Innovation and internationalisation

Climate change is rightly topping agendas all over the globe, and in December the eyes of the world will be on Denmark, which is hosting the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen. How is Denmark preparing itself to host this event? And what issues are high on the agendas of world leaders? The answers are revealed in the article ’Humbly hosting a crucial conference’.

But there are other global challenges besides climate change. One of them is the growing elderly population – especially in industrialised countries – whose need for nursing services will increase while there are fewer young people to provide them. But loving care must be provided. In Denmark there is a strong focus on technical solutions, also called ’welfare technology’, which can release time and resources for the softer side of care. Denmark has had to adjust to demographic changes earlier than many other OECD countries, forcing politicians, companies and researchers to think in technologically new welfare solutions. This has given Denmark a strong position in this business area, to which we devote an article in this issue.

The Danish shipping industry also focuses on innovation – innovation that can reduce fuel consumption. Over the last twenty years innovation in shipping companies has brought down wage costs. Today, even the biggest ships can be operated by about 15 people. Now the increase in fuel prices has shifted the focus to innovation that can reduce fuel consumption. By keeping down fuel consumption, shipping companies not only save money but also reduce the burden on the environment.

Although Denmark is a small country of 5.5 million people, both the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark can claim to be world-class. In general, the Danish educational institutions have an international mindset and work tirelessly to give foreign students and researchers high quality studies and a rewarding working life in Denmark.

All these things, and more, are explored in this issue of Focus Denmark.

Enjoy the read.

IN BRIEF

Worth knowing about

… either as a point of contact for business or to add to your knowledge of what goes on in Denmark.

Work in Denmark

What is it?
Workindenmark.dk is the official website of Denmark for international jobseeking and recruitment. Besides the website, there are three Workindenmark centres located around the country – on Sealand, Funen and Jutland – which can answer your questions and help with finding a job.

How can it be useful to you?
Jobseekers from abroad can find all the relevant information about working in Denmark, search for jobs in Denmark in the job database, and add their CV to the CV database which potential employers in Denmark use to search for foreign manpower.

What is the web address?
http://www.workindenmark.dk

Up, up and away

Photo: Lange Aviation

Hydrogen fuel cell stacks from Jutland-based Serenergy provided the propulsion when the German Aerospace Center demonstrated its Antares DLR-H2 research aircraft at Hamburg Airport this summer. It is said to be the world’s first piloted aircraft capable of taking off using power generated solely by fuel cells.

Serenergy’s HTPEM fuel cells operate at a significantly higher temperature than conventional polymer electrolyte membrane designs, thereby boosting performance.

Commenting on the successful demonstration, Serenergy’s managing director Anders Korsgaard told professional journal Ingeniøren (The Engineer): “It is a very demanding application. A lot of strain is put on our technology during take-off, which requires a good deal of extra energy. So it is a seal of approval.”

http://www.serenergy.dk

New US Ambassador to Denmark

The new US Ambassador to Denmark, Laurie S. Fulton, arrived in the country on July 29th and wasted no time in engaging with the Danish media by immediately holding an impromptu press meeting in the arrivals hall of Copenhagen Airport.

Ms. Fulton, previously a partner in the powerful Washington legal firm of Williams & Connolly, spoke of long-standing and reliable ties between the USA and Denmark, whilst observing that there was room to explore new ways to find partnership in dealing with global issues.

Predictably pressed by journalists on whether she expects President Obama to visit Denmark, Ambassador Fulton answered “once or twice”, without elaborating on whether a presidential appearance at the crucial UN Climate Change Conference COP15 in Copenhagen in December could be one of them.

Born in 1949 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Laurie S. Fulton holds a BA from the University of Nebraska and a law degree (J.D.) from Georgetown University in Washington, whose alumni include Bill Clinton and Jose Manuel Barroso.

A major fundraiser for the Obama presidential campaign and long-time supporter of the Democrats, Ms. Fulton is the third female US ambassador appointed to Denmark, and succeeds the Bush administration’s appointee James P. Cain, whose period of residence ended in January this year.

And the winner is…

Friday 2nd October. Copenhagen is set for a day of drama. The IOC is in town to decide whether Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo will host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Down at Bella Conference Center, the list of people pitching for their respective cities reads like Who’s Who: the King of Spain, football legend Pelé, Michelle Obama – even her husband jets in to add his weight to Chicago’s bid.

Then voting begins. Round 1, Chicago is first to be eliminated. Audible gasps in the auditorium. Round 2, out goes Tokyo. Final round, then IOC President Jacques Rogge announces the winner -– Rio de Janeiro! Bella Conference Center erupts. Brazil’s President Lula cries tears of joy. “Our time has come” he had said in his address. And the IOC agreed with him.

Denmark in the news

Denmark’s first astronaut

Andreas Mogensen has become Denmark’s first astronaut. He is one of six successful candidates from 8,400 applicants who have been chosen to join the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut corps. This is the first time the corps has been supplemented since it was established in 1992.

32 year-old Mogensen, a space science graduate who has studied at Imperial College London and the University of Texas, and has most recently worked as a research fellow at Surrey Space Centre in the UK, will now commence the training programme to prepare him for space missions.

The selection of Andreas Mogensen is a source of pride for Denmark, which each year gives approx. EUR 29 million to ESA’s space research programme. Revenue also flows the other way, with Danish companies and universities gaining ESA contracts each year for the development and production of space technology.

A 2008 report from Rambøll Management calculated that from January 2000 to October 2007, Denmark gained ESA contracts worth EUR 126.7 million. Among the Danish companies most active in this area are Terma, Rovsing, Damec Research, Ticra, Force Technology, Innoware and GateHouse.

Aalborg University has already had two student satellites successfully launched into space, and is due to put a third satellite into orbit next year with a payload experiment on board designed to detect signals used by ships to broadcast their position, course and speed.

Danes who made a difference

Camping made easy

If you own a caravan or trailer, you’ll know just how time-consuming it can be to get the trailer positioned properly on the campsite stand. But now a Danish company called Mover Technology has developed a neat solution that makes all that exhausting pushing and pulling a thing of the past.

The Camper Trolley is a compact yet powerful manoeuvring device that simply hooks onto the towing assembly, enabling the caravan or trailer to be effortlessly positioned precisely where you want it with the help of a simple hand-held remote control.

Equipped with robust rubber belts and two electric motors, the Camper Trolley weighs just 16.5 kg yet has the capacity to move trailers of up to 1,500 kg in weight. Its lithium ion battery is charged by a built-in solar cell designed to cover power requirements under normal operating conditions. The battery can also be topped up using mains electricity if needed.

http://www.mover-technology.com

A new feature in the landscape

New tunnel pipes heat to city centre

30 metres below the streets of Copenhagen, a giant tunnel-boring machine called Astrid has spent nine months carving out a 3.9 kilometre long tunnel connecting the district heating plant on the island of Amager to the inner city district heating network. The tunnel will contain all the necessary pipework and related infrastructure, and will reportedly reduce CO2 emissions by 200,000 tonnes a year.

The tunnel boring machine Astrid is of the same type that was used to make the tunnels for the Copenhagen Metro. 128 metres long and weighing 500 tonnes, Astrid has a tunnelling capacity of 10-25 metres per day and is designed to drill and line the tunnel with concrete collars at the same time. The internal diameter of the new district heating tunnel is 4.2 metres – just 30 cm smaller than the Metro tunnels.

The project has been carried out as a joint venture between the leading Danish construction company MT Højgaard and the German construction services specialist Hochtief.

Denmark in surveys

Summer is traditionally a season of surveys, and this year’s crop has seen Denmark reclaim the world’s top position in e-readiness and a top four place for trade friendliness, as well as surprising some at home with its powers of attraction to foreign students and skilled workers.

After dropping to 5th in last year’s EIU/IBM e-readiness world ranking, which focuses on digital advancement, Denmark retook pole position in the 70-country survey, with nurturing new businesses weighing well in its favour. The report noted that registering a start-up in Denmark takes only six days and involves no cost.

A 4th spot was Denmark’s reward in the World Economic Forum’s Global Enabling Trade Report 2009 which scrutinized 121 economies. Factors like transparency, lack of corruption, security and efficiency of government all helped to give Denmark’s business environment a golden glow, with difficulty in hiring foreign labour the only significant drawback noted.

But a survey from i-graduate, commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, revealed that Denmark is doing better at attracting foreigners than the World Economic Forum might think.

The survey showed that the number of scientifically skilled foreigners working in Danish research institutions rose by a third from 2003 to 2006, while the number of foreign students in Danish universities and colleges has practically doubled since 2001.

Did you know…

… that Denmark’s five largest trading partners are Germany, Sweden, UK, USA and Norway?

