Internal operations

Striving to achieve positive impacts in our own operations

We strive to achieve positive impacts on the climate and environment in all our actions. This is why we comprehensively measure, monitor, report and manage our own carbon footprint. Nefco’s headquarters in Helsinki were awarded the WWF Green Office label in 2022.

Working at a green office

We are conscious that every small step can make a difference and we are looking for ways to keep improving in our daily work. 

We are committed to the WWF Green Office, that helps companies and organisations reduce the environmental impact of their operations and become more sustainable. Based on an evaluation and audit of environmental management systems, the WWF Green Office label serves as a reliable means of verifying that a company is working continuously to improve its sustainability practices.

Internal carbon footprint

Sustainability is at the core of our operations. Following from our objective to generate positive climate and environmental impacts through our financing activities, we believe it is important to calculate and report our own footprint generated by our internal activities. Understanding this will help us plan actions to further reduce our carbon footprint and enable us to track the effectiveness of the actions we take.

Annual calculation

We have been calculating our internal carbon footprint since 2020 and we report the results annually. Our emissions are reported according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Corporate Accounting and Reporting standard as well as the complementary Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard. This ensures we include the full scope of our greenhouse gas emissions.

We took a control-based approach to calculation boundaries and included Scopes 1, 2 and 3. Nefco currently has no emissions sources included under Scope 1 as we have no company vehicles and do not generate our own energy. Scope 2 includes purchased electricity, heat and cooling.

Scope 3 includes upstream emissions from purchased goods and services, waste generated, business travel, employee commuting, and upstream leased assets, all of which are accounted for in our calculations.

Nefco calculates its carbon impact from financing activities (Scope 3 downstream emissions from investments) separately and thus these are excluded from the internal footprint.

Nefco’s carbon footprint scope and boundary definition

Our footprint

In 2023, our carbon footprint was 239.8 tonnes of CO₂, which is a 53.5% decrease compared to previous year (2022: 515.7 tonnes of CO₂s). The greenhouse emissions per permanent fulltime employee have decreased significantly, from 12 in 2022 to 4.3 tonnes CO₂ per employee in 2023.

During the heating season 2022/2023 we participated in the Energy Savings week down a degree campaign by lowering our office indoor temperature by 1°C, resulting in savings of 0.24 tonnes of CO₂, of which half is attributed to heating related emissions of 2023. In 2023 we changed our accounting regarding electricity related emissions, we now regard our certified Nordic wind power as emission free, thus resulting in zero electricity related emission in 2023.

• Download our Annual Impact Report 2023 to learn more about our own carbon footprint.

Avoid and reduce

We avoid carbon emissions whenever possible in a cost-effective manner. We aim to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible. Nefco’s operations are directed towards low emission operations. Some of the actions we have taken so far include the following:

• We have changed our electricity supply to certified Nordic wind power, decreasing our carbon footprint significantly. Since 2020, Nefco’s Helsinki office has been connected to district cooling that is 100% carbon free.
• We are continuously adapting our offices to be as energy efficient as possible. Our office lights were changed to energy-efficient LEDs in 2015. We avoid using single-use products throughout our premises. Nefco’s headquarters in Helsinki were awarded the WWF Green Office label in autumn 2022, and we continue to monitor our internal actions so as to remain in compliance  with the label’s requirements.
• Nefco encourages its employees to commute sustainably, and our Helsinki-based employees are given annual public transport commuter benefit coupons and the possibility to utilise a bike benefit.