Sustainability
Sustainability is reflected in Granlund’s business and its development, customer projects, internal operating methods and Granlund’s broader role as a trendsetter in the sustainability of the real estate and construction sector. Sustainability is one of the four strategic targets specified in Granlund’s strategy. Sustainability work is guided by the sustainability programme, the objectives and measures of which are promoted in several strategy projects.
This is how we create sustainable business
Granlund influences the sustainability of the real estate and construction industry and thereby the implementation of societal goals. A respected sustainability expert in the real estate and construction industry, Granlund is a multi-faceted developer of sustainability throughout the value chain.
Granlund is a strong contributor to the development of sustainability in the industry as an expert in legislative work and networks. Granlund wants to lead the way in green transition and sustainability in the real estate and construction industry.
By providing healthy and safe premises, Granlund has an indirect influence on a large number of users of premises. Granlund is an active developer of new solutions together with industry operators. Granlund’s experts help customers with solving their sustainability challenges. Both through its own activities and customer work, Granlund is able to greatly contribute to the well-being of the environment.
Our own employees are amongst Granlund’s most important stakeholders. Granlund wants to be the best possible workplace and invest in good management, fair and equal treatment as well as the development of expertise. Healthy, happy, competent and motivated employees are in a key position to provide our customers with quality, expert and flexible service.
Sustainability programme: well-being for people, buildings and the environment
Granlund’s sustainability programme is guided by the mission to create well-being for people, buildings and the environment. The sustainability programme is built around the mission. At the background of sustainability work are the factors identified in strategy work that influence change: sustainable growth, climate change, aging of the population, digitalisation and urbanisation. These factors also inform our innovation and development operations.
Granlund will report on its sustainability work in accordance with the CSRD reporting requirements from 2025. The materiality analysis was approved by the Board of Directors of Granlund Oy in December 2024. The most important topics identified in the materiality analysis – climate change, own workforce and conducting business – are well aligned with Granlund’s mission and sustainability programme.
Wellbeing for people
We take care of the users of premises by designing sustainable, smart, healthy and safe conditions for common spaces, such as schools, daycare centers, hospitals, museums and commercial properties. People feel well in healthy and safe buildings that are designed and maintained with sustainable and energy-efficient solutions.
During the year, the main focus of internal sustainability work was on social responsibility and the well-being of Granlund’s employees. The Diversity and Inclusion work continued by raising awareness through communications as well as online training arranged for all employees. The diversity and work community development plan was completed. Working life that takes into account neurodiversity was supported by a peer group as well as online training for supervisors and the work community.
| sustainability programme theme | Wellbeing for people |
|---|---|
| Main goal | For us, people are the main character – both as employees and as users of premises |
| Indicator and realisation 2024 | Employee Net Promoter Score eNPS: 49 (2023: 50) Personnel turnover (Granlund Oy, permanent staff): 4.5% (2023: 5.2%) Development of the volume of training: increasing |
Well-being for patients through lighting design
The design of Laakso Joint Hospital takes into account the well-being of patients and employees, for example, with high-quality lighting that users can adjust themselves according to the situation. Blue wavelengths, which are known to keep you awake, have been eliminated from the light produced by the ceiling lamps in the patient rooms of the psychiatric ward.
The colour of the lighting in the palliative care rooms can be adjusted as required to provide comfort for critically ill patients in the last stages of their life. In the patient day rooms, the colour temperature and brightness of lighting are adapted to the time of the day.
Illnesses amongst children in daycare centres reduced by 18%
The results of the extensive E3 development project on indoor air cleanliness and health security were published in October. Granlund was responsible for the operation and remote monitoring of the air purifiers in the sub-project examining the spread of airborne virus infections in daycare centres.
“By cleaning the indoor air, we managed to reduce the incidence of morbidities amongst children in day-care centres by approximately 18%. The air purifiers have to be correctly placed and dimensioned with regard to the way the space is used,” says Piia Sormunen, Development Director.
Wellbeing for buildings
Granlund’s design, consulting and software services have impacts on the sustainability of properties throughout their lifecycle. Digital solutions and data-driven design support low-carbon buildings, energy and material efficiency and indoor conditions.
Granlund’s experts are involved in creating new industry standards, supporting industry research and preparation and consultancy relating to legislation. Granlund participated in the preparation of the climate report of the Building Act and the national implementation of the EPBD directive.
In addition, the experts contribute to joint development projects, working groups and innovation projects in the real estate and construction sector and give speeches in industry seminars and training courses. During the year, Granlund organised Energy and Sustainability seminars and published a report on technology to support the fulfilment of CSRD requirements as well as a market survey on responsible properties.
During the year, Granlund participated in the operations of the Green Building Council Finland’s (FIGBC) sustainability steering groups and, together with FIGBC, carried out a national assessment of the carbon footprint impacts of renovation.
