YITHackathon
Sustainable Road De-Icing
Are you ready to make a real impact on more sustainable road maintenance? The YIT Hackathon is calling all innovators and experts to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in road maintenance: finding a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional road salt (NaCl).
The primary mission of the innovation competition, hosted by bioeconomy business accelerator BioBoosters by Jamk, is to discover an eco-friendly and economically viable circular economy solution or product to replace or supplement the currently used road salt. Road salt has been used in Finland since the 1970s for de-icing, but its environmental impact is significant, causing structural damage and contaminating groundwater. Traditional road salt has several drawbacks, including environmental damage and high costs. Alternatives like potassium or sodium formates are used in critical groundwater areas but are significantly more expensive. Other methods, such as calcium chloride and calcium magnesium acetate, have their own limitations.
YIT, the leading construction company in Finland, is looking for alternative solutions that can be mechanical and/or chemical. The ideal solution has the potential to large scale distribution, economic viability and to meet the circumstances of the Arctic regions.
About the hackathon
Hackathons are demand-driven and always involve a party that is genuinely interested in the idea and collaboration with the best offer. Hackathons are flexible, business-oriented, and inspiring. Their ultimate goal is to connect different actors with challenges and solutions, regardless of geographical location or current industry. Often, the best solutions are found outside the "box"!
The hackathon process is initiated by submitting your application. The challenge owner (in this case YIT) will select the most promising teams from applicants and invite them to the kick-off. The kick-off is an online event (timetables below) and offers an opportunity to ask further questions from YIT as well as opportunity to get to know other competing teams. After the kick-off, competing teams have a few more weeks’ time to further develop their solutions. The main event is the two-day hackathon, which will take place in Jyväskylä, Finland (participation in the live event is strongly encouraged, but online participation is also possible). In the main event, the teams will receive high class mentoring from industry and business experts. The days culminate to pitching, where the teams present their final solutions to YIT. YIT will select the most interesting solution(s) and team(s) as winner, with the intention of continuing collaboration with them in various ways (i.e. with joint RDI-project).
All selected teams will sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
Read more about the background of the topic
With the development of operations and equipment, the current chemical solutions for road salting are now primarily intended to prevent the formation of slipperiness on the road surface rather than combat already existing slipperiness. Traditional road salt is harmful for many reasons. It damages vehicles, infrastructure, and can potentially impact groundwater. In some delicate cases, road salt has been replaced with potassium or sodium formates, but their use has been hindered by their tenfold cost compared to traditional road salt. In addition to the above, calcium chloride, commonly used in dust control, is also used to some extent in anti-skid treatment as a ready-made solution but the use of chloride is a problem. There are some existing solutions in North America that are based on calcium magnesium acetate (CMA). This ingredient is effective in aviation settings; however, its application on Nordic roads presents challenges due to its appeal to animals and its unpleasant odor. YIT is primarily seeking for a chemical solution suitable for the Nordic environment, capable of large-scale application, and economically feasible. The need for new solutions is vast. Just in Finland, there are nearly 10 000 kilometers or roads, utilizing road salt for de-icing (Traffic Customer Service 2025). In 2022, the estimated volume of used road salt was 120 thousand tons (YLE 2022).
If there is no suitable chemical solution, mechanical solutions replacing or reinforcing sand and gravel are welcomed. With the mechanical solutions, YIT is looking to see circular economy solutions that will preserve nature (gravel ridges and rock formations). Mechanically, solutions like blast furnace slag or woodchips exist, but none are safe for vehicles.
New ideas are welcomed!
Schedule of the hackathon
- Open call for solutions 31 January - 28 February 2025
- Team selection by 12 March 2025
- Kick-off for selected teams 9 April 2025 (online)
- Hackathon event in Jyväskylä, Finland 8 - 9 May 2025 (online participation possible, but for upgraded experience we warmly recommend joining the live event).
How to Participate?
Formulate a description of your solution and gather a team. The Hackathon is open for all interested participants: companies, research institutes, educational organizations, students, and other actors. Your team can also consist of collaboration between several organizations. It is up to you who will be in your team or how much information you share internally or in the competition. You can also participate alone.
Hackathon is international and the main working language is English. Participation is cost-free and does not include any obligations – its purpose is offering opportunities for the participating teams, and to find potential solutions for YIT’s challenge.
Apply to the hackathon via this link, at the latest by 28 February 2025 at 11:59 PM (UTC +2).
Please read the participation rules.
Why participate?
- Establish co-operation and network with other companies and specialists with an interest in the same field.
- Establish international contacts and connections in the field of your interest.
- Acid test your idea with direct feedback from a potential client and discovers how to fit your solution idea to the need of the end-users.
- Develop the commercialization potential of your idea and discover new business opportunities with expert mentors’ support; and
- Get international recognition and visibility for your team’s know-how.
Read more about YIT
YIT is a leading construction and development company, with over 110 years of experience in sustainable living environments. More than four thousand people are working in YIT, in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In 2023, YIT’s revenue was 2.2 billion euros, and it came from three business segments: housing, infrastructure, and business premises.
YIT’s Infrastructure segment focuses on building railroads, bridges, tunnels, structures, and facilities in demanding environments. YIT Road is in charge of the maintenance of roads, streets and areas as a year-round service which ensures the functionality and the preservation of value of the daily living environment. YIT Road offers a full-service solution for road maintenance as well as networks all around Finland and an operating model and service level suitable for the needs of a municipality. Additionally, it offers life-cycle models for road maintenance. A top priority for the company is that the level of road maintenance meets the agreed standards of the customer, as well as climate requirements.
YIT Road offers technical competence and smooth subcontractor culture to its customers, with decades of experience. Its’ finalized, advanced operating systems used in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the contract are especially important, as part of the reliability and cost-efficiency in road maintenance. In the future, YIT is focusing its investments on sustainable infrastructure, which supports society as a whole.
Read more on YIT's website.
Read more about the organising party
BioBoosters by Jamk is the organizing party of the hackathon and it is operating under the Jamk University of Applied Sciences. The bioeconomy business accelerator BioBoosters has been operating since 2020 and has hosted several international hackathons and other innovation events, to accelerate the growth and sustainable development of the bioeconomy industry. Please read more about the accelerator and see references of past events.
Contact person
Riikka Kumpulainen
