Environmental values play an important role in Teosto’s operations, and our goal is to become a carbon-neutral organisation. We track the carbon footprint of our operations and offset the annual carbon dioxide emissions they cause.
Our goal is to prevent and reduce the harmful impact of our operations on the environment and promote the sustainable use of natural resources. We also cooperate broadly with the entire industry to promote the adoption of environmentally friendly ways of working in the music industry.
We are part of the Finnish KEMUT network, the goal of which is to foster sustainable development in the music industry. In 2022, the network used separate funding to develop a digital toolkit for live music and planning tool ELMA Live, with which climate action and sustainable development can be made part of the day-to-day operations of every event organiser, artist and venue.
Teosto measures its carbon footprint annually and offsets the emissions from its operations. Our carbon dioxide emissions have fallen to a quarter of the amount in 2018, which is when we started measuring our emissions.
Use and recycling of materials
The environment is a matter close to our heart, and we work to protect it every day. Teosto has held a WWF Green Office certificate for more than 10 years. We take the recommendations of the Green Office system into account in all of our purchases as well as our fixtures and fittings. We take care of recycling all the waste types generated by our operations at our premises (plastic, cardboard, paper, biowaste, glass, metal, hazardous waste).
Our new premises in Keilaniemi, Espoo – which we started using in 2021 – were awarded BREEAM In-Use certificates in late 2022. BREEAM In-Use is an international environmental certification system that includes categories related to health and well-being, energy, water, mobility, resources and waste management, land use and preparing for climate change. Our premises were rated Excellent, which is the second-highest rating.
Energy efficiency
More than 50% of Teosto’s carbon dioxide emissions are generated by energy consumption. During the renovation of the Keilasatama premises, many improvements were made with the goal of improving energy efficiency. In the BREEAM certification assessment carried out in 2022, the property was praised for things such as its energy-saving lighting solutions and its energy-efficient lifts. Users also have the opportunity to adjust the lighting and the temperature. In addition, all the plumbing fixtures use very little water.
Emissions and their reduction
Teosto wants to be a carbon-neutral organisation. Since 2017, we have been tracking our carbon footprint and offsetting our emissions. The tracking covers the carbon footprint of things like business travel, the energy we consume, waste, company cars and commuting as well as the food served at our events.
In 2022, our carbon footprint was a total of 54.1 tonnes (about 53.4 tonnes in 2021). The slight increase in emissions was caused by the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions, which led to an increase in business travel and events. However, we strive to take our carbon footprint into account in everything we do and generate as little emissions as possible.
The majority of our emissions were still generated by energy consumption, about 27 tonnes (2021: 30 tonnes), and business travel, 13 tonnes (2021: 2 tonnes). Over the years, the radical reduction in the size of our premises has helped us reduce our emissions. The premises have excellent transport links (metro) and the parking facilities have charging points for electric cars. This promotes environmentally friendly mobility.
In previous years, we have already started using green electricity at our premises, served mainly local and vegetarian food at events, minimised waste and used more environmentally friendly fuels in company cars.
We will offset our 2022 carbon footprint in full by taking part in a UN Gold Standard project that will be specified later. In 2022, we offset our emissions by taking part in a renewable energy project in Buenos Aires, Brazil.
The goal of the KEMUT network is to foster sustainable development in the music industry. In 2022, the KEMUT project created the ELMA Live toolkit for live music, which can be used to plan more sustainable and climate-friendly live music events.
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