Business News
UPM achieves Green Good Design Award for its UPM ProFi composite material
Friday 22. October 2010 - UPM has received a renowned Green Good Design Award for its innovative and environmentally friendly UPM ProFi composite material. The international award was conferred on UPM by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Green Good Design aims to raise consumers’ awareness about companies which follow sustainable design approach in their businesses.
Mr Markku Koivisto, Director, UPM ProFi Business Area commented: “We are delighted that our innovation in recycling has received such recognition from
professional designers. UPM ProFi offers new solutions for design and architecture that emphasise a total life cycle approach”.
The principle raw materials for UPM ProFi composite material are recycled paper and plastic recovered as manufacturing surplus from self-adhesive labelstock production. Based on UPM’s own research and business development, the composite is an example of UPM’s innovative thinking where former waste is renewed as a valuable raw material. The hardwearing material has proven to be tough and humidity resistant, and is especially well suited for outdoor applications.
UPM ProFi received a German Best Innovator prize for sustainable innovation management in 2010 and has become known for international projects with international leading architects. UPM ProFi is also currently being showcased as a cladding material for the Finnish pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
For Green Good Design, a committee received thousands of submissions from over 46 nations. Members of The European Centre’s International Advisory committee served as the jury and selected over 100 outstanding examples of Green Design. The awards were given in a number of different categories. In the products category criteria emphasised energy savings, recycling, and greater sustainability. Green Good Design’s goal is to bestow international recognition to those outstanding individuals and organizations that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a sustainable
universe.
The original Good Design was founded in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. It remains the oldest and most important design awards programme worldwide.