Responsible Care - Our commitment to sustainability

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 2021

Since 1995, energy consumption proportionated to total production has decreased by 20% in Finland. In 2021, 28% of the energy used is electricity, while most are other forms of energy, such as heat. Totally 41% of the electricity consumed and 8% of other forms of energy consumed was produced using renewable energy 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 91%. 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 2021

The 2021 results a wake-up call for the continuous development of safety culture. Even though in 46% of the companies there were no injuries among employees or contractors, the direction of safety results shifted. The lost time injury frequency rate of companies committed to Responsible Care in Finland increased by almost 51% from 2020 (more than 3 days, LTI3). Correspondingly the lost time (more than 1 day, LTI1) injury frequency rate increased by 24% since 2020. In 2021 there were around 2,8 near miss reports and safety observations per person.

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 2021

Resources are used efficiently in the Finnish chemical industry’s processes and the work develops constantly. In 2021, 53% of the companies reported to use recycled materials in their production. In 2020 roughly 7% of materials leaving the production are by-products and waste materials.

Greenhouse gas emissions

The Finnish chemical industry’s greenhouse gas emissions keep on declining, while advancing towards carbon neutrality. 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 2021

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 28% since 1999. In 2021 the total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions were 4.7 million tons CO2e.