Responsibility for enviroment

Pihlajalinna is a significant part of the Finnish healthcare system and its service network spans the entire country. With approximately 160 business locations, the Group’s operations also have an impact on the environment.

Pihlajalinna Group's environmental policy compiles the policies for environmental management and practices, such as identifying the environmental impacts of Pihlajalinna’s operations and the continuous development of operations. Pihlajalinna’s environmental policy lays out Pihlajalinna’s commitment to environmental work and guides decision-making.

Pihlajalinna’s private healthcare services, i.e. occupational health services and private clinics, and hospitals, are certified under the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. Activities are based on the ISO 14001 environmental management framework.

As part of Pihlajalinna’s joint management system, it establishes consistent operating practices for the company. The impacts related to climate change mitigation and adaptation are assessed in accordance with the environmental policy. The environmental policy is also taken into account in procurement agreements and supplier selection, which is an important lever for Pihlajalinna for mitigating its negative impacts. Systematic environmental management compliant with the environmental policy ensures progress towards targets and is therefore also aligned with the targets of the climate road map. The Quality Director is the highest body responsible for implementation. Environmental perspectives are reviewed once a year by the respective person in charge.

The private clinic and hospital service locations have designated persons responsible for environmental affairs. They ensure that environmental perspectives are taken into account in the unit’s operations and monitor the implementation of the environmental programme. They meet once a month with external waste management experts to review and develop location-specific environmental plans and guidelines. Binding obligations are taken into account in different activities so that there is a sufficient number of skilled personnel, appropriate facilities, equipment and functional information systems and a high level of information security. The personnel are required to comply with binding obligations. Compliance with binding obligations is monitored at different levels and with different methods. Pihlajalinna's private clinics are supervised by both Valvira and Regional State Administrative Agencies. At Pihlajalinna, compliance with binding obligations is monitored through audits, quality management, feedback, incident reports and self-monitoring, for instance.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation

The material climate change impacts, risks and opportunities have been identified in the double materiality analysis. Pihlajalinna reports on its actions regarding the material topics identified in the double materiality analysis.

Pihlajalinna has started the preparation of a transition plan during the reporting year. The transition plan draft was reviewed by the Group Management Team in late 2024, and it will be submitted to the Board of Directors to review and approve during the year 2025.

Measures taken during the reporting year 2024 included preparing the climate road map draft and surveying the impacts of operations, such as by further specifying emissions accounting. The setting of emission reduction targets and measures has been started, and they will be approved during 2025. The effectiveness of the measures cannot be assessed yet.

Aiming for carbon neutrality

As part of the climate road map preparation work, Pihlajalinna has planned possible measures with which emissions will be reduced. The healthcare sector consumes energy and resources from the procurement and property perspectives, but the carbon footprint can be reduced by reducing energy consumption, using renewable energy and optimising operations. The use of digital services, such as remote services and electronic communications, reduce travel and thereby emissions. Customer guidance in using remote services, for instance, has also been taken into account in the future climate road map.

Pihlajalinna's energy and greenhouse gas calculations and measure-ment are based on the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (version 2004) and GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard (version 2011). The consolidation method for the preparation of the data for the metrics is operational control. The data was collected from various systems and consolidated at the Group level. The data was validated by the respective persons in charge and input in a joint data collection platform. The emissions were calculated by linking the source data with emission factors. The base year of Pihlajalinna's GHG emissions accounting is 2023, which is the first representative year for which a GHG inventory re-port was prepared. The base year was re-calculated in 2025, as the data collection methods developed and the coverage of input data improved in conjunction with the accounting for 2024. However, the accounting data for the base year has not been published in this sustainability statement due to the lack of validation; instead, it will be published in conjunction with the next reporting period.

In 2024, Pihlajalinna’s carbon footprint (Scope 1, 2 and 3, location-based) totalled 31,433 tCO₂e.

Pihlajalinna’s direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1) amounted to 446 tCO₂e in 2024. The emissions arise mainly from the fuel consumption of leased cars. Data on potential diffuse emissions could not be collected.

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 2, location-based) amounted to 2,841 tCO₂e. The emissions originated from the consumption of electricity, heat and cooling in leased and company-owned premises and the electricity consumption of leased cars.

Scope 3 emissions amounted to 27,769 tCO₂e. The largest scope 3 emission sources are purchased goods and services, employee commuting and downstream transportation.

Electricity purchases in 2024 totalled 47,165 MWh, with renewable energy representing 73 per cent and nuclear power 0 per cent of the total. Total fossil energy consumption was 12,692 MWh (27%). The information is calculated market-based andt the data for 2024 includes energy in properties.

Waste sorting and recycling

Pihlajalinna continuously develops its operations to reduce the generation of waste and improve waste reporting. As part of the environmental management plan, waste management and sorting plans are drawn up for all private healthcare service units and residential service units. Remote training on assessing and reducing the volume of waste, the appropriate sorting of waste and waste management by the personnel are mandatory for all of the personnel. Closer cooperation with stakeholders promoted the company’s goals pertaining to the improvement of waste reporting. The identified challenges include the availability of comparable data for leased properties.

As part of the recycling of waste, decommissioned IT hardware is assessed by Pihlajalinna’s IT department. Serviceable and necessary hardware is serviced and reused, while broken hardware is forwarded to electronics recycling.

Persons responsible for environmental matters have been designated for private clinics and business locations in hospital services. They ensure that environmental perspectives are taken into account in the unit’s operations and monitor the implementation of the environmental programme. They meet once a month with external waste management experts to review and develop location-specific environmental plans and guidelines. They also prepare sorting plans for the units, acquire suitable waste collection containers and provide training and guidance to the personnel.