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Sustainability and Safety / Sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is an integral part of our business and management. We report regularly to our owner and to our stakeholders on progress made towards the objectives set in our sustainability Programme. The program covers comprehensively economic, social and environmental aspects.

Our sustainability themes are:

Sustainable corporate citizenship

People

Safety and security of supply

Towards carbon neutrality

Transmission platform of the future

Code of conduct

Our operations are guided by ethical principles (Code of conduct) that all our employees are required to follow.

Gasgrid Finland is a reliable partner

Reliability is visible to our customers and other stakeholders as high security of supply and safe operations. We operate in a manner that is equal, open and impartial towards all our stakeholders.

Gasgrid Finland respects human rights

We respect human rights in all our activities. We do not accept any use of forced labour, grey labour or child labour in any circumstances. We also have a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and bribery and our employees must not in any circumstances receive or offer bribes beyond hospitality. Any conflicts of interest must be reported immediately to the company’s management or Board of Directors.

Gasgrid Finland addresses any irregularities or other problems

Our ethical principles guide our day-to-day decision-making and the way we solve any other problems. If any conduct that violates the company’s Code of conduct is detected, the issue must be reported immediately via the company’s website or directly to the company’s management or Board of Directors. All cases are investigated and addressed in an appropriate manner.

Society's commitment

Society’s Commitment to Sustainable Development is a key instrument for implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Society’s Commitment to Sustainable Development is a shared long-term vision of the Finland we want to have in the future. The Commitment is founded on a common understanding of the compelling need for change.

Society’s Commitment includes mutually agreed-upon objectives and practices that are required to secure a good life now and for the future generations. Society’s Commitment is the interpretation of the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development on what sustainable development means. 

All the commitments are made available to the public in the online service sitoumus2050.fi.

Gasgrid commits to systematically reducing and preventing methane emissions

Through active measures, Gasgrid aims to achieve methane emission savings of 20 tonnes per year by 2025 in the natural and biogas transmission system. The total methane emissions saved from 2020 to 2025 are 120 tonnes. The measure is the savings made through active measures.

Stakeholder engagement and material sustainability topics

We develop our sustainability work together with our stakeholders and engage in active dialogue with them through a variety of channels. In fall 2022, we carried out a stakeholder survey on material sustainability topics and updated the materiality analysis through the work of the executive team.

We have identified the following stakeholders as the most important for us:

● clients
● public authorities
● employees
● owner
● financiers
● partners
● political and societal influencers
● media
● landowners and neighbours of the transmission network
● non-governmental organisations
● service and supplier partners
● representatives of projects in the areas affected by Gasgrid infrastructure
● researchers and members of the scientific community

 

 

Materiality topics for Gasgrid in a picture

Updating the materiality analysis

We regularly survey the sustainability expectations of our key stakeholders. We conduct a materiality analysis approximately every two years. The analysis, carried out in fall 2022, consisted of an online stakeholder survey and was complemented by interviews. The analysis was validated by Gasgrid’s executive team. The survey was sent to those identified as key stakeholders.

Stakeholders see Gasgrid as a sustainable company

Of the survey respondents, 94% either strongly or somewhat agreed that Gasgrid is a sustainable company. In 2021 and 2020, 88,5% and 88,0% of respondents felt this way, respectively. All (100%) of our staff and service and supplier partners agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

Reliability of supply, safe transmission and use of gases, and occupational safety emerged as the most important sustainability themes in the survey. Gasgrid Finland’s reliability as a partner and its anti-corruption and antibribery measures are also highly valued.

The most important environmental aspects were considered to be the integration of renewables into the gas transmission network system, the low emission transmission of gases, and mitigating climate change.

For stakeholders, the most significant aspect of social sustainability is reliability of supply, which 98% of respondents considered either very significant or significant. The safe transmission and use of gases and occupational safety were also seen as important.

The competence and professionalism of personnel and the well-being of personnel were identified as other significant aspects. Preference for local suppliers was considered the least significant social sustainability aspect. Reliability as a partner emerged as the most significant governance theme in the eyes of stakeholders. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery, equal treatment on the market, and transparency of governance and leadership emerged as other important themes. 

Below is a list of the topics seen as the most material related to sustainability:  

Environment

  1. Integration of renewables into the gas transmission system 95 %
  2. Energy efficiency 90 %
  3. Mitigating climate change 88 %
  4. Low-emission gas transmission 85 %
  5. Methane emission cuts 85 %

Social themes

  1. Reliability of supply 98 %
  2. Occupational safety 97 %
  3. Safe use and transmission of gases 97 %
  4. Professional and competence of personnel 95 %
  5. Well-being of personnel 96 %
  6. Non-discrimination and equality 93 %

Governance

  1. Being a reliable partner 96 %
  2. Equal treatment on the market 96 %
  3. Ethical business 92 %
  4. Anti-corruption and bribery 91 %
  5. Transparent governance and leadership 88 %
  6. Active dialogue with stakeholders 88 %

Key sustainability issues for stakeholders

Gasgrid’s management team discussed the results of the stakeholder survey in a workshop in early December and assessed the importance of sustainability issues for Gasgrid’s business operations and societal impact. Our stakeholders’ views and the executive team’s analysis have been combined to form a materiality matrix.

 

Materiality topics for Gasgrid in a picture

Impact of sustainability themes on Gasgrid's business

We also asked stakeholders for their views on how certain sustainability matters impact Gasgrid’s business and how Gasgrid’s operations impact sustainability matters. The importance of this double materiality approach as a methodology for sustainability analysis will increase, especially with the implementation of the forthcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In the survey, we took the first steps in measuring double materiality. The results are summarized in below picture: 

Gasgrid_Double_Materiality