Betolar boosts board to drive sustainable cement solution

Betolar has appointed Kalle Härkki and Soile Kankaanpää to its Board of Directors as the sustainable cement alternative developer continues to develop its Geoprime solution through converted side materials and AI platform technologies.

The novel materials technology developed by Betolar allows cement and virgin aggregate materials used in concrete products to be replaced by using converted industrial side streams, such as fly ash from power generation, blast furnace slag from steel and concentrate sand from mining. Betolar's accumulating data platform already covers the elemental and application properties of more than 400 industrial side streams worldwide.

Soile Kankaanpää has been Chief Commercial Officer of ISS Services Oy since 2018 and previously was responsible for managing customer relationships and sales for Uponor, Outotec, Konecranes and Nokia Networks. She is a member of Destia's Board of Directors.

Kalle Härkki has strong business management experience in the international mining and metals industry. From 2009 to 2020 he managed Outotec's various business areas, while located in Finland, Germany and Dubai. Prior, he served as the CEO of Outokumpu's Research Center from 2005 to 2008. Härkki has also has experience in board work from various industries and organisations. 

"The construction industry urgently needs new, more sustainable materials globally," said Härkki. "The unique and scalable solution from Betolar will help the concrete industry to achieve significant emissions reductions, as well as conserve natural resources. At the same time mining and other industries will benefit from this innovation by being able to harness their side streams worldwide and create an impactful difference."

Chairman of the Board of Directors Tero Ojanperä said its goal is to be the construction industry's solutions provider to resolve the climate crisis. Yesterday the UN IPCC released an alarming report outlining the extent of the crisis (click here).

The construction industry is among the most polluting sectors, creating over 20% of the global CO2 emissions. One of the most significant problems in the industry is the cement used in concrete, whose production causes a significant carbon dioxide load.

Last month The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and World Economic Forum launched ‘Concrete Action for Climate’ (CAC), a collaborative platform that will help drive the industry’s journey to carbon neutral concrete by 2050 as part of the Mission Possible Partnership. The concrete and cement industry, which has cut emissions proportionally by 20% since 1990, is now assembling wider support to achieve its ambitious 2050 carbon neutral target.