Realisation of environmental policy in 2012-2020

The City Council approved the environmental policy on 26 September 2012. The environmental policy complements the City Strategy with regard to environmental protection. The environmental policy sets out the City’s environmental protection objectives for the medium term (2020) and long term (2050). The target year for the medium term has been reached, and this chapter serves as a separate section of the report, assessing the realisation of the City’s environmental policy between 2012 and 2020. The full environmental policy can be found in Finnish at www.hel.fi/ymparistopolitiikka. The environmental policy will be updated during 2021.

Climate protection

With regard to the mitigation of climate change, matters have progressed rapidly in terms of both targets and practical measures. Climate matters have also been incorporated into the City Strategy 2017–2021 and given more emphasis. The most significant elements have been bringing the carbon neutrality target forward from 2050 to 2035 and the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan that supports the achievement of this target.

Helsinki’s greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 33% from 1990. Renewable energy amounted to 24,5% in 2020. The goal of the international Helsinki Energy Challenge competition held by the City was to find new innovations, technologies and solutions with which the coal used in Helsinki’s heating can be replaced in an ecologically and economically sustainable way. Helsinki is committed to sharing the competition results openly with other cities.

Great efforts have been made to promote energy efficiency. For example, the City has set very high energy efficiency targets for its own new construction and repair sites. For new business premises, the E value representing the building’s energy efficiency must be 20% lower than required in Finnish legislation. Similarly, the E value should be no more than 80% of the requirements of Finnish legislation after the renovation of premises. New residential buildings commissioned by the City will belong to energy efficiency class A. In the City’s own building stock, locally generated renewable energy such as geothermal and solar energy will be strongly invested in. Energy efficiency class A is also required in the plot conveyance terms, and the Energy Renaissance operating model has been launched to support energy renovations of the private building stock.

The integration of climate change adaptation into the City’s operations has progressed slowly. The City has prepared climate change adaptation policies, but the implementation of the policies is still in its early stages. The Stormwater Management Programme has been successfully integrated into the City’s operations, and the City has identified the weather and climate risks posed to Helsinki.

Air quality

Air quality in Helsinki has improved in the last few years. The number of days on which the limit value for inhalable particles (PM₁₀, i.e. street dust) has been exceeded per year has not risen above the maximum limit (35 days) since 2006. The long-term target of the environmental policy is to reduce the number of days on which the limit value for inhalable particles is exceeded by half, to less than 18 per year. This has been achieved at the majority of the measuring stations. Of air contaminants, the annual limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) were last exceeded in 2016 and 2018. However, the limit value for NO₂ is still at risk of being exceeded in street sections spanning a total of 4.2 kilometres in the inner city area. The most important factor reducing the amount of nitrogen dioxide is the replacement of the car population and bus fleet, which the City can promote with the electrification of the transport system and incentives for using low-emission cars.

Noise abatement

The number of residents exposed to traffic noise exceeding the reference value of 55 dB in Helsinki has not decreased since 2012, even though a number of noise abatement measures have been taken. For example, speed limits have been lowered in many places, and nine noise barriers have been built since 2012 to protect residential areas that are home to many people exposed to loud noise. In the planning of new residential areas, noise abatement is taken into account in sound insulation, building masses and the placement of sensitive sites in areas protected from noise, among other things.

The Baltic Sea and small water bodies

The status of the marine environment in front of Helsinki is not good. However, the distance to good status is known for various variables and water bodies. Achieving good status for Helsinki’s coastal water bodies by 2027 is challenging due to the naturally slow recovery rate of the marine ecosystem. However, current and new marine and water resources management measures are used to advance towards a better status for the coastal waters. Through the Baltic Sea Action Plan for 2019–2023, the intention is to develop the operations of the City and its extensive partner network, while simultaneously reducing the City’s own load.

Helsinki’s oil spill prevention and response preparedness at sea, on the coast and in small water bodies is at a good level, as is the management of exceptional situations in small water bodies.

The implementation of water resources management is underway for the key recreational islands. The construction of public infrastructure in Vallisaari and the implementation of the plan has started. There are plans to connect Vasikkasaari to municipal infrastructure via Kruunuvuorenranta around 2025.

The conversion of Helsinki’s combined sewers into separate sewers is progressing slowly. The alteration work is the responsibility of the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY). Frequent rainy weather greatly affects combined sewer network overflows.

Barriers to fish passage have been successfully removed, but there is still work to be done. In fact, the intention is not to remove all barriers, as the City also wishes to protect other identified natural values from being preyed on by fish (in Haltiala, for example). In principle, however, the City’s aim is to ensure unobstructed flowing water for the biota. The restoration of the eastern branch of Vanhankaupunginkoski is currently underway.

Protection of nature and soil

Helsinki’s nature is essentially diverse: forests, meadows, wetlands, beaches, islands, creeks and parks. During the monitoring period, the development of the green network has progressed well, but precise information on its ecological functionality is unavailable.

There are 20 nationally threatened vascular plant species, 31 nationally near-threatened species and 40 regionally threatened species found in Helsinki. Since 2013, five new mammal species (the Siberian flying squirrel, the serotine bat, the soprano pipistrelle, the wolf and the wolverine) have been observed in Helsinki.

Compensation of construction in green areas was not implemented during the monitoring period.

Not all old landfills in the city area have been restored, and the implementation of these projects has in part been postponed because of funding. Many of the city’s contaminated areas have been restored, and these efforts continue as construction progresses.

The City has started manufacturing recycled substrate products, which secures the existing soil’s seed banks and microbiota.

