Social Responsibility

Enabling a more sustainable society

In our everyday work we promote the well-being of society and the environment while mitigating negative impacts on them. Together with our stakeholders and in balance with nature, we increase the prosperity of societies.

Active community member

We are an active member in the communities where we operate.

Local acceptance is important for the successful implementation of our projects. As we start to develop a new wind or solar farm, the first step is to contact local landowners and decision-makers and make their acquaintance. The cooperation with local communities remains active throughout project life cycle which spans several decades. 

We increase the vitality of regional business, supporting the municipal economy and creation of new jobs. Property tax revenues are also significant for the well-being of the local economy. In the project locations we also participate in local non-profit activities.

Attractive employer guided by our values

Our values are the foundation for our work, guiding us in pioneering renewable energy initiatives. Our values are set by our own employees. One project at a time, we charge the Nordics with renewable energy and make the clean transition possible. Expertise, accountability, forerunner and sustainability are present in our everyday work.

According to Ilmatarians, the most motivating factors included fair salary and perks, strong camaraderie at the workplace, work life balance, meaningful work assignments and freedom to work regardless of time or place.

Despite our quick growth from a start-up to a Nordic energy company and an Independent Power Producer with over 100 employees in different locations and countries, we have maintained our warm and inclusive company culture of which we are very proud of.

DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion

In a thriving company, there is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We want to encourage open discussion on different topics, and we want all employees to feel welcome and appreciated when they come to work. Any kind of discrimination or harassment is unacceptable. We strive to create a diverse, inclusive, and equal workplace for all.

In 2022, we launched our first equality and non-discrimination plan based on the Finnish Act on Equality between Women and Men and the Non-discrimination Act. In 2023, we asked our employees to share their thoughts and ideas about diversity and inclusion at Ilmatar. 41% of our employees responded, and they were happy that the subject of DEI was discussed. We recognized that while many things are well, there is a need for more open discussion on the topic and more training is wished for. Based on the results, we prepared an action plan for 2024.

Did you know? We have signed the Women Empowerment Principles.

Health and safety

We want to enhance the well-being and health of our employees in many ways. We want to be a safe workplace.

One of the ways we measure safety is the lost time injury frequency (LTIF) rate. It refers to the number of lost time injuries occurring in a workplace per 1 million hours worked. In 2023, we had an LTIF of 8.25 which included contractors and subcontractors and, for the first time, our office and operations employees. LTIF is one of our ESG strategy goals, and our goal is an LTIF below 4, including contractors.

Our partners and contractors have an important role in securing the quality of our work and successfully bringing our projects into operation. In cooperation we guarantee safe construction and operation site.

Human Rights Due diligence

At Ilmatar, we are deeply committed to upholding human rights across all aspects of our operations, impacting our employees, supply-chain partners, customers, end-users, and the communities we touch.

1. Human rights impact assessment

As part of UN Global Compact Business and Human Rights accelerator we have completed an assessment of our salient human rights risks which were closely linked to our supply chain. The salient human rights risks we identified were: 

– Workers’ health and safety  

– Labour rights in the manufacturing locations 

– Child labour and forced labour in the solar modules and batteries’ supply chain  

– Land use rights in the areas of indigenous people 

When assessing the salient human rights risks we pay especially attention to the rights of vulnerable people as children, women, minorities, migrant workers and indigenous people.

2. Integrating & taking action

As the majority of the potential negative impacts regarding human rights and occupational health and safety risks lay within the supply chain, Ilmatar strives to address such impacts by selecting its partners and contractors carefully, tracking their performance and setting targets for improvement.   

We require our partners to commit to our Code of Conduct and, where necessary, to our Environmental Policy and our information security and safety guidelines in conjunction with making an agreement. The Code of Conduct applies to all businesses that supply products or services to

our group companies. The supplier must verify that its sub-suppliers and subcontractors adhere to our Code of Conduct.

To integrate and act on our Human rights commitment we have implemented an approved supplier selection process and strict criteria for our procurement function. In order to mitigate any possible risks these requirements are included in all our supplier, partner and vendor contracts. These include an ESG due diligence and on-site audit. We also assigned a third-party auditing firm to complete specific ESG audits in high-risk countries.  

For ensuring safe operations on all Ilmatar sites, we have updated the health and safety guidelines for our own employees.

3. Tracking performance

Human rights and safety in supply chain were selected as one of the material topics in our double-materiality analysis that is why they are also embedded at the core of our ESG strategy and targets. These targets will be tracked and reported on a yearly basis in our sustainability report.   

– ESG targets related to human and labor rights 2024-2027: 

– Human rights commitment integrated in 100% supply contracts 

– LTIF <4 including contractors 

– Females in highest management positions >40% 

– Zero-tolerance for harassment 

– Zero-tolerance for bribery and corruption 

– 100% of personnel trained on corporate governance (incl. code of conduct, anti-corruption, human rights, environmental policy) 

We continue the work within our supply chain by tracking the performance of our suppliers and communicating openly about the risks. We have also implemented digital tools for tracking the sanction lists globally. 