The Nordic energy company Gasum’s key corporate responsibility and sustainability themes are derived from the Gasum strategy. Themes important for the company’s stakeholders are also taken into account in responsibility work. Gasum employed stakeholder dialogue to survey stakeholder views of responsibility by conducting an extensive responsibility reflection where customers, partners and personnel were included in a dialogue. The results of the stakeholder dialogue were utilized in the identification of material responsibility themes and the development of corporate responsibility reporting and communications. Gasum also adopted updated corporate responsibility objectives for the Group.
The Nordic energy sector expert Gasum has carried out sustained responsibility work and promoted development towards a carbon-neutral society. Responsibility is an important element in the strategy implemented for the determined promotion of sustainable development based on the principles of circular economy and provision of cleaner energy solutions in the Nordic countries.
To support its sustained responsibility work and in response to changes in its operating environment, in late 2018 Gasum conducted an extensive responsibility reflection and included Nordic customers, partners and personnel in the work. More than 1,000 representatives of various stakeholder groups took part in the online dialogue which generated more than a thousand ideas for responsibility development.
The aim was to obtain an overall view of what customers and other stakeholders expect from the company and which issues there are related to the most important economic, social and environmental impacts of Gasum’s operations. Understanding stakeholder expectations is important to ensure that the most material themes are put to the core of Gasum’s responsibility work. This affects the success and acceptability of Gasum’s operations.
”The stakeholder dialogue has provided us with lots of good information for our responsibility work. Hearing the views of our stakeholders is important and links our responsibility work to a broader context as well as creating a framework for further development. All feedback has been valuable and we’ll continue the stakeholder dialogue in the future, too. The positive responsibility grade given by our stakeholders tells us that we’ve been doing things the right way and the image of Gasum as a responsible energy company is correct,” says Sustainability Manager Elina Saarivuori from Gasum.
The six themes derived from the Gasum strategy and the materiality analysis as regards corporate responsibility now form the basis for the company’s new Corporate Responsibility Program: safety and security, climate change mitigation, circular economy, access to gas, responsible business, and people. The Corporate Responsibility Program is also linked to the key UN Sustainable Development Goals from the Gasum perspective, the achievement of which Gasum will promote through its operations.
”We set objectives in all areas of sustainable development in our Corporate Responsibility Program. We aim for a safe and healthy workplace environment and personnel wellbeing. We promote a cleaner tomorrow though low-carbon energy products and energy-efficiency in our own operations. We are an active circular economy player and through our work develop the recycled nutrients, transport and energy markets. Our aims also include customer satisfaction, disturbance-free gas supply and distribution network expansion. In addition, we verify the compliance of our operations and also expect this from our suppliers,” Saarivuori says.
Gasum has also set long-term objectives in its Corporate Responsibility Program, with progress made towards them monitored and reported annually in the Corporate Responsibility Report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. The report for 2018 will be published in March.
