This is how we save the planet

We on this planet, and the planet itself, are in crisis. We need to make changes, and it is easy to feel anxious about this. That anxiety is not entirely unfounded, but it is no reason to descend into mental darkness and lose all hope. Quite the contrary!

The opportunities to reverse this trend are considerable.

We have reached what is commonly called the fourth industrial revolution, we have developed intelligence greater than our own, and investors have identified fossil fuels as "stranded assets". 

Stranded assets are "assets that have suffered unforeseen or premature write-downs, devaluations, or conversion into liabilities".

This means that capital no longer sees fossil fuels as profitable investments. It does not even view businesses that depend on or are in any way built on fossil fuels as good investments.

 

And this is disrupting the world order we have had since the car became a reasonable possession for everyone. 

It is therefore at the intersection between global problems and innovation that the great business opportunities of the future can be found. 

In the past, sustainability tended to be viewed as an imposition on an essentially and fundamentally completely unsustainable business model. People sighed, huffed and puffed, rolled their eyes, and endured environmental issues at board meetings and conferences. 

But that was then!

 

Now, the core of tomorrow's businesses is circular, innovative, and sustainable. For some established companies, it is a long-term investment in the business; for new companies and startups, it is the very engine—and it is a rocket engine, because things are moving fast! 

This change is, to put it in "Rockströmian" terms, a tipping point—but it is tipping in the right direction!

When we started Västerbottenssåpa, few, possibly no one, believed in the idea, especially not the circular aspect.

 
“You’re still at it, you stubborn thing?!”

 

Translated into Swedish: that you have the energy to keep going and that you are “being stubborn” and insisting on carrying on with that.

This referred to cleaning used cooking oil and saponifying it instead of buying virgin raw materials. 
We were told every day that it would never amount to anything, that it would never work, and so on. 

Today, we are far from finished. We have only just begun, but we have proven that a circular idea can be profitable and can grow. At the time of writing, we have 31 employees at the factory in Vilhelmina. The 2024 financial statements will probably show just over 59 million, and the profit can be described as good. 

Another Vilhelmina company that is moving forward thanks to a strong commitment to the environment, climate, and innovation is Ecoclime—look it up! 

One of Sweden’s largest municipalities by area, bordering Norway, with approximately 5,000 inhabitants and in plant hardiness zone 7, I would stick my neck out and say that, per capita, it leads Sweden when it comes to innovation-driven sustainable business. 

As we now transition from a linear economy to a circular economy, from disaster reports to confidence in the future, you should probably keep an eye on us—or perhaps on all of Vilhelmina. 

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