History of Sustainability at Genelec
Genelec’s sustainability story began well before the company was officially founded in 1978 by Ilpo Martikainen and Topi Partanen. They already shared a deep respect for nature, long-term thinking and the idea that responsible business must serve both people and the planet.
“Regardless of the great progress in technology, man is solely dependent on nature and its diversity for our everyday bread,” Ilpo said in 2013. “The natural cycles surround us every day. Soil has to be cultivated, sown, fertilised, irrigated and weeded – and finally we will get the harvest. The same long-term thinking is inseparable from the building of our company.”
Genelec co-founder Ilpo Martikainen was actively involved in annual tree planting programs.
“Regardless of the great progress in technology, man is solely dependent on nature and its diversity for our everyday bread.”
Topi Partanen, too, recalls how Genelec stood out from the very beginning. While environmental awareness in the audio industry was limited at the time, Genelec’s first loudspeaker, the S30 – created for Finnish broadcaster YLE – was a breakthrough. YLE’s technical brief called for total reliability, easy serviceability and long-term spare part support. That brief became a benchmark for every Genelec solution since, with the principles of sustainability embedded directly into research and development.
Ilpo Martikainen studies an early amplifier design.
The decision to locate our factory in Iisalmi, far from Finland’s capital, was also carefully considered. Ilpo wanted to return to his home region, invest in local well-being and let deep, long-term thinking flourish in the town's peaceful lakeside surroundings.
"In the beginning, when we established the company in the Upper Savonia region of Finland, it was a result of sustainable development. Ilpo had been living in the Helsinki area for 10 years, but he wanted to create a business and pay his taxes in his home region,” adds Genelec’s chairwoman Ritva Leinonen, who was a founder of the company and our first financial manager. “It was a long-term dream, or a flow of ideas. We chose Iisalmi because Ilpo thought that the peaceful countryside would help generate long, deep thoughts.”
As the current younger generation gets older, sustainability will continue to be hugely important.
Our sustainability journey accelerated in 1985 with the construction of our factory – designed with energy efficiency in mind. This continued with the adoption of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards, and a strategic company commitment that sustainability should be equally as important as sound quality and profitability.
Today, those early seeds of thinking have grown into a company-wide strategy rooted in responsible design, circular economy and continuous improvement.
And as Topi Partanen notes,
Genelec co-founder Topi Partanen fully embraces the importance of sustainability.