Statistics Denmark

Bookmark Denmark

If there’s an event in your interest area, why not bookmark it to attend? Denmark is a great place to visit!

Agriculture
AGROMEK LIVESTOCK
EXHIBITION CENTRE HERNING
24-28 November
Exhibition Centre Herning

International fair showcasing technology, fixtures and equipment for livestock farming as well as many other products. New feature at fair: Agro-Match, where exhibitors and possible international collaboration partners can meet.

For more information on exhibition, venue and contact visit:
http://www.agromek.dk

Waste Management
WASTE & CLIMATE CONFERENCE
3-4 December
Copenhagen Marriott Hotel Copenhagen

The conference is organized as a prelude to the UN Climate Change Conference COP15 in Copenhagen. The intention is to present how intelligent waste management plays an important role in the efforts to mitigate climate change.

For more information on programme, venue, registration and contact visit:
http://www.wasteandclimate.org

Climate
THE COPENHAGEN CLIMATE EXCHANGE 2009
3-6 December
Øksnehallen, Copenhagen

Four day event leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP15 in Copenhagen. The aim of the exhibition is to promote a range of existing solutions to climate change where public and individual participation are key components. The exhibition is inspired by the Cool Cities campaign initiated by The Sierra Club in the US.

For more information on programme, venue, registration and contact visit:
http://www.cphco2009.dk

Cleantech
BRIGHT GREEN
12-13 December
Forum, Copenhagen

This exhibition runs in parallel with the UN Climate Change Conference COP15 in Copenhagen, with many COP15 delegates expected to attend. World leading cleantech companies will showcase solutions and technological responses to climate change.

For more information on programme, venue, registration and contact visit:
http://www.brightgreen.dk

TEST COUNTRY FOR ELECTRIC CARS

The tale of the ugly electric car

From being a ridiculed and graceless means of transport, the electric car has in record time developed into a beautiful swan in the global car pond. Denmark is the leading test country for electric cars and electric infrastructure

By Poul Kjar

One of the early Danish electric cars, the Hope Whisper, got the worst imaginable start to its life when it was involved in a crash during the launch presentation in Copenhagen in 1985. Apparently the driver had been so exhausted from getting the car ready that he fell a sleep at the wheel.
Photo: Scanpix.

Denmark has never been famed for its car marques.

One of the few Danish-manufactured cars was a battery driven vehicle called the Ellert.

On a global basis 5,000 Ellerts were sold, but it never became a success. Not only because of its ill-starred introduction and its funny look - half car, half moped - but also because its battery technology was far from advanced. Another factor weighing against it was the fact that the Ellert and other early electric hopefuls came into being before the climate issue hit the global headlines.

Today, almost a quarter of a century later, every major car manufacturer is racing to develop electric cars, while Denmark is profiling itself as the world’s leading test country for electric cars and visionary electric car projects – not least as the result of the political vision of successive Danish governments to make Denmark independent of fossil fuels.

Denmark has focused primarily on wind power, which today covers 22 per cent of electricity consumption, and by 2025 half of the country’s electricity needs will be generated from wind as well as other forms of renewable energy.

This aligns perfectly with electric cars, which at one and the same time can use green electricity from wind power, reduce the transport sector’s CO2 emissions and balance the entire electricity grid.

Designed by the Dane Henrik Fisker, the Fisker Karma hybrid car accelerates from 0 to 100 km in less than 6 seconds and has a top speed of 200 kph (125 mph).
Photo: Fisker Karma.

A small, green country
The multinational electric car scheme ”Project Better Place” aims to establish an electric infrastructure and replace a quarter of Denmark’s 2 million cars with electric cars by 2020.

”Our biggest task is to reduce CO2 emissions and improve the environment, and Denmark is a country with a government and population who are very occupied with the environment,” says Jens Moberg, director of Project Better Place in Denmark, about the choice of Denmark as the first European country for rolling out the ambitious electric car project.

Since the oil crisis in the early 1970s, successive Danish governments have been aware of the risk posed by dependency on oil. As a result, heavy taxation on combustion engine cars has been introduced, but electric cars are tax-exempted until 2012.

”There seems to be political agreement on extending the tax exemption until 2015, when the entire tax system is probably going to be changed, so that in the future CO2 emissions will be taxed, thereby also favouring electric cars that run on green electricity,” says Jens Moberg.

The Project Better Place director states that Denmark’s geodemographic profile, a very small country with a high population density, also makes it obvious as a test country for an electric infrastructure with charging points and battery switch stations.

The opportunity to make battery switches in petrol stations makes the concept quite unique, and circumvents the problem
of range-limiting battery capacity. On longer trips, the electric car owner can drive into special garages in petrol stations, where a robot takes out the battery, which is owned by Better Place, and replaces it with a fresh one. And then on you go…

Wind and electric cars: the perfect combination
Project Better Place has partnered with DONG Energy, Denmark’s largest energy company, whose energy supply today is based
on 85 per cent fossil fuels and 15 per cent renewable energy, primarily wind, but which by 2050 aims to reverse the energy mix percentages.

DONG Energy thus has a clear commercial interest in getting electric car owners as customers, since electric cars can both take electricity from the grid and supply electricity to it.

As the situation stands today, DONG Energy and other producers of wind energy have difficulty selling the electricity that Denmark’s huge wind farms produce at night when energy consumption is low. But a large number of cars can charge up throughout the night, and release electricity to households in peak situations during the day, thereby balancing the entire electricity network. That constitutes good energy economics, without CO2 emissions and its associated effects on climate.

Collaboration and partnerships with car manufacturers that will produce electric cars to the project’s battery standards is a crucial point for the future of Project Better Place.

Jens Moberg says:
”Renault will deliver the first models that meet our standard in 2011, and we are talking to a lot of European, American, Chinese and Korean car manufacturers. My guess is that we will have entered several partnership agreements within 12 months.”

The alternative to the concept of switching batteries is fast charging. But the prospect of battery technology overtaking and rendering superfluous battery switching in the future does not worry Jens Moberg.

He says:
“There are some physical laws that need to be overcome before the charging time comes down under 10 minutes. But at that time we will naturally introduce fast charging at our existing battery switch stations, which are obvious for charging. But right now we see no way around the battery switch.”

Green tax policy
One of the world’s largest car rental companies, Germany’s Sixt, has also picked Denmark as a test country for electric cars, and this autumn is rolling out hundreds of Citroën C1 electric cars onto the streets of Denmark. According to the director of Sixt in Denmark, Kasper Gjedsted, the choice of Denmark as a test country is linked to the tax policy that favours electric cars.

The Danish tax system makes the price difference between a combustion engine car and an electric car relatively small. Electric cars are significantly more expensive to produce than combustion engine cars, but when electric cars on the Danish market are exempted from a tax of 180 per cent, the price difference between electric and combustion engine cars is evened out.

The electric cars from Sixt can be hired or leased at the same price as an average family car. If one wants to buy an electric Citroën C1 through Sixt, the price is DKK 187,750 (EUR 25,219), which is ”only” DKK 75,000 (EUR 10,074) more than a petrol-powered Citroën C1 costs on the Danish market.

The car’s range is 120 kilometres per charge, which is supplied from ordinary household mains. But this limited distance is not a problem, according to Kasper Gjedsted:

”Surveys show that 86 per cent of all Danes drive under 60 kilometres per day. And for those buying or hiring from Sixt, who occasionally need to drive further, we give discounts on the hire of combustion engine cars. So if you need a Cabriolet for a longer trip at the weekend, we make one available.”

Research environments
Denmark’s position as a test and pioneer country for electric cars and electric car projects is also associated with the presence of a strong research and development environment. From this originates Edison, which is a Danish electric car infrastructure project.

The Edison project is developing the intelligent electrical power infrastructure which will make it possible to integrate increasing amounts of wind power into the grid and use the energy for charging electric cars. At the same time the system must be able to draw electricity from car batteries when wind turbines stop rotating and there is insufficient electricity for buildings and private homes.

The Edison project is also working on a system for calculating electricity consumption so that car owners pay for the electricity when they charge, and earn from the electricity when they release it to the grid.

In this context, it is an advantage that Denmark does not manufacture electric cars, and thus can play a part in developing generic solutions which are unallied to specific industry interests. Kim Behnke, head of research at Energinet.dk, an independent public sector company which owns the Danish supply network and finances major parts of the Edison project, says:

”We are taking an active part in the standardisation of electric cars, so that it will be possible to implement pan-European power solutions. The good news is that a European standard for the plug at the charging point and the cable to the car has been agreed in record time. Electric car owners thus avoid needing a stack of cables and adapters with them on trips around Europe.”

According to Kim Behnke, major efforts are now being put into finding common standards for communication with the grid.

