Sustainability management

Sustainability as part of YIT's strategy

Our new strategy for 2022–2025 will be executed through three strategic priority areas: Focus, Productivity, and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance).

Our updated ESG strategy will set new standards for the industry. YIT is the first Finnish construction company to commit to reducing emissions from both its own operations and its value chain in accordance with the Science Based Targets Initiative. With this commitment, we strengthen our previous climate work and update our current climate targets to be more comprehensive, which will also reduce our customers' emissions.

On the Environmental criteria, we commit to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.
On the Social criteria, we continue to develop and build better living environments for the society. Furthermore, our ultimate goal is a zero-harm work community. We develop proactive measures for improving occupational safety with a target of continuously decreasing accident frequency.
On the Governance criteria, we will continue its strict approach on gray economy. Furthermore, we have zero tolerance in corruption, as well as in labor exploitation and discrimination.

YIT has also established a Green Finance Framework to support investments promoting the transition towards a low-carbon circular economy. The Green Finance Framework will enable YIT to issue green bonds and other green financial instruments to finance projects with environmental benefits. The Framework will be one of the tools to support YIT to reach its climate and sustainability targets.

Our sustainability practices

We guide our sustainability in many ways. You can explore the most important topics below.

Targets and performance indicatorsTargets and performance indicators

A look ahead: Sustainability targets and performance indicators at YIT

Targets guide our operations in the short and long term. Each year, we set targets and KPI’s for each of the material sustainability theme and report on their implementation. In addition, in the autumn of 2019, we set long-term sustainability targets to mitigate climate change. We will also report annually on our progress towards these goals.

In November 2021, we committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.

YIT's long-term sustainability targets

Theme	Long-term targets	Key indicators	2021 results
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
Emissions	Halving CO2 emissions of own operations and self-developed projects by 2030	CO2 emissions compared to 2019	Own operations: -17 % Self-developed projects: Emissions declined 1,6 % compared to the previous year.
Carbon-neutral use	Enable carbon-neutral heating, cooling and hot water in self-developed projects	•••	• In the Housing segment, geothermal heat was confirmed in 12 properties, which helps reduce the full life cycle greenhouse gas emissions related to heating, cooling and hot water by 49% compared to a property that uses ordinary district heating.
Reporting	Reporting CO2 emissions from 2020 onwards in self-developed projects	••• Number of projects reported	• 100 % of the targets' projects calculated.

YIT's sustainability targets and indicators for 2021

Previous sustainability targets

Material themes and management of the themesMaterial themes and management of the themes

The foundation for our sustainability

What are the most significant aspects of sustainability for us? What do our stakeholders expect from us?

We conducted a materiality assessment process to find answers to these questions in collaboration with an independent third party in summer 2018. The questionnaire included 22 sustainability themes and invited the respondents to assess the importance of each team to YIT’s operations and YIT’s impacts on the surrounding society, environment and economy. The survey was met with widespread interest and we received more than 2,000 responses in total. The respondents represented a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, employees, shareholders, investors, partners, municipalities and the public administration.

We analysed the survey results in YIT’s internal workshops and strategy development processes. As a result of our analysis, we chose YIT’s six most
significant sustainable development themes. Our material sustainability themes are also described in our materiality matrix.

YIT’s Group Management Team confirmed and approved the materiality matrix in November 2018. Each year we set targets and performance
indicators for each theme. See current targets below.

The results of the materiality assessment serve as the guideline for our sustainability work.

Material themes

Creating sustainable, comfortable and safe urban development by utilising opportunities provided by the circular economy.
Compliance with good corporate governance and preventing corruption and the grey economy.
Occupational safety.
Promoting the personnel’s occupational well-being and competence development.
Implementing responsible subcontracting and procurement.
Reducing the environmental impacts of YIT’s own operations.

MANAGING MATERIAL THEMES

Code of Conduct, policies and principlesCode of Conduct, policies and principles

YIT's Code of Conduct

Our mission, vision and values are the foundation of our operations and ways of working. YIT's Code of Conduct are a concrete expression of what compliance with our values means in our work with different stakeholders. For already years we have also been using a reporting channel maintained by a third party, allowing our employees to report confidentially, and, if necessary, anonymously any suspected misconduct.

Policies and principles

Below you can find YIT's policies and principles regarding sustainability, human resources, quality, occupational safety and environment.

YIT and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)YIT and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part the UN’s Agenda 2030, which is aimed at eliminating poverty and giving equal consideration to the environment, economic prosperity and people. The Goals are universal and concern states, organisations and corporations.

We are committed to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The most significant of the Sustainable Development Goals with respect to our operations are: 11. Sustainable cities and communities; 12. Responsible consumption and production; 13. Climate action; 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions; and 8. Decent work and economic growth.

We want to do our part to help build a more sustainable and equal future.

How we promote the goals

Value creationValue creation

We create value for our stakeholders in many ways. The Value Creation Model illustrates how we leverage resources and the impacts our operations have.