Granlund is also represented in the various working groups of SKOL, the industry organisation for companies in the design and consulting sector.
Digital solutions and data-driven design support low-carbon buildings, energy and material efficiency and indoor conditions.
| Sustainability programme theme | Wellbeing for buildings |
|---|---|
| Main goal | We invest in innovation activities, support training and research in the industry and create value for the property owner |
| Indicator and realisation 2024 | Customer satisfaction NPS: 65 (2023: 68) Development of external financing of innovation activities: increasing Development of the volume of innovation and development activities: increasing |
Technology promoting CSRD compliance
Granlund drew up a report for real estate and construction industry professionals explaining the way technology can be properly used to promote sustainability.
“Use the reporting requirements as your mandate to build your sustainability dashboards and monitoring systems to a state that will benefit you in the years to come”, encourages Chief Data Officer Ken Dooley, who compiled the report.
Wellbeing for the environment
Granlund provides the real estate and construction sector with expertise and concrete ways to influence the carbon footprint and other environmental impacts of construction. Energy-efficient and low-carbon construction and property maintenance support the sustainability goals and EU taxonomy eligibility of the industry. Granlund’s services promote circular economy practices and the protection of biodiversity. Several new services promoting sustainability in the real estate and construction sector were launched during the year.
Several new services promoting sustainability in the real estate and construction sector were launched during the year, such as biodiversity services for construction and property maintenance, CSRD reporting as well as Granlund Manager’s water consumption data and waste reporting expansions.
Training in low-carbon design and construction was provided via the internal Granlund Academy training system. Nearly half of the completed theses applied to promoting sustainability in the real estate and construction sector. One of them, the thesis on the carbon footprint calculation of HVAC technology was selected as the best thesis of the year.
Granlund is the leader of a joint project on the circular economy in building services, which aims to produce practical guidelines for the industry to promote the circular economy. In addition, a joint project called Luontojalanjälki (Nature Footprint) was launched to develop a methodology for calculating the environmental impacts of the entire value chain of the building services industry.
Granlund is also committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Granlund’s largest source of emissions is commuting, with a carbon footprint of 604 t CO2e (660 t CO2e in 2023). Granlund’s positive climate impacts, i.e. carbon handprint, are greater than negative impacts, as design and consulting services promote energy-efficient and low-carbon construction.
| Sustainability programme theme | Wellbeing for the environment |
|---|---|
| Main goal | We lead the way in energy efficiency and the promotion of carbon neutrality in the sector |
| Indicator and realisation 2024 | Carbon footprint (Scope 1, 2 and 3): 1,419 t CO2e (2023: 1,585 t CO2 e) |
The carbon footprint of building services materials can account for up to 30%.
Reuse in building services offers plenty of potential
There is plenty of untapped potential in the circular economy of building service equipment and components that would help whittle down the carbon footprint of construction and improve material efficiency in alteration projects. Granlund leads a project taking a closer look at how circular economy can be achieved in practice.
“It is possible to increase the reuse of MEP, such as ventilation ducts, devices and luminaires,” says Charlotte Nyholm, Chief Specialist, Sustainable Construction at Granlund.
Pilot project measuring impacts of biodiversity loss
A significant part of the changes affecting biodiversity occur before the site gates even open. In our pilot project, we tested biodiversity impact calculations in collaboration with Skanska.
“When the impacts on biodiversity are calculated over the building’s entire lifecycle, we can compare the impacts of different design solutions and, for example, material choices. In sustainable construction, biodiversity is factored in already at the design stage,” says Emma Väliaho, Environmental Specialist at Granlund.
Examples of sustainability actions in customer work and business operations in 2024
The design services conducted several projects and surveys promoting the sustainability of MEP. The sustainability of design services is guided via the strategic low-carbon design project. The climatic impacts of MEP systems and the life cycles of buildings are already managed at the design and construction stage. MEP systems enable energy recycling and the recovery of waste energy. Structural design can be used to optimise material efficiency.
The MEP circular economy project conducted together with Talteka is the first project to chart the possibilities of reusing MEP components together with leading manufacturers and the MEP value chain. The thesis of the year took a look at the carbon footprint of MEP. Granlund provided the Ministry of the Environment with updated versions of the default MEP carbon footprint values.
Energy and sustainability consultants promoted customers’ sustainability in construction projects and the real estate business and participated in the strategic development of the sector, for example, in legislative work.
There were new services launched during the year, including the CSRD service, circular economy service and biodiversity service.
There were several theses conducted in the consulting services, covering topics as varied as biodiversity, circular economy and CSRD reporting. The Sustainability and Energy seminars took place during the year, and a parallel seminar was held at the Finnish Real Estate Summit, RE Finland.
In construction and supervision, sustainability was selected as one of the themes of the revised strategy. Low-carbon construction is supported by strong project management competence in renovation projects.