He comments:
”The electric car will first be a major success when it becomes as easy to cross borders and charge electric cars as it is today to drive through Europe and tank up with petrol without needing to look at octane numbers.”

With the Ellert, Denmark helped pioneer the production and marketing of electric vehicles. At the time, there was much laughter at the car pond’s ugly duckling. Today the electric car is greeted with great respect and is the object of everyone’s interest.

Who says electric cars can’t be sporty? The Tesla Roadster accelerates from 0 to 100 km in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 200 kph (125 mph).
Photo: Tesla.

THEME – INNOVATION IN SHIPPING

Flying the flag for the environment

For a long time, innovation in shipping was about operating ships with as small a crew as possible. Now the focus is moving to better exploitation of energy and low emissions to the environment.

By Morten Andersen

Low emissions of sulphur. Low emissions of nitrogen oxides. Low particle emissions. Low energy consumption per freighted ton.

These are the most important arguments for using new maritime technology developed through Danish innovation projects.

“The considerable attention being given to protecting the climate fits like a glove with the Danish shipping industry’s agenda. It’s not just about Danish shipowners wanting to appear more environmentally friendly. While in the old days the operational costs of shipping were dominated by wages, today fuel accounts for more than half of the total. So if you keep energy consumption down, you save lots of money and at the same time protect the climate,” says executive vice president Jan Fritz Hansen of the Danish Shipowners’ Association.

Part of the explanation of why shipping companies are focusing on innovation that can reduce fuel consumption, is that innovation in the last twenty years or so has brought down wage costs. Today, even the biggest ships can be operated by about 15 people. Another part of the explanation is that energy prices in general have increased in recent years. There is also a third explanation:

“Until the financial crisis started in autumn 2008, we had ten years of amazing boom. The boilers were fired up and everybody was busy running after all the goods that needed to be transported around. Now the activity has decreased slightly, there is more focus on costs. And energy costs are prominent among them,” explains Jan Fritz Hansen.

Supporting taxes on emissions
According to the Danish Shipowners’ Association, innovative solutions developed by Danish shipping can save about 15 per cent of energy consumption for existing ships up to 2020. This is possible through a blend of new technology, improved routines while at sea and optimisation of route planning. For newly built ships, it is possible today to achieve a 30-40 per cent improvement in energy efficiency.

The Danish Shipowners’ Association hopes global limits will be implemented for how much greenhouse gases the shipping industry is allowed to emit. Aviation and shipping are today exempted from the international agreement on protection of the climate, the Kyoto Protocol. Many observers think however that the exemption will be withdrawn in association with the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

“We support a market-based system where greenhouse gas emissions are subject to a tax or covered by quotas. That will be an advantage for Danish shipping. You can say that Danish shipping companies will get more out of their investments. As it is today, the investments do not quite pay, although you save on fuel costs,” says Jan Fritz Hansen.

At the same time, a system with either quotas or taxes would lead to greater demand for maritime technology from Danish suppliers, he believes:

“Suppliers will benefit from Danish shipping companies being early innovators. This applies not only to energy consumption, but also to the environment. There is a lot of talk about climate, but one must not forget the objective – that the extent to which shipping contributes to air pollution has to be reduced.”

Maersk Line “Sustainable Shipping Operator of the Year”

The international initiative Sustainable Shipping gave shipping company Maersk Line the award as the “Sustainable Shipping Operator of the Year” at its first presentation of international environmental awards in July 2009. The award was given for the shipping company’s work with slow steaming. In situations where there is no urgency for bringing the cargo to its destination, it is possible to achieve major savings in fuel consumption by letting the ship sail more slowly. This enables 10-30 per cent of fuel consumption to be saved - for one large cargo ship it corresponds to saving 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

http://www.sustainableshipping.com

High environmental profile
After pressure from countries including Denmark, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is to introduce stricter limits on how much pollution ships are allowed to emit. Attracting most attention are the nitrogen oxides (NOx), emissions of which are generally unwanted and especially a problem in harbour towns because they can be harmful to health.

MAN Diesel is developing technology to reduce NOx emissions that is targeted at both new and existing engines. For the latter the focus is initially on fuel injection nozzles in two-stroke diesel engines. This type of engine is used by ocean-going ships such as supertankers and large cargo vessels. 75 per cent of all ship engines of this type worldwide are built by licensees based on MAN Diesel’s design.

For newly built ships, IMO will introduce stricter requirements regarding NOx emissions in 2011. These are expected to be further tightened in 2016. In addition to the tougher legislation for newly built engines, requirements on limitation of emissions for engines built before 2000 will be introduced in 2010. The expected service life for a ship is 30 years.

“Our calculations show that if half of the ships that our technology is relevant for, introduced it, then it would save the environment more NOx than Denmark’s total emissions,” says head of department Michael Finch Pedersen of MAN Diesel, and elaborates:

“We know that Danish shipping companies known for their high environmental profile would like to adopt the technology. The other shipping companies will be obliged to do so when IMO’s requirements come into force. IMO’s rules are certainly a bit unusually worked out: the shipping industry is only obliged to introduce the technology if it has been demonstrated that it works. But we are well on our way to doing that. We had actually only anticipated being ready to test one solution for a single engine type, but right now we are on the way with tests for three different designs.”

Customers want green approval
The three engines for which MAN Diesel has developed environmentally friendly solutions are the most popular engines worldwide produced in the period 1990-2000.

“There will possibly be a few of our customers who are unhappy that we are getting the technology ready,” acknowledges Michael Finch Pedersen.

“It is naturally an expense for them to buy it. In return they can probably expect to gain reductions in their harbour duties. NOx is a health problem in harbour towns. Especially in the USA there is a major focus on it, and many harbours are planning reduced taxes for ships with low emissions. In addition there is an increasing number of the shipping industry’s customers who make environmental requirements. For example large chains such as Wal-Mart and IKEA want green approval on the entire value chain, including the transport of their goods. So low NOx emissions will be a competition parameter in the future.”

MAN Diesel’s projects form part of Partnership for Cleaner Shipping, which has the Danish Shipowners’ Association and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency as the key players. Another project in the partnership focuses on reducing sulphur emissions.

Aalborg Industries has developed a scrubber, which “washes” the emission gas from the main engine of ships. The technology is known from land-based power stations.

“Right now (July 2009) we are installing a scrubber on a Ro-Ro cargo ship owned by DFDS. This is the first time in the world that such a large scrubber has been installed on a ship. It is a pilot project where we aim to demonstrate that we can achieve the same high efficiency at full scale on board a ship as in our laboratory tests,” says managing director Jan Vestergaard Olsen of Aalborg Industries.

Efficient cooling on container ships

In collaboration with Danish shipping companies and suppliers of maritime technology, Aalborg University has developed advanced regulation of cooling systems for container ships. Preliminary tests indicate that the regulation can reduce energy consumption for cooling by about 80 per cent. For a single ship this means a saving of DKK 2 million (EUR 269,000 million) annually in energy consumption – and at the same time correspondingly less impact on the climate.

An added bonus: fewer particles
Aalborg Industries expects to have a commercial version of the sulphur scrubber ready during 2010.

“We actually believe so much in a favourable outcome that we are continuing our development of the next generation of scrubbers in parallel with the ongoing project. We hope to launch a later version which is just as efficient, but takes up less space. The current scrubber is four metres in diameter, so it requires a modification to the ship to install it,” continues Jan Vestergaard Olsen.

The solution emanates from another business area of Aalborg Industries, namely scrubbing flue gases from the Inert Gas Systems (IGS) of ships.

“The scrubbed emission gas from the boilers is primarily used to avoid explosion risks in the oil tanks, but further development of the technology has shown that it could be used to scrub sulphur from the diesel engine flue gases. It also revealed the important added benefit that a significant reduction in particle emissions can also be achieved. In the future we will probably see requirements for lower particle emissions from ships,” says the director.

P, Ernie & Enzo by Kit Kjølhede Laursen http://www.kit-k.com

Every little helps
“Shipping is a relatively conservatively thinking industry, where safety and reliable operation are the key focus points. Thorough testing of the system is therefore of uttermost importance before serious shipowners continue to ride the green wave. Furthermore, IMO requirements are expected to be the driving force in the global use of the scrubbing system, provided that they achieve final ratification within the planned period. At that time we will be ready with a cost-effective solution which guarantees compliance with IMO requirements,” promises Jan Vestergaard Olsen, Aalborg Industries.