Procurement, waste and material efficiency

Many of the City’s divisions and enterprises achieved the 50% target in the use of the environmental criteria for procurement. However, the target for 2020 was not achieved, as, on average, environmental criteria were used in 56% of the procurements by the City’s divisions and enterprises when examined as individual procurements. There are significant differences between the City’s divisions and enterprises in their use of the environmental criteria. Of the procurements made by the City of Helsinki Service Centre, Stara and the Education Division, more than 80% included environmental criteria in 2020.

Monitoring of sustainable procurements has been challenging, and the monitoring data is not reliable in all respects at the moment, even though monitoring linked to an agreement monitoring system has been developed. Since the setting of the percentage target, it has also been noted that the use of the environmental criteria is not appropriate in every procurement. Procurements with a considerable impact have been a focus in the use and development of the environmental criteria.

The development of sustainable procurements has been active, and the procurement criteria have been developed intensively. However, there are still challenges in the integration of the development work into the basic functions in procurements. Training in sustainable procurement has been held on an annual basis, but a systematic training programme has not yet been created.

The City organisation’s size and the management of waste management agreements poses challenges to waste volume monitoring. Some of the City’s operations are located in premises rented from parties outside the organisation and waste costs are included in the rent, meaning that the waste volumes cannot be determined.

The volume of mixed waste generated by the City organisation has not decreased significantly during the monitoring period. In 2020–2021, plastic collection has been increased in properties owned by the City. Extensive waste surveys were also conducted in properties by eco-supporters in 2019–2020.

The volume of municipal waste generated in the area of the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) decreased by 9.22% per capita during the monitoring period.

Centralised coordination of earth masses has saved EUR 55 million, 8.2 million litres of fuel and 20,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents since the position of mass coordinator was established in 2014.

Environmental awareness and responsibility

The environmental attitudes of the people of Helsinki and Vantaa were studied in 2017. The respondents’ attitudes were very positive. Approximately 80% of the respondents put more emphasis on the environment than economic growth if these two were contradictory, and almost as many believed that environmental protection and economic growth are possible at the same time. This percentage has grown since the last survey, and especially young people believed in simultaneous environmental protection and economic growth. The survey also asked the respondents about their personal willingness to pay for environmental protection. According to the responses, a clear majority would be willing to pay higher taxes or fees if the money was directed to nature protection, water protection, combatting climate change or improving air quality.

In 2018, the City commissioned a safety survey in which 66% of the respondents expressed concern over climate change. The percentage of concerned people has clearly increased compared to the survey conducted in 2015. The respondents highlighted global and city-wide concerns more than just concerns related to their own life. Climate change was a shared concern for all respondents, regardless of age. The greatest growth in the number of concerned persons was among the young respondents.

In transport, sustainable modes of transport have been prioritised more and large investments have been made in cycling and rail transport, for example. City bikes were introduced in Helsinki in 2016, and the service has been one of the most popular city bike services in the world when compared internationally.

Eco-supporters promote environmentally sustainable operating methods in their workplaces and increase environmental awareness. Eco-supporters have been trained for the City organisation relatively comprehensively, but it has been found based on annual surveys that eco-supporters do not have enough time for their work. It is also important for the eco-supporter’s supervisor to be committed to environmental work, and this is not always the case. Based on annual surveys, 65% of eco-supporters feel that the activities have affected their workplace practices. Between 2012 and 2020, a total of 745 eco-supporters have been trained for the Helsinki Group, and 1,788 people have participated in further training.

Harakka Nature Centre, Nature School Arkki of Korkeasaari Zoo, Meriharju Nature House, and the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Centre’s Environment School Polku offer nature school services and support educators with environmental education courses. The Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority provides the schools in its area with the opportunity to apply for a school-year-long mentee school programme.

For several yeas, Climateinfo has been supporting and training residents and companies in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in more sustainable everyday solutions. In 2019, Helsinki Marketing Oy Ltd launched the Think Sustainably service, which helps people choose more sustainable ways to live and spend time in Helsinki. The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Centre serves residents of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area at nine second-hand stores and a nationally operating online store.

Environmental management and partnerships

The City enterprises with the largest environmental impact will have implemented an audited environmental management system. Of the City divisions, the Social Services and Health Care Division and the Urban Environment Division are building a division-level EcoCompass environmental management system. In the Culture and Leisure Division, almost all service entities are either building or already implementing an audited environmental management system. The administration of the Education Division and some of the educational institutions and daycare centres have an environmental management system. 24 of the City’s subsidiary communities utilise an environmental management system to reduce their environmental impact.

The process of integrating environmental management into the bonus scheme has not progressed. In the old City organisation, the objective had already been realised in more than 45% of the City’s departments and enterprises. During the current organisation, the realisation of the objective has shown a downward trend.

Since the approval of the environmental policy, the City has set up the Climate Partners network. The network is intended for companies that wish to participate in the creation of a carbon-neutral Helsinki. The companies that become Climate Partners sign a climate commitment with Helsinki, in which the companies specify their own climate targets. Currently, the City has almost 90 Climate Partners.

The Baltic Sea Challenge network of the Cities of Helsinki and Turku has so far been joined by 315 operators that are committed to protecting the Baltic Sea alongside the Cities.

The EcoCompass environmental management system was originally developed by the City of Helsinki as a tool for SMEs. The management of EcoCompass and the trademark were transferred to the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation in 2018. At present, EcoCompass is the fastest growing environmental management system in Finland in terms of the number of users.

The Urban Environment Division has granted a 30% discount on the rent collected for the use of its areas to events that are using an EcoCompass environmental management system. The EcoCompass system of the Helsinki Events Foundation was audited in late 2020. Thus, environmental aspects are taken into account in all significant public events of the City of Helsinki, such as Helsinki Festival, Lux Helsinki, Helsinki Day, Helsinki’s New Year’s Eve celebration, Helsinki Baltic Herring Market and Helsinki Christmas Market.