Responsible Care is the chemical industry’s voluntary sustainability programme. The 2019 results of the Finnish programme tell of good development towards an increasingly more sustainable production.
Results
Carbon neutral chemistry
The chemical industry in Finland has set an ambitious goal. We strive for carbon neutrality by 2045. We aim to reach our goal by both reducing carbon footprint and increasing handprint. In practice this means reducing our own carbon footprint, that is, our greenhouse gas emissions. It also means increasing our handprint through products and solutions that reduce our customer’s emissions. New raw materials, new technologies, and circular economy will play an important role in this process.




Energy consumption
The companies committed to the Responsible Care programme in Finland have improved their energy efficiency gradually during the past years. Many of them have signed the national energy efficiency commitment too.
Many processes in the chemical industry require high pressure and high temperatures. This leads to high overall energy consumption. The majority of consumed electricity is bought from energy producers.
Results of 2019
Since 1995, energy consumption proportionated to total production has decreased by 24% in Finland. In 2019, 26% of the energy used is electricity, while most are other forms of energy, such as heat. Totally 24% of the electricity consumed and 7% of other forms of energy consumed was produced using renewable energy sources.
from 1995
renewable sources


Safety
Long-term development of safety culture has lead to good results in the Finnish chemical industry. The aim is in continuous development of safety towards a zero-incident goal.
Since 1988 lost time injuries have decreased by 90%. The lost time injury frequency rate (LTI) of the chemical industry is significantly lower than in general in the Finnish industry. A good sign of an active safety culture is the constantly growing number of safety observations.
Results of 2019
The lost time injury frequency rate of companies committed to Responsible Care in Finland decreased by almost 2% from 2018 (more than 3 days, LTI3). Correspondingly the lost time (more than 1 day, LTI1) injury frequency rate decreased by 3% since 2018. In a quarter of the companies there were no lost time injuries among employees or contractors. In 2019 there were around 2 near miss reports and safety observations per person.
(LTI3) from 1988
Lost time injuries frequency rate and work hours lost
per million man-hours worked


Circular economy
Circular economy is in the heart of chemical industry and materials are used very efficiently in the industry. The raw materials differ as much as the end-products, which tells about the heterogenity of the chemical industry.
Lately, the utilisation of waste as raw material in other processes as well as energy utilisation have increased, which means the amount of materials going to waste has decreased significantly. Molecules are reused more and more.
Water is used both in chemical industry processes as well as in products as a raw material. Focus on water consumption has lead to an even further efficient use of resources.
Results of 2019
Resources are used efficiently in the Finnish chemical industry’s processes and the work develops constantly. In 2019, 50% of the companies reported to use recycled materials in their production. Roughly 1% of materials leaving the production are by-products and waste materials.
recycled or renewable
from 1995


Greenhouse gas emissions
The Finnish chemical industry’s greenhouse gas emissions keep on declining, while advancing towards carbon neutrality in 2045. The chemical industry is accountable for around 5% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from Finland.
In the chemical industry, the work to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions has been done by developing processes and switching to using as low-emission energy as possible. To reach the carbon neutrality goals, we need innovative new solutions alongside continuous improvement.
Results of 2019
The work to reduce the Finnish chemical industry’s carbon footprint has been ongoing for a long time and greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 31% since 1999, and by 12% from 2018. In 2019 the total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions were 5.4 million tons CO2e.
from 1999
from 2018