Tytti Bruce-Hyrkäs, Granlund

Tytti Bruce-Hyrkäs, who studied environmental engineering at LUT, has had time to promote environmental knowledge in the real estate and construction sector in many different ways. In her current role as Head of Carbon Neutrality at Granlund, her aim is to create new markets for the Group's carbon neutrality services and to develop the operating culture both within the company and together with the major players in the sector.

Tytti has a long track record of environmental expertise. She has also taken Finnish carbon neutrality expertise to the world, working with leading experts in the field in dozens of countries. Tytti has also been involved in the preparation of a roadmap for low-carbon construction for the Finnish Ministry of the Environment on how to integrate the carbon footprint of the building life cycle into construction sector governance.

In addition to her current work, Tytti chairs the Low Carbon Building Committee of the Green Building Council Finland in collaboration with about 60 building sector experts. In her role at Granlund, she also values the concrete opportunities to make a difference. "For me, it is important to be able to develop carbon neutral construction in an organisation where people are committed and among the first to wake up to the issue."

Before joining Granlund, Tytti Bruce-Hyrkäs has had the opportunity to gain a wide range of work experience. Among the employers on her CV are environmental start-up Bionova, forest giant Stora Enso, and LUT University.

"I first did an overalls internship at Stora Enso in charge of waste water treatment. I did my bachelor thesis for building products manufacturer Paroc on their waste stream management at their Lappeenranta factories and then I was employed to produce the system I had designed. At the university, I was developing educational programmes and was involved in a research project on the commercialisation of sustainable solutions in developing countries. At Bionova, I was responsible as technical product manager for the development of a web application for life cycle assessment".

Environmental engineering is a growing field and it is growing in many directions at the same time. Tytti thinks it's a field for an open-minded and innovative person.

"If you want to go into environmental engineering, you have to be quite open-minded, because there are no established solutions in this field - we are looking for new solutions to both old and new problems. They can be related to a lot of different things, so we're not just tackling individual issues, we're tackling big picture issues. If you are interested in the state of the environment and in making a difference in the world, environmental engineering is a good choice".