Sustainable development goals
Pohjolan Voima’s responsible operations and responsibility themes assist in the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals. We renewed our responsibility programme in 2020.
Reviewing the sustainable development goals and comparing them with our operations was a major part of the renewal. We studied our impact on all of the 17 sustainable development goals through the targets. We chose the following four goals that are the most important for us:
| Goal | General description of the goal |
 | Ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services |
 | Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all |
 | Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss |
 | Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development |
A more detailed review of the goals somewhat changed the initial assumptions
We also considered other goals that initially seemed to be important based on the effects of our operations. These were:
• Goal 13 (Climate Action)
• Goal 14 (Life Below Water)
• Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure)
• Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)
Goal 13, Climate Action, is especially important to us. When studying the targets, we noticed that our climate action and carbon neutrality goal and our work to achieve this goal were naturally included in Goal 7, Affordable and Clean Energy.
At first glance, Goal 14, Life Below Water, seemed to be one of our key goals due to the impact of our operations on migratory fish and our cooperation involving migratory fish. However, a more detailed review of the targets revealed that the goal focuses on oceans. UN has included freshwater ecosystems in Goal 15, Life on Land. As a company working in river environments, freshwater ecosystems are important to us. Fish and biodiversity of the aquatic environment are therefore covered by Goal 15.
We also identified matters pertaining to our operations in Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) such as use of clean technologies and circular economy. We linked these to the goals we chose, Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), in particular.
