waters of the city. In Kokkola we have a project as well. We have one vessel in Florida waiting for the covid situation to aloud us to do more international tasks as well. Additionally, we were selected to top 10 startups in Finland. Internationally we have also been selected to compete in the Tech Rocketship awards.

Ricky: What are the challenges that you see in the process of becoming a Smart City? How can cities overcome these challenges?

Marko: People living in these cities need to have access to see the smart development. That creates a positive cycle, when people see more of the development being done and their many benefits. From Clewet’s point of view, it’s good that waste management, and saving the planet, is coming sexier. The governments in smart cities also have a big part to play, when building s smart city. If it’s only developers and privately owned companies driving the initiatives, there is a risk that personal gain trumps common benefits.

Niklas: What is your personal vision for smart cities in the next 10 years?

Marko: Vertical farming, city farming, electric cars and sharing economy are the first things to come to mind.  In waste management and environmental sector there are huge developments coming, as urbanization sanitation, waste management and recycling are becoming more and more important to the comfort and prosperity of the cities. We also need to find new ways to replace plastics with more environmentally friendly substitutes during the upcoming years.

Source: clewat.com

Niklas: Thank you very much for the interesting conversation, do you have any final thoughts or comments on the topic of smart cities?

Marko: A lot has already been said. Maybe just to highlight again, that the collaboration between governments and private companies is the key in building and developing smart cities.  One really can’t function properly without the support from the other.