Hamina, together with neighboring town Kotka, paid attention to larger structural changes in Finland’s economy and reacted decisively to find a new way forward. Google’s data centre was one positive outcome, and the other is WinWind who manufacture wind turbines. In parallel with these new developments in the local economy, Hamina’s municipally owned energy company courageously set up a modest wind farm.
Shared decisions are those which are bigger than any one person. Things like building a new road or rail, cordoning off a nature reserve, or passing a law. And shared value is measured in financial as well as social and ecological capital. Although the term is borrowed most recently from Michael Porter, the basic concept is by now generic—you might even argue that figuring out shared value is the challenge which underlays all others at the moment.
Hamina South Finland prov., SE Finland, on the Gulf of Finland. Hamina is an important port. Timber and wood products are exported. Originally named Veckelaks, it was a noted trade center in the Middle Ages. The Treaty of Fredrikshamn (1809), by which Sweden ceded all of Finland to Russia, was signed in Hamina