Corporate responsibility always taken into account
The development of sustainable solutions is our most significant act of corporate responsibility, since our operation is based on resolving grand challenges of our time. We strive to understand the needs and opportunities of businesses and society. We help to meet these needs by co-developing impactful scientific and technological solutions in collaboration with our partners. At the same time, we help our customers to succeed and to promote sustainable growth and well-being in society.
We are a member of the FIBS corporate responsibility network, and we have also joined the UN Global Compact initiative on corporate sustainability.
We value people as they are. Diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) are an integral part of our responsibility, and we are strongly committed, for example, towards gender equality within our working community and in the wider research ecosystem. Find out more in our Gender Equality Plan.
VTT's sustainability priorities
Thriving professionals
We treasure the well-being, diversity and fair treatment of our brilliant minds.
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We are a diverse work community that promotes wellbeing and inclusion
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Our wellbeing principles are leadership, health and safety. We systematically monitor development and results of these topics
Empowered customers
We help our customers to unleash superior performance and productivity that lead to sustainable growth.
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We use the carbon handprint to measure VTT’s impact on the carbon footprint of companies and society
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We will calculate the carbon handprint of the projects ending in the coming years
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We support sustainable development innovations by linking our projects to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Resilient society
We solve the world's biggest challenges through innovations, research and co-operation.
- Our research choices provide solutions for promoting the achievement of UN SDGs
- We have selected and prioritised five SDGs that VTT can influence the most
- We will actively monitor the achievement of the goals and assess our activities critically
Sustainable foundation
Our impeccable ethical principles – impartiality, reliability, integrity and responsibility – form a solid basis for our research and business.
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Impeccable ethical principles in VTT's own research activities provide the basis for everything we do
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In all our operations, we aim to diminish negative environmental impacts
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Our goal is to be carbon negative by 2030
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Maintaining responsible supply chains is one of the greatest challenges of VTT's corporate responsibility. We are tackling it with the help of various tools
Five UN Sustainable Development Goals that VTT can influence the most
As part of our sustainability work, we have identified on which of the UN SDGs our research activities have the greatest impact. Read more.
Environmental goals
At VTT, we want to mitigate climate change and reduce the environmental burden. We encourage VTT employees to make environmentally friendly choices. In our environmental policy, we emphasise the following matters:
• We create sustainable solutions for major societal challenges in our research projects.
• We support our customers in innovations that enhance environmental performance.
• We encourage our personnel towards sustainable choices.
• We comply with the statutory requirements and other binding obligations of our operations.
• We continuously improve our management system to enhance environmental performance.
We implement these goals with the help of our operational system, which is applied by all our facilities in Finland.
We also deal with the immediate impacts of our own activities. VTT aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
We are a member of the Climate Leadership Coalition and we participate in the operations of the Climate Partners network of the City of Helsinki and businesses.
Corporate social responsibility shows in everything we do at VTT: we develop sustainable solutions. We report on corporate social responsibility in the GRI section of our annual report.
Standards and certificates
GRI
We report on social responsibility issues in accordance with GRI Standards 2016, as applicable. The key part of our corporate social responsibility is the annual report with a GRI table presenting the table of contents, some indicator values, and references to further information on the matter.
ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 9001 certificated operational system
Our operational system has been granted the following certificates:
Please find a more detailed description of our operational system here.
Code of Conduct
One essential part of our Compliance programme is the Code of Conduct, which is based on VTT’s good reputation as a reliable partner. It entails such issues as the reliability and high-quality of research findings, our operating practices in relation to our partners, and our commitment to occupational health and safety as well as environmental issues.
Further reading:
Find out more about our corporate responsibility in the annual report and GRI table. You can find our previous annual reports from here.
VTT Whistleblower
It is extremely important for us that our customers, partners and employees regard us as a reliable actor. We are using the VTT Whistleblower system for reporting suspected abuses. It allows us to become aware of any abuses and non-compliance with our guidelines and ensures that such issues are appropriately addressed.
You can report any suspected abuses and actions that do not comply with our guidelines to our Compliance Officer by sending a message to the following email address: compliance.officer@vtt.fi.
Information security
We always respect the laws and regulations concerning the protection of privacy when processing personal data.
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