This year, the total sum of the Bank of Åland’s Nature Account Bonus, which the bank awards annually to environmental projects, is a record-breaking €110,000. The bonus is awarded to projects that improve the status of the environment with concrete measures, and also inform the general public about measures that protect the environment.

The largest individual bonus, €51,000, was awarded to the John Nurminen Foundation’s Clean Baltic Sea Project carried out at the Vyborg wastewater treatment plant. The target of the project is to reduce the annual phosphorus loads entering the Baltic Sea from Vyborg by increasing the efficiency of the Vyborg wastewater treatment plant’s phosphorus removal processes. The project will reduce the annual phosphorus loads that end up in Finland’s territorial waters by approximately 20 tonnes. Based on the test runs that began in 2010, the Vyborg Water Utility and the John Nurminen Foundation intend to build a permanent phosphorus removal system for the plant by the year 2012. This will enable the eutrophicating loads that enter the eastern Gulf of Finland to be permanently reduced, simultaneously improving the status of the eutrophicated Bay of Vyborg.