Environmental responsibility means taking environmental values into account in all our activities. We invest in finding environmentally sustainable solutions and, at the same time, in developing a more sustainable society.
Our ambitious strategic goal is to be climate neutral in 2030. In 2021, we calculated our carbon footprint more comprehensively than ever, considering the climate emissions in our entire operations chain. Based on these calculations, we began to outline a climate roadmap to determine our principal emission reduction measures, with timetables and assigned responsibilities. The climate roadmap will be completed in spring 2022.
The environmental goals in our corporate responsibility program 2021–2022 are: increasing the number of eConsultations, promoting environmentally friendly commuting and reducing food waste. Environmental responsibility covers both direct and indirect environmental impacts of our operations.
More eConsultations at pilot units
To increase the number of eConsultations, we launched development projects at pilot units assigned by their respective divisions. Our goal is to push eConsultations up to at least 25% of all appointments. By the end of 2021, we had reached 18.5% at the pilot units, most of these being psychiatry eConsultations. A particular success was chalked up with the emergency services eConsultation project begun towards the end of 2021, which quickly increased the number of patients who could be seen remotely. In somatic care, the use of eConsultations did not progress as planned in all respects.
Measures to increase the use of eConsultations include simplifying the technology. For My Path in the Health Village and for the Maisa platform in the Apotti system, Teams was selected as the technology deployed.
We planned measures to promote environmentally friendly commuting
Our goal is to design incentives for employees to choose environmentally friendly modes of travel for commuting more often. One of these incentives is the ‘company bike’ benefit, which began to be explored during the year under review, continuing in 2022.
Another concrete measure is to ensure parking facilities for bicycles all year round on the Meilahti hospital campus, which is where nearly half of our employees will be stationed in the near future. During the year under review, we added 80 unsheltered bike stands with frame locking on the Meilahti hospital campus; half of these are usable throughout the year. We have plans to build sheltered fixed bike stands with frame locking for round the year use for about 580 bikes in 2022. Just under half of these will be in a new, locked facility, which will also house 20 charging points for e-bikes. This bicycle parking facility and its location required a special permit from the building supervision authority.
Technology and peer support to combat food waste
Our goal is to reduce food waste in both patient and personnel catering. For the year under review, we set a goal of 30% reduction in food waste. The means selected included increasing the range of options for patients’ meals, continuous measuring of food waste at our lunch canteens, and training for HUS Asvia employees about means for reducing food waste.
The invitation to tender for an application allowing patient food selection was completed in 2021; it is to be tested and deployed in the current year. Food waste at our lunch canteens at all locations is monitored using the Hävikkimestarit system. This allowed us to reduce food waste in personnel catering by 16% to 41%, depending on the location, in the year under review. We introduced food waste monitoring in patient catering in autumn 2021.
In order to find appropriate ways and sites for reducing food waste, we have shared best practices between locations and held ‘food waste sparring’ events with HUS Asvia personnel.