Fortum Vipu

Background

Fortum is the leading clean-energy company in Finland, specialising in recycling consumer plastic packaging. Because public places are hot spots for contagious diseases and good hand hygiene is key in preventing infections, perhaps there was an opportunity to help.

Idea

Made out of Fortum Circo®, a versatile recycled raw material produced from consumer plastic packaging waste, Fortum Vipu is a sustainable hands-free door handle. It’s a simple add-on to existing door handles, allowing people to open doors with their arms, minimizing touching the handles with their palms and fingers.

From concept to prototype and to the start of pilot testing with Finland’s largest retailer, S-Group, took just five weeks.

Results

Not yet available

Our Thoughts

This looks very much as if it was inspired by “ThisAbles”, a big winner at Cannes Lions in 2019. These were add-ons to furniture that make life a little bit easier for people with disabilities. But so what? Adland’s obsession with originality is sometimes self-defeating. This is the development of an existing idea, certainly, but an idea made more valuable through its relevance to the current situation. The perfect definition of innovation.