In addition to scrubbing sulphur and nitrogen oxides, as well as reducing energy consumption, Danish shipping has played a leading role in more environmentally friendly anti-fouling paints and double hull oil tankers, which reduce the risk of leaks. So all in all, executive vice president Jan Fritz Hansen of the Danish Shipowners’ Association is an optimist both on the industry’s and the suppliers’ behalf:

“You can never say that you have the environmental problems under control. It will always be possible to do more. But I really think that we are well on our way to taking a quantum leap forward. At the same time we must be realistic and acknowledge that one single solution does not exist. It is an area where every little helps.”

International environmental award to Danish shipping innovation

The “Green Ship of the Future” project, which has 15 partners from Danish shipping companies, suppliers of maritime technology and research institutions, won the “Green Shipping Initiative of the Year” award, when the international initiative Sustainable Shipping gave the awards for the first time in July 2009. Green Ship of the Future, which focuses on reducing emissions and climate impact from shipping through innovation, was established in 2008 on the initiative of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

http://www.sustainableshipping.com

Exhaust gas scrubber absorption tower (front) and venturi installed in the stack of the DFDS RoRo cargo ship “TOR FICARIA” in Bremerhaven in June 2009. The tower, where a chemical reaction between sulphur dioxide and water takes place, has a diameter of 4.6 m and is 9.5 m high.
Photo: Aalborg Industries

Viking: Innovation is the key to success

Increased innovation will drive growth for Danish company Viking, the world’s largest manufacturer of rescue equipment for the maritime sector that despite a struggling market expects to double its development expenditure in the coming years. Through unique solutions and concept development, Viking is seeking to differentiate itself from its competitors, so that the group can continue to gain market share.

By Anne Klejsgård Hansen

Red numbers on recent quarterly financial statements from the world’s largest shipping companies bear witness to a catastrophic year for international shipping, and that is not exactly pleasant reading for the Danish company Viking Life-Saving Equipment, which has supplied rescue equipment for the maritime sector for 50 years. Viking’s managing director Kjeld Amann acknowledges that the market is significantly smaller and the competition correspondingly tougher, but that is not causing him to curb his ambitions. Quite the contrary.

“Our ambition is to continuously gain market share, and that also applies this year. But when tough times knock at the door, love goes out the window, and we clearly feel that competition on the market has intensified,” says Kjeld Amann.

“It increases the need to constantly differentiate ourselves from our competitors, and that requires development and innovation. So despite the financial crisis, we will be doubling our development budget in the coming years to keep ourselves a step ahead. Because as we see it, innovation is essential for success.”

Record year
Viking had a record year last year, when revenues topped DKK 1 billion (EUR 134 million) for the first time. Kjeld Amann does not expect revenues this year to equal that achievement, but expects them to reach “a reasonable level”.

The company’s aim is to maintain its leading position on the rescue equipment market while significantly growing its two other areas, equipment for the offshore industry, and equipment for the fire service, civil defence and the armed forces.

“We will continue to be primarily a supplier of safety and rescue equipment for the maritime sector, but our strategy is to spread out the product portfolio so that our other focus areas will represent a greater proportion of the business,” says Kjeld Amann.

Today between 65 and 70 per cent of the company’s revenue is generated from equipment for the maritime sector, while equipment for the offshore market accounts for 15-20 per cent and equipment for fire service, civil defence and other institutional units accounts for the rest.

Concept development
The money Viking is planning to invest in development and innovation is not solely earmarked for product development, since the company is focusing increasingly on concept development of individual package solutions for customers. It is in the latter area that the lion’s share of the development budget will be used.

In recent years the company has evolved from being a product supplier to primarily a supplier of one-stop-shop safety packages, and now the ambition is to supply package solutions to customers.

“Technological competence is essential, but in today’s world it is no longer sufficient to guarantee a gain in market share. We constantly have to develop ourselves, and concept development plays a key role,” says Kjeld Amann.

Today, Viking invests a lot of time in customer dialogue, which often develops into collaboration. The company can offer the customer exactly the required solution, and Kjeld Amann sees that as a great benefit for both parties.

“Customers are generally a lot more satisfied with the product when they have been involved in its entire development, and we also gain insight into what customers actually want,” says Kjeld Amann.

Viking Life-Saving Equipment

Viking Life-Saving Equipment A/S was established in 1960 by director Tage Sørensen.

Viking is still owned by the founding Sørensen family, which controls more than 85 per cent of the company through a family fund.

Viking has 22 subsidiaries and 1,250 staff in 50 locations around the world.

Viking’s annual revenues topped DKK 1 billion (EUR 134 million) for the first time last year.

Viking is a global market leader in providing and servicing of essential safety equipment for passenger and cargo ships, offshore installations, the defence industry, fire brigades, yachts and fishing vessels.

The head office is located in Esbjerg, Denmark, and the products are made at four factories in Denmark, Norway and Thailand. In addition to the production unit in Thailand, Viking also has its own facilities in Singapore and China.

Individual solutions
Viking’s focus on individual solutions tailored to customer needs is an important competition parameter for the company.

“The intense competition for customers means that the demands on us are constantly increasing, and we believe that it is the offer of individual solutions that makes customers choose us,” says Kjeld Amann.

For example, there is a major difference in rescue and safety equipment needs between a passenger ferry and a container ship.

A ferry typically has routes only within a limited geographical area, which can have safety measures that are very necessary, while others can be very unnecessary. A container ship on the

other hand typically transports goods over long distances, which can have different climatic and safety-related challenges, and so needs another type of rescue and safety equipment.

Two of Viking’s largest and most recent orders are from the British service company Serco, which has ordered 200 life rafts for 90 Royal Navy support vessels, and from the Norwegian Civil Defence, which has ordered 2,100 fire retardant work suits, that are used for rescue and military operations.
Photo: Viking

Customer needs in focus
It is not only in relation to the product itself that Viking focuses on individual solutions. The company also aims to offer customers a tailored package in relation to authority approvals, financing and service.

“In collaboration with the customer, we aim to develop a total solution which at the same time as fulfilling the customer’s wishes regarding the product itself, also makes the entire process as easy as possible for the customer,” says Kjeld Amann.

Since safety in the maritime sector is subject to a very detailed set of rules, in most cases determined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), it is often very arduous and time-consuming for the customer to keep up to date with the rules in order to ensure the necessary authority approvals. Viking therefore offers to help customers obtain the necessary documentation.

In addition, Viking can provide assistance with financing in certain cases.

“We don’t want to play at being a bank, but we are a solid company and that gives us some advantages which we can use in a negotiation situation. But we are naturally aware that a longer credit period increases risk, and so we are busily involved with hedging at the moment,” says Kjeld Amann.

He also points out that Viking’s after sales service offer, an agreement where Viking handles all servicing of the rescue and safety equipment free of charge for a number of years, has a major value to customers in the current market.

“When we offer our customers an after sales service agreement, we can tell them that we have existed for 50 years, and that we fully intend to be here in 50 years time. That makes customers feel secure, which is an important parameter today,” says Kjeld Amann.

Focus on CSR gave Thai award

Although rules for safety, pollution and general working conditions are not exactly a focus area in all the places where Viking operates, the group maintains that its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) effort is not just something that applies to Danish staff.

“Our key principle is that we are not venturing into the world to evade European environmental rules. We equip our factories according to European norms in relation to working environment, emissions and staff relations,” says Kjeld Amann, managing director of Viking, the world’s largest manufacturer of rescue and safety equipment for shipping.

That attitude was rewarded this summer when Viking won the Thai Good Environmental Governance Award 2009 for its production plant in Laem Chabang in Thailand, for exceeding the national standard for environmental efforts and social responsibility.

“We are very delighted with the award. It shows that it is possible to maintain European standards without losing competitiveness,” says Kjeld Amann.

The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand gave the award to Viking, which competed with 138 Thai companies in Laem Chabang’s industrial area south of Bangkok.

Most of Viking’s rescue products, from fire-fighter suits to life rafts, are now produced in Thailand.

THEME – ATTRACTING FOREIGN STUDENTS

THEME – COMPETITORS COLLABORATE

A human touch to hearing aids

Three Danish companies jointly control almost half of the world market for hearing aids. Together they are financing an independent centre which conducts research into how we humans perceive sound.

By Morten Andersen

Professor Torsten Dau heads the Centre for Applied Hearing Research at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The centre is financed by the industry, DTU and the Danish state. The three main Danish hearing aid companies equally share the industry’s part of the bill.
Photo: Peter Clausen.

Three of the six companies that dominate the world market for hearing aids are Danish. Oticon, Widex and GN Resound jointly account for about 45 per cent of global sales.

“It is amazing that a small country can have such a significant impact on an industry,” says Professor Torsten Dau, who heads the Centre for Applied Hearing Research at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

“There are several explanations, but one of them is that the three Danish companies have been careful not to focus solely on the technical aspects All three are very interested in the softer side of the profession, which is about the human perception of sound.”

