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The Ruukki Professional Day, which has already become a tradition, was held on Friday 22 March 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. Nearly a hundred construction and steel construction product professionals gathered to hear experts' thoughts on carbon-neutral construction and how to make the buildings of the future more sustainable.
Finland aims for carbon neutrality by 2035. The goal is ambitious, and achieving it will require changes in all sectors of society, including construction. The theme of this year's Ruukki Professional Day was "Together towards carbon-neutral construction". The aim of the expert speeches was to explain to customers the future impacts of carbon neutrality targets on construction and to tell about Ruukki's sustainable product range, which can be used to reduce the lifecycle emissions of buildings.
The morning program focused on the green transition in steel manufacturing and the challenging market situation in construction. In his speech, President Sami Eronen went through the pilot projects for fossil-free steel in Finland and Sweden, as well as Ruukki's new sustainability targets. Harri Leppänen, Head of Environment, Health & Safety at SSAB Europe, talked about fossil-free steel production and the upcoming investments in changes and efficiency improvements at the Raahe steel production. In his speech, Tuomas Laitinen from Forecon Oy analyzed the market situation.
The second part of the Professional Day focused on sustainable development and Ruukki's sustainable product range. "We want to actively contribute to our industry’s green transition. Building products made from SSAB Fossil-free steel and high-quality recycled steel are important drivers of sustainable construction and help our customers significantly reduce the lifecycle impacts of their buildings," says Sami Eronen. The low-carbon product novelty Ruukki Classic LowCarbon roof profile, which will be launched on the market later this year, debuted at the Professional Day.
The content part of the event was concluded by getting acquainted with the upcoming renewals of the Finnish Roof Association’s (Kattoliitto) Functional Roofs 2024 publication and the stands of Ruukki, Vilpe, Piristeel and Easoft. The atmosphere at the event was relaxed and especially in the afternoon when touring the stands, the space was filled with happy chatter. The customers were pleased to meet in person with other construction professionals and partners. The matter-of-fact and very interesting day ended with dinner and the sparkling Noora Karma Show.