Our resources

Our most important resource is our professional staff in all of our operating countries whose expertise we invest in. With strong financial capital, we are able to carry out diverse projects and services for our customers and society. In addition, the building environment requires a variety of building materials, such as soil, concrete and steel, which we use in our operations. Relationships with our thousands of partners and satisfied customers are essential resources for our excellence. YIT's brand as a leading urban developer, corporate culture and our diverse product and service concepts complement our prerequisites for creating the highest possible value.

Our business

We operate in four business areas: housing, business premises, infrastructure and property development.

Our residential construction in Finland and CEE countries mainly focuses on the development and construction of residential and residential development projects. We sell apartments to consumers and investors, rent them and offer and develop a variety of housing concepts and services for our clients.

It covers the construction of business premises and other public facilities, project development and property management. The projects are both self-developed and contracted, and in addition to new construction, the segment is implementing renovation projects. Finland is our main market area, but there are also operations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

We carry out diverse and demanding infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, metro stations and water utilities. We also mine tunnels and mines and provide road maintenance services in Finland. Most of our projects are contracted, but we are also developing customised wind turbine foundations and providing related services and maintenance. In addition to Finland, our infrastructure construction operations extend to Sweden and Norway.

Our property development business focuses on property ownership. We gain from the assets we own as rental income and gain in value.

Our business model is based on a continuous stream of development projects, designing, construction, investing and providing services. We have an exceptional ability to develop projects with design responsibilities, and close internal co-operation between our various operations improves the productivity of the implementation phase. Our other sources of growth and profitability are the non-cyclical partnership properties and service business. The income stream from property ownership guarantees us long-term returns, while developing our diverse service offering aims to extend our value chain and return on our products. Our presence in the life cycle of the building guarantees better and more sustainable services to our customers.

Output and our impacts

Value for people

Happy employees are one of the cornerstones of our success and we invest in the well-being and competence of our employees. Occupational safety is the starting point for all our activities, and we are constantly striving to improve the safety of our employees and partners. Our business aims to create a safe working and living environment for all parties.

Customers are another stakeholder at the heart of our business. We create value for our customers by implementing different living spaces and areas - creating better living environments. Better living environments include safe and comfortable homes, a variety of office and public spaces, and smooth and low-emission infrastructure such as public transport and renewable energy sources. In addition, by offering a variety of services, we make our customers' lives easier and more sustainable.

We are a reliable customer to our financiers. As a responsible corporate citizen, we pay our income tax in accordance with current tax practices.

Strategic partnerships create added value for us and our partners. They can be used to develop the business of both parties together towards new, innovative solutions.

We have over 40,000 shareholders. We create economic value for our owners by focusing on improving our profitability and maintaining financial stability.

Value for society

We create value for society by developing sustainable urban environments. Transportation, housing and living in sustainable cities has been done in an environmentally friendly way. They also provide safe and comfortable living and the economic attractiveness of the area due to its compactness and versatility. As a responsible corporate citisen, we also innovate visions of urban and regional development on our own initiative to achieve a better living environment for all of us.

In addition, since 2012, we have been running a 100 Good Deeds responsibility program where we do small good deeds. In the program, our own employees and those who receive sponsorship money do good deeds for third parties in accordance with our values.

Value for the environment

The environmental impact of construction and the built environment is notable. However, with our sustainable products and practices, we can significantly influence the environmental load of our customers. Design and construction choices, lifetime services, and efficient construction enable the lifecycle emissions of our products to be minimised.

Therefore, we are aiming to halve the CO2 emissions of both our energy consumption and our own projects by 2030 compared to 2019. In addition, our goal is to enable our customers to have a carbon neutral use of buildings.

Construction also produces waste and momentary impacts such as noise, dust and vibration. We are actively working to mitigate these negative impacts by developing reporting and more efficient practices at our sites.

Value from our material sustainability themes

Collaboration in society Collaboration in society

Memberships in associations

Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT

Helsinki Metropolitan Smart & Clean Foundation

Stakeholder collaboration

This is how we meet the expectations of our customers, personnel, shareholders, partners, public administration and civil society, and how we communicate with the shareholders.

Stakeholder collaboration.pdf (70KB)

Responsibility programme 100+ good deeds

Our 100 Good Deeds campaign was a gift to a 100-year-old Finland, however we still continue the good deeds. Through good deeds we share joy around us.

Sponsoring

We spread common good via our 100 Good Deeds programme. Read more about our sponsoring practices.

SPONSORING

More Life in Yards -concept and The Park of the Future

In the Finland 100 centenary year, we wanted to bring more life to sustainable cities and make yards an environment where everyone feels more at ease. We examined future of increasingly comfortable and functional yard areas with the help of workshops where experts from different fields will be challenged to come up with new ideas and solutions for yards. The work resulted in the More life in yards -concept, which is also tool for designing yards.

As part of the Finland 100 gift, YIT renovated a park in accordance with the the More life in yards -concept. The site to be renovated was Sähköttäjänpuisto park, and it was selected together with the City of Helsinki.

Get MORE LIFE IN YARDS -whitepaper

Celebration of the opening of Sähköttäjänpuisto Park