Sustainability

We wish to promote the planetary health and wellbeing of people and the environment in all policy sectors. This requires better coordination between the functions and clear leadership from the Government. Finland must also adopt taxes that promote the health of humans and the environment, such as a tax on sugar, fat and salt. 

Sensibly planned communities encourage people to be physically active in their everyday lives, for example cycle to school and work and go on a hike in nature. Increasing sustainability and health in mass catering and food production and in energy solutions are some of the means towards better planetary health and wellbeing.

In 2022 we: 

• Produced information on the health and well-being impacts of weather and climate change, the nutritional and health impacts of a sustainable food environment, and identified the role of the social welfare and health care sector in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. In our research on climate change, we also take into account socio-economic differences and vulnerable groups of people.
• Promoted climate change adaptation by participating in the implementation of the adaptation plan for the administrative branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the work of the monitoring group on climate change adaptation as well as the preparation of the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (KISS2030).
• Published information on how energy saving measures can reduce the climate and environmental impact of housing via the adoption of energy-saving housing habits that take housing health into account.
• Created new operating models for poor indoor air quality in schools, day-care centres and homes as well as instructions for supporting the work of health care and indoor air professionals. In addition, we published research-based reviews and articles on the indoor environment in order to modify the risk perceptions of the population and professionals.

Both the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's attack on Ukraine have increased uncertainty and strained people’s coping resources in also Finland. One of our objectives is to increase the resilience of the Finnish society. 

In particular, we want to focus on preventing harm caused by alcohol, drugs and addictions and to improve the mental health of young people. 

Our goal is to prevent the harmful effects of substance use and the increase in the use of different substances, to ensure access to treatment at a sufficiently early stage and equality of access to substance abuse and addiction rehabilitation, to reduce the stigma affecting people with mental health problems and substance abusers, and to increase the effectiveness of treatment. 

We strive to strengthen the positive mental health of children and young people and to reduce welfare differences. We want to strengthen the everyday structures that promote mental welfare and to increase the mental health skills and competence of young people, social welfare professionals and health care professionals and to increase low-threshold services.

In 2022 we:

• Kept the development of mental health and substance abuse services as one of the focus areas of the Future Health and Social Services Centres programme. Four national webinars and in-depth regional workshops were organised on the theme. 
• Promoted family centre activities and low-threshold mental health and substance abuse services among young people in the Programme to Address Child and Family Services (LAPE).
• Recommended a fixed-term trial for a drug consumption room for drug users. Drug consumption rooms can reduce blood-borne diseases and the number of overdose cases and increase the general sense of safety.
• We have been involved in the preparation of Finland's first action plan on gambling policy, which sets out guidelines for preventing and reducing gambling harm until 2030. 
• Strengthened the prevention of gambling harm as part of preventive substance abuse work by producing guides and content for municipalities and wellbeing services counties, produced website material on preventive substance abuse work in schools and educational institutions with the Finnish National Agency for Education, and implemented a communication campaign aimed at citizens on the risks of gambling.

The role of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in preparing for various health threats has become increasingly important in recent years. This includes improving the Institute's own capability to respond to pandemic situations and other challenges and increasing the crisis resilience of the social welfare and health care service system.

We want to increase the overall security of society by increasing social sustainability, strengthening preparedness in the social welfare and health care sector, preparing for various national and cross-border health threats and improving digital security.

We are in charge for preparedness in the following areas:

• communicable diseases, biothreats and unknown threats
• threats to environmental health and chemical threats
• wholesale of pharmaceuticals, including RescEU reserve
• forensic medicine and DNA identification
• national cooperation between authorities in the information management of social welfare and health care 
• infrastructure and internal readiness of the Institution.

In 2022, we:

• Maintained an up-to-date situational picture of the coronavirus situation regionally and nationally.
• Provided high-quality specialist support in preparing for and responding to health threats and provided a sufficient quantity of tangible services for laboratory studies, medicines, antibody tests, vaccinations and forensic practitioners.
• Implemented the monitoring and evaluation of the social impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic. The expert assessment discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic and restrictive measures on population welfare, health and living conditions, the service system and the national economy.

The footprint of an organisation's operations consists of negative ecological, economic and social impacts caused by the organisation’s existence and operation. While we want to increase our handprint, we want to reduce our footprint. We are working towards this by reducing our CO2 emissions, using public funds responsibly and taking care of our most important resource, our personnel.

Ecological

Our carbon footprint is assessed by the State Treasury at the level of central government as a whole. Our carbon footprint mainly consists of travel and premises.

Travel decreased significantly due to the coronavirus in 2020–2021, but increased again in 2022. As a result, our carbon dioxide emissions increased by about 20% from 2021. Our CO2e kg was 55,091 in 2020, falling to 18,666 in 2021 and rising to 23,540 in 2022. However, the number of air miles in 2022 is lower than before the coronavirus pandemic, since remote meetings have become an established practice.

For many years now, we have sought to use our facilities in more efficient ways. In 2022, we made a decision to give up one building on the Tilkanmäki campus. We are also involved in the government's joint premises project in Oulu. In other locations, the joint use of premises proceeds in accordance with the Senate Properties' schedule.

We have also actively promoted carbon neutrality in cooperation with Senate Properties. More solar panels were installed on the Tilkanmäki campus in 2022. District cooling has already been widely commissioned in the past, and its use will be increased. In 2022, we received the ECOenergy certificate for the use of energy produced by wind power. Towards the end of the year, we decided to acquire a Green Office environmental management system that will guide the achievement of our Institution's footprint targets in the future.

Financial 

The use of financial resources in 2022 is described in the financial statements. In procurements, we examine the possibility of taking sustainability into account in each tendering process. We monitor how sustainability is taken into account in procurements on an annual basis and take the necessary measures (e.g. improving instructions) to promote sustainability.

Social

Equality and non-discrimination are important elements in all our activities. Our aim is to lead the way in equality in the Finnish society. We actively develop and monitor our activities with the help of an operational and personnel policy plan for gender equality and non-discrimination. We monitor the realisation of gender equality and non-discrimination through regular occupational welfare surveys. Gender equality and non-discrimination training is also included in the training programme intended for the entire personnel and is a part of orientation material for new employees.
Read more about our non-discrimination plan