Sustainability

Responsibility as an employer

Healthy and committed employees are Forum Virium Helsinki’s greatest asset. We provide our employees with great benefits every year, including training and lunch and sports benefits. We pay particular attention to good supervisory work and a culture of open feedback. We measure our job satisfaction annually. Every year it stays at a good level of 4 / 5 or above.

Forum Virium Helsinki is a non-profit limited liability company owned by the City of Helsinki. A third of our funding comes from the City, while the other two thirds come from the European Union’s innovation funding instruments. We provide our funding providers with detailed and regular reports of our finances. We carry out ethical procurements as a company.

Green transition, carbon neutrality and sustainability

The European Union’s green transition means a transition from fossil fuels to low-emission renewable energy. We support the green transition in many of our projects that involve developing climate-friendly services and housing solutions.

Mitigating climate change is essential, but it is also an opportunity to do things smarter. Helsinki aims to become carbon neutral by 2030, reduce its emissions to zero by 2040 and be carbon negative from then on. In addition to this, Helsinki is adapting to the changing climate and preparing for the changes brought on by climate change, such as extreme weather phenomena. Many of our projects involve developing climate-friendly solutions and thus support Helsinki’s objectives. Our support of the carbon neutrality objective is also affirmed in Forum Virium Helsinki’s strategy.

We are committed to the principles of sustainable development and favour vegetarian catering at events. We avoid unnecessary flights, favour public transport and recycle almost everything at our office.

Digital responsibility and data processing

We are committed to the MyData principle, according to which people should be able to manage, utilise and disclose data concerning them. We strive to keep our data open and available to the entire urban ecosystem.

Physical and digital accessibility

We support solutions that improve physical accessibility in both Helsinki and other European cities. We do this in our projects, as part of which we have surveyed physical accessibility bottlenecks in Helsinki, for example.

Our aim is to keep all of our digital services accessible. In spring 2022, we updated our website with the specific aim of improving accessibility. Our digital materials, such as guides and publications, are always designed to be accessible.

Ethical principles of Forum Virium Helsinki

Forum Virium Helsinki’s ethical principles bind the personnel and the company’s management and guide their activities in the company.

Forum Virium Helsinki promotes the well-being of Helsinki residents and the vitality of the city with innovations. We are in a development and service role in all our activities. We understand and anticipate the needs of city residents and service users.

Our operations are based on openness and transparency. Our communication is current, proactive and truthful.

We respect the right of people belonging to different population groups to their own language and culture. We do not allow racism. Equality is a human right and a fundamental value of society.

We follow the principles of good governance set by the city of Helsinki for the subsidiary community. Every employee must adopt the legislation, rules and instructions regarding the operation of Forum Virium Helsinki and their duties.

In project activities, we follow the European Union’s transparency and ethical principles.

Forum Virium Helsinki processes the data of city residents, customers and stakeholders carefully, equitably and respecting the protection of privacy. We protect the systems well and process our company’s own data securely.

At Forum Virium Helsinki, the pursuit of personal gain or abuse is not allowed. Forum Virium Helsinki does not demand, receive or accept gifts or other benefits that aim to influence our operations. Employees inform the employer of their possible secondary activities, which ensures that there is no conflict between the main activity and the secondary activity.

We manage our finances responsibly, sustainably and productively. In our operations, we emphasize sustainable development and ecological values and combat climate change. We use innovation to find new solutions to the world’s major problems.

Everyone must take care of the company’s property and work tools in an appropriate manner. Through our own activities, we support the good reputation of Forum Virium Helsinki and the city of Helsinki.