The energy company Gasum has published its Corporate Responsibility Report and Responsibility Highlights for 2020. The report focuses on key impacts from the social, environmental and economic perspectives.

At Gasum, our purpose is cleaner energy. Gasum takes determined steps to promote sustainable development in accordance with the principles of circular economy and supports the sustainability actions of customers by enabling emission reductions with cleaner energy solutions. In our own activities, we promote the wellbeing and safety of our own employees, reduce our environmental impacts and ensure responsible business practices.

Cleaner energy

We are committed to combating climate change by increasing the availability of low-carbon and renewable energy and by operating energy efficiently. We aim at carbon dioxide emission reductions of 1 million tonnes thanks to biogas. By 2025, we intend to make 4 TWh of biogas available on the market from our own production and that of our certified partners. In 2020, we promoted this objective by taking new biogas plants into commercial use and developing several plant projects. Our biogas enabled carbon dioxide emission reductions of 270,000 tonnes for our partners in the traffic, maritime and industry segments.

We reduced the climate impact of our own activities by implementing several projects improving energy efficiency at out LNG terminals and biogas plants. Our energy-efficiency measures enabled us to achieve energy savings totaling 44.5 GWh. We used 100% renewable electricity in all our operations.

We utilized around 850,000 tonnes of society’s waste and side streams in our production of biogas and recycled nutrient products. We continued our development of solutions promoting the circular economy. We improved production efficiency, developed the recycled nutrient and fertilizer product market and explored potential new raw material fractions.

The year saw us develop an efficient and sustainable energy ecosystem on land and at sea. We expanded our Nordic filling station network to around 100 stations. We built new gas filling stations for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). In maritime transport, our measures to improve the availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas (LBG) included expanding our bunkering area. We performed around 1,300 fuel deliveries and made our first deliveries of biogas to our maritime customers.

We signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement on the output of a Finnish wind farm. The PPA will increase the availability of renewable and local energy to our customers. In 2020, we obtained 6.2 TWh of renewable power with Guarantees of Origin for electricity for our customers.

Exceptional but successful year in terms of responsibility in 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we succeeded in safeguarding the continuity of our production during the exceptional emergency conditions, too. Our occupational health and safety was at an excellent level. During the year, there was one Lost Time Injury (LTI), and the Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF) decreased by 71%. The absence rate of employees was 1.1%.

Our aim is to develop the company together with employees, and we launched a monthly pulse survey to measure employee experience. We also redefined our ethics and compliance framework that oversees the implementation of responsible business.

“In addition to responsibility being an essential element of our day-to-day operations and decision-making, the clean energy offered by us is highly significant for our customers’ responsibility work. In 2020, we took steps forward and achieved our targets in many different aspects,” says Sustainability Manager Elina Saarivuori from Gasum.

Gasum’s responsibility work is steered by its Corporate Responsibility Program, which is summed up in six themes and related objectives. The themes derived from the company’s strategy and materiality analysis concerning corporate responsibility form the basis of Gasum’s Corporate Responsibility Program: Safety and Security, Climate Change, Circular Economy, Access to Energy, People, and Responsible Business. We support the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN and contribute positively towards them.