2022: sustainable farming, product development and manufacturing
The 2022 report proves that our responsibility carries through from the field to the table. The first oat harvest under the sustainable farming programme was completed. The new oat products offer consumers the option to swap rice for Finnish oats.
Sustainability at Helsinki Mills has three priorities to help us achieve our pledge. We want to offer healthy and responsible plant-based food solutions for different diets.
The first priority is the environment. And towards an increasingly sustainable food system. With climate action, we ensure that farming will still be possible in 100 years' time.
Another priority is procurement. We ensure the sustainability of the raw materials used to make our products.
The third priority is people and society. Through responsible HR policy and management, we ensure that we can offer our workers a healthy lifestyle that promotes wellbeing.
JÄRVENPÄÄ PRODUCTION PLANT HEATED ENTIRELY BY RENEWABLE ENERGY
The 2022 Sustainability Report has several concrete highlights. We worked towards a more sustainable food system in production, product development and business planning.
The Järvenpää plant switched to using fully renewable energy for heating. We launched domestic oat products that represent local food: local food that responsible Finnish consumers can use instead of rice, for example. After all, the carbon footprint of oats is about 70% smaller than that of rice. We switched to GHG protocol-based emissions calculation, updated Helsinki Mills's sustainability programme and established a sustainability guidance group.
In regard to sustainable raw materials, work on environmentally friendly farming has progressed as planned. In 2022, the first crop of oats grown under the sustainable farming programme was harvested.
On the social responsibility side, 2022 was visible to both our employees and other stakeholders.
We offered our production workers the opportunity to rotate between different production plants and production jobs. We also offered our staff commuter bicycles.
Responsibility is also about sharing the good. In 2022, we made a donation of 10,000 euros to Save the Children and donated a housewarming product bag to students in the Helsinki, Vaasa and Tampere regions in cooperation with student housing foundations HOAS, VOAS and TOAS.
In 2022, we were Järvenpää's second largest taxpayer and 17th largest employer. We participated in the Sustainable Lifestyles Accelerator organised by the City of Järvenpää. We paid EUR 248 000 in income taxes and invested EUR 0.6 million in Finland.
READ MORE: SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2020
