Sustainability

Over several decades, Porkka products have become the standard in commercial cold rooms and
refrigeration equipment, and industry-leading professionalism in the refrigeration sector is at the core of everything we do.

At Porkka Finland, our goal is to be the leading company in the refrigeration sector in Northern Europe with regard to sustainability.

Principles of sustainable development in our operations

We work continuously to reduce the environmental impacts of our products. This is achieved by improving the quality and energy efficiency of our products and by designing them to be as long-lasting, modular, easy to maintain, reusable and recyclable as possible.

In addition to quality, we place a high priority on employee well-being, competence, and workplace safety.

In the development of sustainability, we apply recognized international measurement methods that help us improve our operations systematically and verify the effects of the measures we take.

We are committed to observing the UN Global Compact principles in everything we do.

Bronze Medal awarded in our first EcoVadis assessment

The most concrete example of our sustainability efforts is our first EcoVadis assessment, which was completed at the beginning of the year. EcoVadis has assessed some 130,000 companies around the world.

We were awarded a Bronze Medal, which puts Porkka Finland in the top 35% of the assessed companies.

Our aim is to have another EcoVadis assessment carried out during 2024 and improve our rating.

EcoVadis is a globally recognized, industry-leading assessment company that provides companies with sustainability certifications and reports. The EcoVadis methodology is based on international sustainability standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the UN Global Compact, and the ISO 26000 standard, which provides a comprehensive and reliable assessment.

The EcoVadis assessment covers four main themes: the environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. These are assessed using 21 criteria.

Code of Conduct

We strive to maintain high quality and high ethical standards in our business operations. We treat all our employees in an equal and non-discriminatory manner, regardless of gender, nationality, religious beliefs, ethnic background, or sexual orientation. We invest in employee well-being and provide our employees with comprehensive occupational health care and various well-being benefits. The active development of workplace safety is a high priority for us, and our goal is to have zero occupational accidents.

Conflict minerals

Conflict minerals

Whistleblowing channel

Whistleblowing channel

Environmental Product Declarations

Environmental Product Declarations

Conflict minerals

Conflict minerals are mined in regions where there is armed conflict and where mining activities may finance armed groups or contribute to human rights violations.

Typical conflict minerals include tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold. They are also referred to as 3TG.

In the production of refrigeration equipment, these minerals are used in soldering and capacitors, for example.

We have supply chain due diligence procedures in place to ensure that the minerals used in the manufactured equipment are conflict-free.
We require our suppliers to comply with the Conflict Minerals Regulation.

Whistleblowing channel

Our whistleblowing channel is an advance warning system aimed at reducing risks. It is an important tool for maintaining high ethical standards and trust. The whistleblowing channel can be used to report serious risks of misconduct that affects people, our organization, society, or the environment.

A whistleblowing report can contain information about criminal offenses, irregularities, or violations of EU or national legislation in the working environment. A link to the whistleblowing channel is available on our intranet and our website: Whistleblowing channel.

Environmental Product Declarations

We provide information about the life-cycle environmental impacts of our products by means of
Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). EPD is a voluntary, standardized, and internationally recognized tool that analyzes the environmental impacts of a product from raw material sourcing to manufacture, use, and end-of-life recycling or disposal.

In 2024, we will publish EPDs for our modular cold rooms and customizable walk-in rooms. We will continue to prepare calculations one product category at a time.

Sustainability targets for 2030

Our goal is to achieve a complete transition to biofuels and zero-emission energy by 2030.

We report and calculate our greenhouse gas emissions according to the internationally recognized Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. In the GHG Protocol, emissions are classified into three ”scopes”:

Scope 1: Direct emissions arising from the organization’s own sources, such as the fuel combustion of its own operations or vehicles owned by the organization.

Scope 2: Indirect emissions arising from the production of purchased electricity, heat, or steam.

Scope 3: Other indirect emissions that arise from the organization’s value chain but are not under its direct control. Examples include the procurement of raw materials and transport, as well as the use and disposal of products.

The reduction of emissions in each of the three scopes is implemented on a computational basis with 2022 as the baseline, as complete data is available for that year.

In 2024, we will reduce our Scope 2 emissions by as much as 73% by switching to CO2-free electricity at our factories in Hollola and Ylöjärvi. For the Kemijärvi factory, the transition to CO2-free electricity is still being assessed.

In 2025, emissions will be significantly reduced in comparison to 2022 when we will replace all lighting at the Kemijärvi factory with LED lighting.

Environmental responsibility

We were one of the world’s first refrigeration equipment manufacturers to meet the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards.

We are continuing our commitment to sustainability by reducing the environmental impacts of our high-quality products and efficient processes in accordance with the principle of continuous improvement.

We use the environmentally friendly refrigerants R290, R455A, and R744. We will start to exclusively use organic refrigerants as soon as it is technically and economically feasible.

We engage in active long-term product development efforts with our partners to develop even more environmentally friendly and recyclable insulation materials.

For example, the products in our Inventus series already have a recycling rate of over 80%!

Documents available for download:

Sustainability Policy (PDF)

Environmental Policy (PDF)