Torsten Dau is German. In 2003 he left his position at the University of Oldenburg to become professorial head of the then newly established Danish centre, which is financed by the industry, DTU and the state. Oticon, Widex and GN Resound equally share the industry’s part of the bill.

“It is outstanding that three companies, who are competitors on a day-to-day basis, have been able to agree on financing a centre like ours. That was certainly one of the main reasons why I could not say no to the position,” says Torsten Dau.

Pressurised to collaborate
There is also a lot of activity in this area in Torsten Dau’s homeland, Germany:

“But there is not anything like as close a contact with the industry as here. It is an amazingly favourable situation that you have three major companies in such a small area – and then they are even able to collaborate. Denmark also has a broader network of companies and institutions that are interested in acoustic technology. Companies such as Brüel & Kjær (sound measuring instruments etc.) and Bang & Olufsen are also contributing.”

Vice-president and research director Søren Westermann of Widex confirms that there is a good atmosphere between the three Danish manufacturers of hearing aids:

“It all started when the Danish hearing health service almost commanded us to collaborate, so that hearing centres had a better knowledge of the market when they were purchasing. But we quickly discovered that we had much joy of each other.”

Initially the three companies supported a major research project at DTU on how to improve the ability of hearing aids to help the hearing-impaired in noisy surroundings. Later the companies made a common programming platform, which hearing aid retailers use. The platform enables the user’s data and results from an audiological test to be read-in directly, after which the retailer can choose the best product, independently of the manufacturer. Today all retailers have the platform, just as all manufacturers worldwide have joined the system. Furthermore, the entire industry has shared patent monitoring – also a Danish initiative.

“So we three Danish companies have really shown that we are able to achieve results together, although we are competitors,” Søren Westermann concludes.

The user’s opinion is important
For many years the most important task for the companies was to make the hearing aids as small as possible. Today hearing aids are so small that they can sit right inside the ear canal. So now there is no point in making the hearing aids smaller. If you did that, you would have to put filling material into it, so that the hearing aid could fill out the ear canal. The focus has instead moved to how hearing aids can be made even better.

“In this area the Danish companies have a really strong position, because they have always been strongly oriented towards basic research. Of course, foreign companies are also conducting research, but they have traditionally focused on areas close to actual use,” says Professor Torsten Dau and elaborates:

“In addition to supporting the centre at DTU, the Danish companies each have their own audiological research departments where they make systematic efforts to map how users regard the new hearing aids. One thing is the measurable acoustic properties. Another is how people assess the quality.”

Attracting students from abroad
One should not think that the Centre for Applied Hearing Research directly contributes to the development of hearing aids, emphasises Torsten Dau:

“We would like to, but all the three Danish companies have development departments that carry out the task a lot better.”

So the distribution of roles is such that when some of the centre’s results can be used in new hearing aids, the three companies each hurry back to get them incorporated in a new product before their competitors. And competitors are not only to be understood as Danish ones.

“We are an independent research centre, so our results are published in the public domain. And we are also collaborating with companies outside Denmark,” says Torsten Dau.

“We are actually very internationally oriented. 60 per cent of our students are from abroad, and out of our current 11 PhD students, only three are Danish. It reflects how the Danish environment in audiological research and development is regarded as attractive internationally.”

It began in the 1950s

At the beginning of the 1950s, Denmark adopted two laws which would turn out to be of major significance for the development of hearing aids.

The first law, which was passed in 1950, established a Hard of Hearing Committee and hearing centres, where the deaf and hard of hearing could apply for help. The Hard of Hearing Committee consisted of just five members, of whom two were appointed by the Danish Association of the Hard of Hearing – they were in other words representatives of the users.

In 1951, another law introduced an insurance scheme, which made it cost-free to get a hearing aid.

At that time, there were three hearing aid manufacturers in Denmark. Oticon produced the first Danish hearing aid back in 1946.

The Hard of Hearing Committee and the hearing centres chose to maintain competition between the three manufacturers and so encourage them to produce increasingly good hearing aids.

Two of the companies, Oticon and Widex, still exist, while the third company, which was founded by factory owner Gerd Rosenstand and produced under the name of Danavox, was sold in 1977 to Store Nordiske Telegrafselskab (Great Nordic – or GN), and the company’s name today is GN Resound.

The cocktail party problem
An example of the form of sound perception that the three Danish companies and the centre at DTU are interested in, is colloquially called “the cocktail party problem”, where a hearing-impaired person is talking to another person in a room in which there are many different conversations going on and perhaps also other forms of sound. How does the hearing aid know which of the many competing sounds to focus on? The problem does not get any easier when the other person in the conversation occasionally stops speaking so that the sound being focused on disappears completely.

“It is a very tricky problem. You can take a large group of people who all have the same degree of hearing loss, and see that half of them have major difficulty, while the other half do not. We would very much like to explain what the difference is between the two groups. That would be the first step towards solving the problem,” says Professor Torsten Dau of DTU.

In contrast to most other sounds, human speech varies a lot both in frequency and amplitude. The research centre has developed a computer model of a virtual test person to model how this type of sound is perceived in rooms with different acoustic characteristics. A related project examines the connection between impaired hearing, problems of understanding speech against background noise, and the ability to determine the direction of sound as well as resolving it in relation to time and frequency.

The common foundation of the projects is that the inner ear is able to make an initial frequency analysis of the signal it receives, i.e. the signal is split into various parts, depending on the frequency. This division is maintained in the further processing: certain nerve cells in the brain are dedicated to handling the various frequencies. In addition, there are several other principles for processing the sound signal on its path into the brain – for example neurons that code various angles of sound reception by combining input from both ears. Other cells mainly react to particular energy fluctuation patterns, which are typical for speech signals. Lastly, the information is gathered according to the principles of radar technology, and a mechanism in the brain determines whether a certain sound is audible or has been masked by sources of noise.

The final objective is to develop software that can be put into a hearing aid so that the cocktail party problem is solved for people with certain forms of hearing loss.

Minimal – also in power consumption

Despite the fact that a modern hearing aid can contain more than 10 million transistors, its power consumption is only 0.5 milliwatt. In equivalent terms, a single TV set on standby uses as much power as 40,000 hearing aids.

Illustration Lars Chrois

THEME – WELFARE TECHNOLOGY

Denmark leads the way in welfare technology

The need for welfare technology will increase dramatically in the coming years, and Danish companies are among the most innovative in this area

By Anne Klejlsgård Hansen

Wheelchairs with built-in GPS, talking tablet dispensers and house-cleaning robots will become part of our daily living in a few years. Because as populations age across the entire western world, the proportion of working-age people is shrinking.

That makes technology ever more important, and OECD forecasts that the need for welfare technology, i.e. technology in nursing and healthcare, will increase dramatically in the coming years. It will become a major challenge in large parts of the world, but it will also create fertile ground for a technological revolution in the entire welfare area.

“The development of technology is very interesting to the whole welfare sector. Initially the technology can lighten the load for staff, improve working conditions and create more time for care. The technology can also assist people who need help to be more self-reliant for a longer time,” says the Danish Minister for the Interior and Social Affairs, Karen Ellemann, who points out that the Danish government has earmarked DKK 3 billion (EUR 403 million) for the development of new labour-saving technologies, including in the welfare area.

The welfare technology market

The export market for welfare technology in the OECD countries reached DKK 3,300 billion (EUR 444 billion) in 2006, corresponding to 7.3 per cent of total OECD exports.

In Denmark, exports of welfare technology totalled DKK 68 billion (EUR 9 billion) in 2007, corresponding to 12 per cent of total exports.

The market for welfare technology is forecast to increase rapidly in Europe, USA, Australia, China, India and Brazil, since the populations will age significantly in these countries.

Source: OECD and Region Southern Denmark

Focus on welfare technology
Many Danish companies have already discovered the booming market, and Denmark’s strengths in medico, IT and design give the country the opportunity to become one of the leading players in this area.

“Danish companies are already at an advanced stage in this area, and we see that progress is being made very rapidly – both in the research environments and in companies,” says consultant Christian Graversen, a welfare technology specialist at the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), Denmark’s largest business organisation.

Denmark has a strong position in this business area since, like the other Scandinavian countries, it has one of the most well-developed welfare systems in the world. One of the reasons for this is that Denmark has had to adjust to demographic changes earlier than many other OECD countries, forcing politicians, companies and researchers to think in technologically new welfare solutions.

“For a number of years we have had an increasingly ageing population at the same time as having high wages. We have thus been forced to develop labour-saving technologies and that has put us in an advanced position today,” says Christian Graversen.