Data-driven services like cost control open up opportunities for the wider use of digital volume data to control projects, such as the carbon footprint calculation of MEP.
Software products facilitated customers’ energy and sustainability reporting, such as carbon footprint calculations and waste reporting integrations.
Granlund’s data strategy was updated, supporting the use of data to improve the sustainability and productivity of buildings.
Granlund’s own climate work is focused on traffic-related emissions
Granlund is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Granlund’s most significant source of emissions is commuting. A commuting survey was conducted amongst the employees during the year, and the carbon footprint of commuting was calculated on the basis thereof. Currently at 604 t CO2e (660 t CO2e in 2023), the trend is declining.
Commuting by bicycle has become more popular. What is more, the number of employees using company bikes is up by 22%.
The number of employees using company travel tickets increased by 25% after the value of the commute balance was raised from 300 to 400 euros at the start of the year. 72% of Granlund’s company cars are electric.
Granlund’s own properties use renewable electricity and green district heating. Some of the offices also produce solar energy.
Emissions from commuting have decreased by 8% absolutely and by 18% per person.
Scope 1+2 -emissions 2022–2024
Granlund’s carbon handprint
Granlund’s positive climate impacts, i.e. the carbon handprint, are greater than the negative impacts as the design and consulting services promote energy-efficient and low-carbon construction.
In 2024, the carbon handprint was calculated from four different service categories and 82 projects. Based on these, the realised handprint of Granlund’s customer work for 2024 was 54,397 t CO2 e and the potential handprint for 2024 was 807,801 t CO2 e, totaling 862,198 t CO2 e.
Sustainability management
At Granlund, sustainability is the responsibility of each Group company’s Board of Directors and CEO. Their duty is to ensure that the business opportunities and risks brought about by sustainability are also factored in to both the company’s short-term and long-term strategy. It is also the responsibility of corporate management to ensure that the employees are familiar and comply with their internal and external obligations.
In 2024, a sustainability development group was established to steer sustainability work, with representation from all business areas. The group’s mandate is to integrate sustainability into the operations of the whole organisation to a higher degree and identify the possibilities of the major business areas to influence things.
The objective is to help customers factor in the ever-expanding sustainability goals and requirements in their projects.
The objective is to help customers factor in the ever-expanding sustainability goals and requirements in their projects. The subject area was previously discussed in the Quality, Sustainability and Risks steering group, which became the Quality and Risks steering group in 2024.
Internal corporate responsibility work is led by the Quality and Sustainability Director, appointed to Granlund’s Board of Directors in autumn 2024, supported by the Sustainability Manager. The Business Development Director of the sustainability business is responsible for developing customer work and sustainability-related operations.
Granlund is committed to meeting the requirements set by the operating environment and stakeholders. All operations conform to Granlund’s values and Code of Conduct as well as established laws and regulations.
Granlund Group uses the Good Governance system for managing and monitoring the organisation. Code of Ethics training is mandatory for all employees. When it comes to personnel, the principles of equality and non-discrimination are observed and there is a zero tolerance policy to all forms of discrimination.
Granlund also uses a whistleblowing channel for the anonymous reporting of misconduct related to business operations. All reports will be handled confidentially and independently.
Granlund uses an ISO 14001 certified environmental management system and an ISO 9001 certified quality management system.
Neurodiversity included in diversity efforts
The main theme of Granlund’s diversity and inclusion efforts during the year was to increase awareness. The measures included online training for everyone as well as internal communications. During the year, Granlund established a neurodiversity working group and a peer group and drew up a Diversity and Work Community Development Plan.
CSRD reporting and materiality analysis
In 2024, Granlund’s materiality analysis was updated to meet the requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) of the EU. There were two comprehensive surveys conducted amongst Granlund’s owners, the majority of whom are Granlund employees. In addition, there was a separate survey for suppliers, while the views of customers were charted through key customer interviews. The materiality analysis was approved by the Board of Directors of Granlund Oy in December 2024.
The key areas of sustainability identified in the materiality analysis are well aligned with Granlund’s mission and sustainability programme. The most material subject areas include climate change, the company’s own workforce and business operations:
Climate change entails energy as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. Granlund contributes positively to all of these factors through its work with customers. At the same time, these issues create business opportunities. The negative footprint of our own operations is relatively small and it does not involve any notable risks.
On the basis of the materiality analysis, the most significant topics related to the company’s own workforce are training, skill development as well as health and safety. What makes these areas particularly relevant is their positive impacts.
Equally important topics are measures to prevent violence and harassment at the workplace and promote gender equality, equal pay for equal work and work-life balance, specifically through their positive effects. Based on the results of the materiality analysis, the impact on the work-life balance has been slightly negative.
In terms of conducting business, the positive impact of a corporate culture makes it one of the most important and essential topics.
