About us

Rakeistus Oy was founded in 2012 in Oulu, Finland. However, its story began many years before. The founder of the company, Juha Pelkonen, is also a third-generation entrepreneur in the transport sector. He, as his father before him, used to transport ash from power plants by truck. It was usually taken to landfills or to be used as a construction material in earthworks, and occasionally to forest owners to be used as fertilizer.

In the 1990s, the use of ash as a forest fertilizer was still marginal, but new research made power plants consider the prospects of the further processing and exploitation of ash. A groundbreaking study was published in the test area of the Finnish Forest Research Institute in the Leppiniemi village of Muhos in 1994. The study showed that in some areas, the use of ash effected an up to 11-fold increase in tree growth.

In Pulkkila village in the municipality of Siikalatva, a young forest owner recalled his father telling that ash used to be utilized as forest fertilizer in the past, and this inspired him to examine the results of the Leppiniemi study. In 2007, he contacted Pelkonen and asked for some ash. After a few truckloads, the forest owner mentioned to Pelkonen that granulated ash would be easier to apply, and that there should be an ash granulation installation in Oulu.

A few years after that, Pelkonen received a similar request for an Oulu-based granulation facility from a local power company.

As an innovative man, Pelkonen started to plan the granulation of ash and concluded that unlike the existing solutions on the market, he would build a more affordable installation that would be based on continuous material flow.

This was the outset of Rakeistus Oy, where Juha Pelkonen still acts as a co-owner and board member. When Pelkonen felt that he could use some help in business development, business counsellor Eero Koskelainen joined the company in 2015. His vast experience in business growth and internationalization was a remarkable asset to Rakeistus Oy.

Pelkonen continued delivering ash to the forest owner from Pulkkila. In 2018, Pelkonen asked the forest owner to work for Rakeistus Oy, and so, Kimmo Piippo joined the company; first as a sales manager and in 2019, as a CEO.

Piippo brought along new ideas: besides the manufacture of granulation installations and the ash fertilization service, Rakeistus Oy became interested in the increased tree growth achieved through ash fertilization, and in the additional carbon sink thus created – a perfect weapon against climate change.  The environmentally friendly values and the innovativeness of the company gave rise to Hiilinielurekisteri (Carbon Sink Register). Hiilinielurekisteri is a service that provides a responsible way to compensate for one’s CO2 emissions by purchasing and creating additional carbon sinks in Finnish forests.