Part of daily life
Some of the places where welfare technology has been part of daily life for a long time are in Danish hospitals and home care. The lack of qualified labour has been increasing in these sectors for the last 10 years, and the need for additional staff in the nursing sector is forecast to increase by 7,000 by 2015 and 12,000 by 2020. The same trend is seen across the entire western world, as well as in countries such as China and India, where the pressure on the nursing sector is also expected to rise significantly.

“Welfare technology is necessary if we are to manage the workload in hospitals and home care, and the need for welfare technology will undoubtedly increase in the years to come. Welfare technology helps release labour and makes treatment more comfortable for patients and citizens,” says Lisbeth Nielsen, head of department in Danish Regions, which is responsible for the operation of Danish hospitals.

Among the many examples she mentions of how welfare technology is used today, are websites where patients suffering from e.g. heart disease or diabetes can key in their own test results and regulate medication themselves. The patient thus avoids continually having to attend the hospital, and doctors save considerable amounts of time.

Another example, which home care workers are already employing, is to use the camera in their mobile phones to take a photograph of e.g. a sore and send it directly to a doctor, who can then guide the home carer through the treatment process.

What is welfare technology?

Welfare technology is a collective term for technologies that supply citizens with welfare services by:

Increasing citizens’ safety and security Increasing citizens’ mobility

Preventing or providing early information about disease

Welfare technology can also ease the workload in the nursing sector and so reduce the need for labour.

Source: IDA

Engineers in a key role
In many cases it is engineers who are developing the new welfare technology, and at the Danish Society of Engineers (IDA), chairman Lars Bytoft is in no doubt that developments in this area will gain pace in the coming years.

“We have a labour market in Denmark where we are used to working across hierarchies and professional demarcations. This has led to major technological developments in welfare technology where nursing staff, engineers, IT people and public authorities have launched projects which have resulted in completely new welfare technology - and that we will continue to do,” says Lars Bytoft.

One of the welfare technologies that has resulted from cross-disciplinary collaboration is a high-tech Patient Briefcase from IT company Global IT Systems (GiTS) for patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The Patient Briefcase has been developed through a collaboration with Region Southern Denmark and has now resulted in GiTS establishing an independent company Medisat, which exclusively focuses on welfare technology.

According to Lars Bytoft, in many cases it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel in order to develop welfare technology that can ease the workload in the nursing sector and at the same time provide better treatment.

“Often it is about rethinking existing technology to create new technology. But of course we also see some technological quantum leaps in this area,” says Lars Bytoft.

The demographic trend of rapidly ageing populations and fewer people of working age will become apparent in most OECD countries in the coming years, according to OECD surveys. In Europe today there are four people working for each pensioner, but by 2025 the ratio will have shrunk to 3:1, and by 2050 to 2:1. The same picture applies in countries such as the USA, China and India, where the populations are also ageing at record speed.

Welfare technology examples

A walking stick or wheelchair with built-in GPS
Clothes with built-in sensors that measure blood pressure and other parameters
House-cleaning robots
Talking tablet dispensers that remind the user when to take tablets
The intelligent home with e.g. automatic windows, doors and curtains
Intelligent clothes and therapy robots Software systems for alarms, sensors and contacts

Source: IDA

From IT to welfare technology by chance

It was not exactly on the cards that Global IT Systems (GiTS) should start getting involved with welfare technology. But in 2006, when one of GiTS director Kurt Christensen’s neighbours, a consultant at Svendborg Hospital told Christensen about the major challenges that the hospital’s patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) were experiencing, an idea began to bud in the mind of the GiTS director.

That became the start of a public-private sector collaboration between Svendborg Hospital and GiTS on a Patient Briefcase for people with COPD and the beginning of a new business unit in the GiTS Group.

“Since then it has gained ground and has resulted in the subsidiary Medisat, which exclusively supplies welfare technology solutions. We are currently developing the Patient Briefcase for other patient groups – for example those with heart disease, and we are also working on several other solutions,” says Jørgen Thomsen, head of department at Medisat, who opines that it is obvious to use competences from the IT industry to develop new welfare technology.

Discharging patients earlier
The Patient Briefcase enables those suffering from COPD, who are severely affected by a chronic lung condition, to be discharged from hospital up to a week earlier. The patient thereby escapes the confines of the hospital bed while at the same time resources are released – beds and labour – at the hospital.

The Patient Briefcase consists of two parts, one for the patient and one for the doctor. The patient’s unit is a transportable telemedical device with a screen and measuring equipment in the form of a spirometer and a pulse oximeter, while the doctor’s unit is a telemedical workstation, which enables the doctor to carry out a video consultation with the patient and retrieve patient data from the system.

“We have had very positive responses from both patients and staff, and several times we have seen that patients have become so attached to the briefcase that they don’t want to return it,” says Jørgen Thomsen, who has great expectations of the product.

The Patient Briefcase is currently being used at Svendborg Hospital and Odense University Hospital, and Medisat expects that the product will be taken into use in the whole of Region Southern Denmark during 2010.

It must be attractive too

It is not enough that it works – it must also be nice to look at.

To industrial designer Annette Krath Poulsen, the desire to invent beautiful things that make life easier for the user has always been the driving force in her work. This has already resulted in a trendily designed shopping trolley which also functions as a walker, and she is currently spending all her waking hours designing the optimal toilet for the elderly and disabled.

“It is amazingly motivating to design things that actually help ease people’s lives, and which at the same time are aesthetic,” says Annette Krath Poulsen, who owns AKP Design.

She believes that in many cases it is necessary to work across professional boundaries to develop a product that meets all the user’s requirements.

“Many of my products are a result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration – for example with nursing staff, technicians and IT and finance people – where it would not have been possible for any of us to develop the product without the others,” she says.

Danish healthcare

Medisat is a supplier to the Danish healthcare sector. The company’s vision is to modernise health services by introducing telemedical solutions.

See more on http://www.medisat.dk

Keen interest in the products
Annette Krath Poulsen has experienced keen interest in the welfare technology products she has designed, and that it is often the visual impression which determines whether the product catches on. She points out that many elderly who actually need a walker to get around, choose not to use one because they consider them awkward and impractical.

Most of Annette Krath Poulsen’s ideas emerge from situations in everyday life. The idea for the shopping trolley/walker came from observing check-out queues in supermarkets where she saw how elderly women struggled to manage a bag in one hand and a walking stick in the other. There must be a smarter solution, she thought, and the idea of the shopping trolley/walker was born. The idea for an optimal toilet for the elderly and disabled emerged from a trip to the Far East.

“During a trip to Japan I became so fascinated with their automated toilets that I thought it must be possible to further develop them so they can make everyday life easier for the elderly and disabled,” says Annette Krath Poulsen.

Shopping trolley/walker

AKP Design specialises in user-driven innovation by designing products and services for the elderly and disabled.

See more on http://www.akpdesign.dk

Rest, walk or shop. The specially designed shopping trolley also functions as a walker and a stool.
Photo: AKP Design.

COMPANY HEALTHCARE

Healthcare at work

Almost all Danish companies have introduced healthcare schemes for their staff, and despite the ongoing economic crisis, companies maintain these schemes because experience shows that healthy staff strengthen the bottom line

By Anne Klejsgård Hansen

Free fruit, quit smoking courses, fitness training and physiotherapy are just some of the offers that have become popular at Danish workplaces in recent years.

Because while free home PCs, free telephones and newspaper subscriptions used to be among the most common perks, company healthcare schemes have progressed rapidly in the last 10 years in Denmark, where almost all companies today offer their staff at least one form of healthcare benefit. And it has turned out to be a really good business for employers, since healthier staff equate to a healthier bottom line.

“Healthier staff means fewer days lost through sickness, which is really expensive for companies. So it has major importance to the corporate finances if sickness absence is reduced. At the same time healthy staff are more well-functioning staff and thus more efficient and creative,” says Henrik Holt Larsen, professor in Human Resource Management at Copenhagen Business School.

Sickness absence is expensive for companies

Sickness absence in Denmark corresponds to 150,000 full-time jobs annually and costs society DKK 37 billion (EUR 5 billion).

Overweight costs 1.5 million extra sick days
Inactivity costs 3.1 million extra sick days
Smoking costs 2.8 million extra sick days
Mental workload costs 1.5 million extra sick days

Source: The National Institute of Public Health

Sickness absence costs billions
Sickness absence costs Danish society DKK 37 billion (EUR 5 billion) each year, and in companies a lot of money can be saved if staff sickness absence is reduced. A fresh survey from Danish pension fund Danica shows that if each Dane in employment could cut one sick day per year, companies would save at least DKK 3 billion (EUR 403 million).

Henrik Holt Larsen points out that company healthcare schemes also play a key role in recruiting and retaining staff.

“Staff are hungry for healthcare offers. This is because of the intense public focus on healthcare and well-being and the fear of coming in contact with the hospital service which is often under fire in the media,” says Henrik Holt Larsen.

