The General Council election of the Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK was held 20 March – 3 April. The results will be announced on 5 April.
TEK encouraged its members to vote electronically to help minimize not only election costs, but also environmental impact. In addition, there was an incentive of a €3 donation to an environmental cause for each vote cast electronically, and electronic voters also got to choose the cause they wanted to support from a list compiled by TEK.
The 11,652 electronic votes cast in the election brought a total of 34,956 euros for the environment, which is approximately 3,000 euros more than in the previous election. Donations will be made in accordance with the votes cast. Not every electronic voter chose a cause from the list, and these votes were divided evenly between all the causes.
More than 9,000 euros for the Baltic Sea
The biggest support from members went to a donation for the Baltic Sea through John Nurminen Foundation. The Foundation will be getting a donation of 9,342 euros, with 3,114 votes.
"The Baltic Sea is still one of the most polluted seas in the world and desperately needs our help. It's not too late. Thank you very much for TEK's support to the John Nurminen Foundation to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage. We improve the condition of the Baltic Sea by reducing the burden on the sea and environmental problems, such as eutrophication and loss of nature, and we make sure that people know why the Baltic Sea needs to be protected", explains John Nurminen Foundation Fundraising Director Erkki Salo.
The cause that came second with 2,102 votes and 6,306 euros was the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation and a donation for the permanent protection of natural areas.
"For one euro you can buy about two square meters of old forest for protection, so with this nice donation sum we can protect roughly 1.3 hectares of primeval forest. In order to curb the loss of nature and climate change and to safeguard diversity, every euro for forest protection work is important. With the support of donors, our foundation protects our common green heritage, i.e. Finnish forests", says Executive Director of the Natural Heritage Foundation, Pepe Forsberg.
The third, with 1,703 votes, was the work of the Baltic Sea Action Group, and TEK will be donating 5,109 euros to this cause. In the previous election in 2020, the Baltic Sea Action Group received the highest number of votes and the biggest donation. In a close fourth place with 1,662 votes was Luonto-Liitto (Finnish Nature League), receiving a donation of 4,986 euros for the environmental education of children and young people.
All the seven causes on the list received votes from the members and will be receiving a donation from TEK. You can check out the vote counts and donation sums below.
TEK wishes to thank everyone who voted at this stage! The results of the election will be announced tomorrow, 5 April; follow the news on TEK’s website: www.tek.fi/news
The listed causes, their votes and donations:
- Baltic Sea Action Group: donation to support work on the Baltic Sea 1,703 votes, 5,109 euros
- Greenpeace: donation for climate and nature work 520 votes, 1,560 euros
- John Nurminen Foundation: donation for the Baltic Sea 3,114 votes, 9,342 euros
- Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation: donation for the permanent protection of natural areas 2,102 votes, 6,306 euros
- Luonto-Liitto: donation for environmental education of children and young people 1,662 votes, 4,986 euros
- Finnish Association for Nature Conservation: donation for endangered species 1,395 votes, 4,185 euros
- WWF: donation for climate work 1,156 votes, 3,468 euros