The Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) has published its third responsibility report on the impact of its own operations on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to the five UN Sustainable Development Goals chosen by Syke’s management team in 2021, the report describes Syke’s responsibility management, social responsibility, and carbon footprint with a new, more comprehensive calculation method.
Syke’s mission is to influence the construction of a sustainable society with research, data, and services and to strive for a sustainability transformation.
“Syke is an international research institute in the environmental field. Our tasks include producing knowledge to promote sustainable development globally and monitoring and evaluating the implementation of sustainability. The scope of our operations can be difficult to grasp. There are no separate compartments for systemic changes in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We produce indicators, guidelines, information, and views for societal actors towards more sustainable operations. Research knowledge is the basis of sustainability,” says Leif Schulman, Director general of the Finnish Environment Institute.
The responsibility report is based on the guidelines of the State Treasury, which recommend reporting on responsibility through the positive and negative impacts of the organisation. The positive impact is described as a so-called handprint on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the negative, for example, as the carbon footprint of one’s own operations, i.e., climate load.
Syke’s handprint – working towards a sustainability transformation
Syke influences the construction of a sustainable society with research and information. We report our handprint on five UN Sustainable Development Goals:
- Climate actions (goal number 13)
- Terrestrial life (15)
- Underwater life (14)
- Responsible consumption (12)
- Clean water and sanitation (6)
The Finnish Environment Institute supports society in climate actions on the way to a carbon-neutral Finland. In 2023, we promoted low-carbon construction with an emissions database, co-developed the Carbon Map tool to support sustainable land use solutions, and supported municipalities’ climate work by publishing a guide for municipalities on preparing a climate plan with the Ministry of the Environment. We also continued the operation of the Carbon Neutral Municipalities (Hinku) network, which was started in 2008. The Hinku network already includes over 2.3 million residents.
Syke has a significant role in producing, transmitting, and refining nature information for decision-making needs. In 2023, we promoted urban nature diversity work, for example, in the Sustainable City program, produced information on nature diversity at both the national and international level, and produced a touring exhibition on the effects of climate change on northern nature. In addition, Syke accelerated the achievement and maintenance of a good state of the Baltic Sea by producing and compiling new information on the state of the Baltic Sea. Syke coordinated the BlueAdapt project, which was underway from 2018 to 2023, during which a blue transition roadmap was produced, among other things. Syke also coordinated the Oulujoki watershed vision, which extends to 2035. Syke has a very long history in tasks supporting the responsible use and management of waters. The GOVAQUA project led by Syke, which involves international cooperation for the responsible use of waters, was launched in 2023. Syke also sparked international discussion on sustainable sanitation solutions and promoted national water supply carbon neutrality.
One of Syke’s key goals is to promote sustainable production and consumption methods and the sustainable use of natural resources. We produce information on sustainable production methods and consumption choices to support decision-making as well as for consumers, companies, and municipalities, so that they could reduce the use of non-renewable natural resources, emissions, and the amount of waste with their actions. In 2023, we researched in collaboration with households to halve the carbon footprint of consumption by 2025 and promoted the circular economy of plastics widely with the help of a plastic roadmap.
Syke’s carbon footprint has been refined
The Finnish Environment Institute has done long-term research and development work on various ecological footprint calculation methods for the needs of different actors in society. We have also determined our own footprint, i.e., the greenhouse gas emissions caused by our operations, as accurately as possible. In this report, the carbon footprint indirectly formed from all of Syke’s acquisitions has been calculated in the footprint calculation. The calculation method is constantly being developed. Emissions are decreasing all the time on many sectors and therefore the model is refined with fresh information. In 2023, the consumption of fuel for Syke’s small boats was added to the calculation and new emission factors for public procurement were updated to the calculation of the carbon footprint of acquisitions.
Our carbon footprint for 2022 was 5650 and for 2023 it was 5890 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-eq).
Syke’s carbon footprint consists mainly of acquisitions, the use of the marine research vessel Aranda, business travel, and the heating and electricity consumption of premises. Of these, acquisitions cause by far the largest part. The footprint of acquisitions depends largely on the development of the supply towards a more carbon-neutral direction, but we can also influence it by developing our own procurement procedures. The result emphasises the importance of examining the entire value chains of purchased goods and services in carbon footprint assessments and acquisitions.
Read the Finnish Environment Institute’s responsibility report for 2023
Read the 2023 responsibility report (storymaps.arcgis.com).
Comment and give feedback on the responsibility report
By email syke_ajankohtaiset@syke.fi
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Further information
Development manager Sanna-Riikka Saarela, sanna-riikka.saarela@syke.fi
Service development director Heli Karjalainen, heli.karjalainen@syke.fi