Healthy Company is one of the leading Danish suppliers of company healthcare schemes, and has seen rapid growth in recent years.

“We have witnessed strongly increased interest in our company healthcare schemes in recent years, and our customers span all types of company today,” says Sune Nielsen, partner and director of Healthy Company.

According to Sune Nielsen, only two or three years ago it was primarily knowledge companies such as lawyer’s offices and financial firms which focused on health, but today the customer palette has significantly broadened its spectrum.

Health in figures

If a company invests EUR 1 in health-promoting initiatives, the company can save EUR 2.5-10 in sickness absence per euro invested
Lifestyle factors will be responsible for 70 per cent of all diseases by 2020

Sources: European network for workcare/healthcare promotion and WHO

Health checks are popular
Healthy Company’s health checks are particularly popular in Danish companies. The health check provides staff with an overview of the state of their health, and is used to prepare an action plan. The health check is followed up at least once a year.

“It is essential to work continuously with company healthcare schemes, and it is important that the entire organisation commits itself. It is no good that the HR manager thinks it is an amazing idea to focus on health, if the sales director thinks it is silly,” says Sune Nielsen.

Because although Healthy Company visits companies regularly, it is not part of day-to-day operations, so according to Sune Nielsen it is necessary that the commitment comes from inside.

“We put major efforts into talking to both staff and management when we start a course, and we also train health representatives – sort of safety representatives in the healthcare area – who the staff can refer to on a daily basis,” explains Sune Nielsen.

Little impact from economic crisis
The global economic crisis has not by-passed Denmark, and many companies have been forced to cut their costs in the last year. In some companies it has affected Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, where companies have been hesitant to launch new initiatives. Most companies have however maintained their existing CSR initiatives, and both Henrik Holt Larsen and Sune Nielsen think that the economic crisis will have only a limited impact on company healthcare schemes.

“The economic crisis has resulted in many companies cutting fringe benefits, but this has involved the less serious perks such as entertainment and free sweets. The more serious benefits such as competence development and healthcare are affected only to a lesser extent,” says Henrik Holt Larsen.

At Healthy Company the economic crisis has not given Sune Nielsen any grey hairs. He points out that there has been a small decrease in relation to initiating brand new healthcare initiatives, while companies are maintaining the healthcare initiatives they have already launched.

“Those companies which have already introduced healthcare schemes see them as a good investment according to our surveys. It is not the healthcare area they are looking at when they swing the axe,” says Sune Nielsen.

The latest report from the National Board of Health shows that company healthcare schemes are so widespread today that 99.6 per cent of Danish companies have healthcare initiatives of one sort or another for their staff. It is especially in the areas of smoking, alcohol and food that companies outline guidelines and help schemes for their staff.

Focus on the whole person

Many people spend more time at work than at home, so the workplace must be alright if they are to thrive as people and thus as staff. That is the philosophy behind LEGO’s personnel policy, which has made health a focus area.

“Our staff spend a large proportion of their time here with us, and we thus have a responsibility for them thriving both physically and mentally. We pay a great deal of attention to creating the right framework – and here health plays an important role,” says Charlotte Simonsen, head of communication at LEGO.

For more than 10 years, LEGO has offered healthcare schemes to staff in the group’s Danish units, but in recent years the company has provided significantly more healthcare offers.

“Basically it is about what the staff want, and here we are very clearly seeing that the various healthcare initiatives are highly rated,” explains Charlotte Simonsen.

Weight reduction and quitting smoking
Two of the most recent initiatives are weight reduction and smoking cessation courses, and the interest from staff has been significant. But they are far from the only healthcare offers to staff. A company training centre, free physiotherapy and massage as well as treatment guarantees at private hospitals are just some of LEGO’s healthcare offers.

LEGO is seeing that healthcare schemes, together with other fringe benefits such as family days for the staff, help to make the company an attractive workplace which can hold on to its staff while at the same time attracting new staff.

“There is no doubt that perks such as healthcare schemes are an important element in the battle for new staff, and that is naturally something we are thinking about,” says Charlotte Simonsen.

LEGO is located in west Denmark in the small town of Billund, whose hinterland is quite sparsely populated, and at times it has been difficult for the company to attract new staff, especially knowledge-intensive staff.

There are also healthcare schemes at some of LEGO’s international factories, but it is not something the group is pressing to implement, unless the staff themselves want it.

“It is essential to us that people themselves can choose. So if the staff in a given country prefer another form of fringe benefit, we do not pressurise them with new healthcare initiatives,” says Charlotte Simonsen.

Companies focus on good health

View the picture in full size

THE 15TH CONFERENCE OF PARTIES

Humbly hosting a crucial conference

In December, the eyes of the world will be on Denmark when the United Nations holds its 15th confe-rence on climate change

By Morten Andersen

When the world’s leaders meet in Copenhagen in December, their task is to reach a new global agreement on combating climate change. The agreement will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The Protocol comprises obligations for a small number of countries and was adopted back in 1997 when only few had become aware of the scope of the climate problem. So the Kyoto Protocol cannot just be extended. A new agreement is needed.

As the host country, Denmark has the task of trying to reconcile conflicting viewpoints so that it will be possible to reach an agreement.

“To host such an event is a great honour. Denmark takes on this task humbly and well aware that no matter how hard we try, we have no guarantee of success. We will work for an ambitious result. But by disagreeing, one country can make the whole thing tumble. As hosts, we therefore have special obligations. We must listen and mediate in order to make sure that we reach an agreement and that all countries are on board”, says Connie Hedegaard, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy.

The Greenland Dialogue
In 2005 Denmark initiated a set of informal meetings, where ministers and senior negotiators from the countries expected to be key players at the conference in Copenhagen could exchange views and build mutual trust.

The series of meetings, launched in Greenland where the attendees could see glaciers melting with their own eyes, was called The Greenland Dialogue.

At the beginning of July 2009, the Dialogue returned to Greenland. At a meeting in Ilulissat, attendees agreed on a specific target for limiting global warming.

“It is the fist time we have felt consensus between the attending countries that the global temperature must not rise more than 2ºC compared to the pre-industrialisation level,” Connie Hedegaard said at the close of the meeting.

Later in the same month, when the world’s largest economies met for an expanded G8 summit in Italy, support was achieved on the target of limiting the temperature rise to 2°C.

The temperature has already risen 0.7°C. If the total increase is to be kept to 2°C, it will require a drastic change of course according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Firstly, the industrial countries must cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020. Secondly, the developing countries cannot continue to let their emissions increase.

What is COP15?

Back in 1992 most countries joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the objective of which is to stabilize the atmospheric content of greenhouse gases at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate change.

The convention is a “framework convention”. This means that it is a comprehensive tool for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but contains no binding obligations to reduce them.

Each year, countries from all over the world meet for the annual climate change conference (Conference of Parties). From 7-18 December, Denmark will host the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15).

COP15 will be one of the biggest UN conferences ever held outside New York and Geneva, with an estimated attendance of between 12,000 to 15,000 delegates, including NGOs and journalists. The conference will take place in the conference centre “Bella Center”. A number of related events will be hosted in and around Copenhagen in the period up to and during COP15, all aimed at creating support for a new global climate deal and drawing attention to the fight against climate change.

Ban Ki-moon: now is the time
The focus of the negotiations in Copenhagen will be the need
to agree upon a new, fair, ambitious and global agreement on climate change. It took nearly eight years to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and the Copenhagen conference represents almost the last chance to reach a new agreement if it is to be approved and ratified prior to the expiry of the binding commitments in the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

In 2007 at the climate change conference in Bali, all countries agreed to the Bali Action Plan with the objective of an agreed outcome in Copenhagen in 2009. The action plan set out the structure of a future agreement with a long-term shared vision and four building blocks for a new agreement: technology, finance, mitigation and adaptation.

“We must reach a global climate change deal before the end of the year – one that is balanced, comprehensive and ratifiable by all nations”, says United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Danish example

A central argument for resisting binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is concern over economic growth. However, experience from Denmark shows that with a persistent and active energy policy focused on increasing energy efficiency, it is possible to maintain high economic growth while at the same time reducing dependency on fossil fuels and protecting the environment. Denmark’s energy efficiency is today among the highest in the EU, and continues to improve each year. The country has one of the most efficient uses of energy and a low level of CO2 emission in relation to production levels, compared to other EU and OECD countries. Since 1980, Denmark’s economy has grown by 78 percent alongside nearly stable energy consumption and reduced CO2 emissions.

