Environmental responsibility

Luke aims to adopt environmentally responsible practices that meet the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard by the end of the current strategy period. Key focus areas include monitoring environmental objectives using agreed indicators, assessing environmental impacts, and developing environmental policies and practices in collaboration with quality management. Additionally, Luke seeks to enhance staff awareness of environmental issues through various training initiatives.

Within Luke’s Research Infrastructure Services unit, the goal has been set to increase staff environmental awareness and competence. To support this, employees previously completed the “Sustainable Development Competence” training via the eOppiva learning platform. As a follow-up to the training, a sustainability survey was conducted at the end of 2024. The results were reviewed by the management team of the Research Infrastructure Services unit.

The survey aimed to identify actions that Luke or its employees could take to advance sustainability. It also invited suggestions on how Luke or individuals at Luke could reduce their carbon footprint (negative impact on the climate) and increase their carbon handprint (positive impact on the climate). By responding to the survey, staff had the opportunity to contribute to the development of sustainability at Luke, propose ideas for implementing responsible practices within the unit, and share their personal thoughts on the topic.

Calculating an organization’s carbon footprint is a key component of sustainability strategies. As the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is a national forerunner in sustainable development, conducting annual carbon footprint calculations, reporting them appropriately, and integrating them into Luke’s own sustainability goals is essential.

An internal evaluation of our carbon footprint calculation was conducted in 2023. The evaluation recommended improving the documentation and reporting of the calculation process to ensure transparency.

The 2023 carbon footprint was calculated using different methods compared to 2022, making the results not fully comparable. The 2023 result will serve as the baseline for future calculations. The 2024 carbon footprint calculation will be completed later in 2025. The delay is due to a public sector labor strike that began in March 2025, which has limited the availability of staff from the Research Infrastructure Services unit needed for data collection.

Luke’s greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and value chain are calculated in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard (ghgprotocol.org). This standard is widely regarded as the best framework for greenhouse gas accounting, as it is internationally recognized, comprehensive (covering Scope 1, 2, and 3), and flexible. The protocol is regularly updated to reflect the latest science and practices and provides a reliable foundation for organizations to measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprint effectively.