Finland may have the world's best school system, but it is also a leader in another respect: eco-business. That's the message from this Washington Post article, at least, which profiles a variety of Finnish businesses taking advantage of the increasingly aggressive EU environmental rules.

Proventia Automation [...] produces machines that can cut up television sets and computer monitors, separating leaded from unleaded glass with a laser and recycling all the glass and other valuable, reusable components. Noponen hopes the E.U.'s new standard will produce numerous new customers for this technology.

More broadly, his firm can provide information technology and management advice to help manufacturers figure out how to meet the new rules most efficiently. Manufacturers of electronic equipment can actually make money by recycling their own creations when their useful lives are over, Noponen said.

Finland, Finland, Finland... Finland has it all.