Rich countries must take the lead
It is no secret that the ongoing negotiations at civil servant level to prepare a new climate agreement are proceeding slowly. On the one hand, the developing countries are disappointed that the industrial countries have not given a binding pledge to make major cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. The industrial countries have historically emitted large amounts and have thus created the problem. So they have to take the lead, the developing countries argue.

This demand has the support of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer. If the industrial countries do not take on commitments of the magnitude that IPCC is proposing, “it will spoil the entire purpose of a Copenhagen agreement”, de Boer said to news agency AFP during a negotiation round in Bonn at the beginning of August.

On the other hand, the industrial countries emphasise that although they are taking on significant limitations, it will not protect the climate as long as a number of fast-growing economies continue to increase their emissions, as is happening at the moment. China and India for example have no commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Of necessity they must have commitments in a new agreement – however at a lower level of ambition than the “old” industrial countries, is the argument from the USA and EU, amongst others.

Photo: Scanpix

Obama’s commitment spurs hope
The situation seems intractable, but many observers point out that the new administration in the US has created fresh impetus.

“I am cautiously optimistic. If it had not been for President Obama, who has repeatedly stressed his commitment to this issue, I would not have held out any hope for it,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of IPCC, in July according to news agency Bloomberg.

Firstly, Rajendra Pachauri referred to Barack Obama being actively instrumental in the US House of Representatives having passed a climate plan which – if it is also passed by the US Senate – will result in taxes on CO2 emissions. Secondly, the US president was one of the driving forces during the G8 summit
in Italy, where it was agreed to work for limiting the increase in global temperature to a maximum of 2°C.

Photo: Scanpix

The EU shows its hand
At the moment, the EU leads the field. With a pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent in 2020 compared to the 1990 level, there is not far to go to the level that IPCC is calling for. The EU has even offered to increase its commitment to a 30 per cent cut, if other large economies make “comparable” cuts in the their emissions.

The USA – which declined to take a position on the climate issue under the former administration – has not yet given any clear promises. The preliminary reports can be translated to a reduction of a few percentage points compared to the 1990 level. Other leading industrial countries such as Japan and Australia promise a bit more, but for now are a long way from a level that can prevent the temperature from continuing to rise.

A situation, which according to news agency AP caused UNFCCC’s Yvo de Boer to sigh “if we continue at this speed, we won’t reach it”, during the negotiations in August in Bonn. Nor should one forget that many countries are probably sitting on the fence, waiting to see what other countries will agree to before they show their hand – perhaps at the very last moment.

So under all circumstances it will be very interesting – and important for the future of the planet – to see what happens in Copenhagen in December.

Preserving rain forests

The negotiations concerning how much the various countries should do to cut their CO2 emissions are dominating the media
in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, but there are actually a number of other subjects on the agenda.

First and foremost, it is likely that the world’s countries will agree on a new mechanism which can curb the destruction of rain forests. These tropical forests play a major role in ensuring a stable climate: it is thought that they absorb about half of the extra CO2 that man emits.

The new mechanism is called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). It will give countries that provide economic support to the preservation of rain forests a discount on their obligations to reduce CO2 emissions. A similar mechanism, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), already exists and correspondingly gives credits to countries that support climate-friendly projects in developing countries.

Another major subject in Copenhagen will be the financing of adaptation to those effects of climate change which will unavoidably occur. The UN estimates that there is a need for USD 200 billion annually to alleviate these effects – for example by building dykes and rehousing climate refugees. There is broad agreement that the industrial countries, which historically have created most of the problem, should support adaptation in poor countries. A model has however not yet been found for how much the various industrial countries should pay.

DANISH ECONOMY

The recession is over…
… but the crisis is not

By chief economist Steen Bocian, Danske Bank

After 18 months of economic decline, it looks like the Danish economy is growing again. The recession is over. But the crisis is not – and although there is reason to expect growth, unemployment will most probably continue to rise for a while yet.

The Danish economy was vulnerable when the global financial and economic crisis gained serious momentum during 2008. At that time, Denmark was already in economic recession, driven down by falling house prices, less consumer spending and dwindling activity in the construction industry. Since the financial sector at the same time was vulnerable as a result of high growth in lending in the years before, the Danish economy found itself under pressure. But the political will to address the problems was there, and a combination of instruments targeted at the problems in the financial sector, as well as a traditionally expansive fiscal policy, has helped ease the worst of the crisis. Compared with other countries, Denmark has not fared worse measured by economic activity. GDP has dropped by just under 5% since the peak, which is less than in both Sweden and Germany, Denmark’s two largest trading partners.

If we look at current developments, there is fortunately much to suggest that the crisis is abating. This is due to a combination of factors. Naturally, the fact that economies globally are improving plays an important role. Germany saw growth in the 2nd quarter and Sweden avoided seeing its GDP drop further. The indicators for the 3rd quarter are generally pointing in the direction of global economic recovery after the severe decline we saw at the end of 2008 and during the first half of 2009. That will naturally also rub off on Denmark.

There are however also specifically Danish circumstances. The crisis has given rise to an expansive fiscal policy. Public sector investments have been advanced, tax concessions have been made, and a special savings scheme, into which Danes in employment were forced to pay in the period 1998-2003, has been rescinded – all initiatives whose objective is to increase economic activity here and now.

At the same time the interest rate has fallen quite significantly during 2009. When the financial crisis was raging globally, it also hit the Danish krone, and the Danish central bank was forced to increase the interest rate in autumn 2008 to defend the fixed exchange rate policy. The mission was fortunately successful, and confidence in the fixed exchange rate policy has been maintained throughout the entire crisis. The Danish central bank has thus had the opportunity this year to lower the interest rate even more than the ECB. Having reached 5.75% last autumn, we have seen a decrease which has sent the Danish central bank’s lending rate down to 1.25%, its lowest ever level.

The multiple stimuli are expected to lead to growth. But it will be fragile growth. The Danish economy has lived through its worst crisis since the 1930s, and we have not yet seen an end to adjustments in the labour market. There is fear of unemployment undermining the upswing. So there are no guarantees – we just have to feel relieved that we are experiencing a clear improvement here and now.

Skykon A/S
http://www.skykon.com
Skykon A/S is the parent company of a range of businesses in the rapidly growing wind power market. Skykon A/S delivers total solutions in towers and wind technology components for wind turbine manufacturers. Skykon A/S owns Dencam A/S, Welcon A/S, Welcon Towers Ltd., Marxen A/S and WKT Nordic A/S – businesses that are market leaders in their respective areas. Skykon’s businesses in total employ 420 employees and have an annual turnover of approximately 1.1 billion kroner.

Danske Fragtmænd
http://www.fragt.dk
Danske Fragtmænd A/S – a Logistics Operator with Quality and Service in their DNA. Danske Fragtmænd is a leading provider of distribution solutions in Denmark with more than 100 years of experience. We provide business-to-business solutions in all sectors. Every day more than 40,000 consignments are distributed via our fine-meshed service network. Throughout our long history, quality and service have ensured our customers a level of supply security that is second to none. We manage warehousing facilities of more than 160,000 m², offering turnkey logistic solutions as well as storage and distribution, ensuring round-the-clock service

Billund Airport
http://www.billund-airport.dk
If you are looking for new ways to new markets, Billund Airport is your gateway to northern Europe. Billund Airport, and the handling companies at Billund Airport, operates around the clock and connects easily with other modes of transportation. The cargo facilities on airside are directly linked to the platform for loading and unloading of aircraft. Cargo Center Billund is located just beside the runway, making the transportation time from airplane to warehouse extremely short.

Per Aarsleff A/S
http://www.aarsleff.com
Per Aarsleff A/S is a company of civil engineering contractors with 3,300 employees and an annual revenue at €715 million, 30% from work performed abroad. In Denmark and our neighbouring countries we contract to execute infrastructure projects such as harbours, site developments, railways, roads, tunnels, reservoirs, pipe installations and water supply. In addition, we specialise in piling and No-Dig renewal of underground pipelines. We have our own production of piles in Denmark, UK, Poland and Sweden. Our main markets for pipe renewal are in Denmark, the Baltic States and Central Europe. In addition we execute one-off contracts in most parts of the world.

Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College
http://www.brock.dk
Internationalization is an integrated part of everyday life at Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College - the largest provider of business education in Denmark. Niels Brock works with three high-priority areas within internationalization of business education:
1. Sending students and teachers abroad to study or on a work placement/work training programme
2. Attracting well-qualified students and teachers to Niels Brock programmes delivered in Copenhagen. Niels Brock has approx. 500 international students.
3. Exporting educational know-how to non-EU countries, with a focus on Asia. Since 1996 Niels Brock has been selling educational know-how to China and the first joint programme was set up in 2000.

NEXT ISSUE

Your next Focus Denmark…

… is out on December 16, 2009

Photos: LEGO
Photos: CF Møller

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