30+1 ways to save the Baltic Sea. Select the most suitable way for your company.

At Orion, responsibility means action

Supporting the operations of the John Nurminen Foundation is in many ways a natural part of a company’s environmental responsibility and responsibility communications. The Finnish pharmaceutical company Orion Oyj is one of the Foundation’s main cooperation partners for the third year in a row.

“The well-being of the Baltic Sea and environment is important to Orion, and for years, our efforts towards protecting the environment have exceeded what is required by the legislation,” says Orion CEO Timo Lappalainen.

For example, Orion has managed to reduce the pharmaceutical residues discharged into water bodies to a minimum, since the majority of the wastewater is directed, based on the risk, to evaporation and the residue is incinerated. Energy efficiency has also been improved and several energy-saving measures have been implemented successfully.

Environmental responsibility does not only concern Orion’s own production; it is present throughout the medicines’ lifecycles. The environmental risks of new products are assessed, the raw materials are procured from responsible suppliers, the packaging sizes of medicines are designed according to their intended use and the packaging materials are continuously developed to be more ecological. Noora Paronen, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Orion, emphasises that, for Orion, taking care of the environment is a continuous process supplemented by campaigns and donations for the Baltic Sea.

“We cannot solve all of the challenges by ourselves. Cooperation between the stakeholders is also required and can be achieved by, for example, participating in the projects of the John Nurminen Foundation,” says Paronen.

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Responsibility at the core of Tokmanni’s strategy.

The goal of Tokmanni is to be the most responsible discount store in the sector and contribute to building a better future. At Tokmanni, responsibility arises from real, everyday actions carried out by the entire personnel. They are guided by the responsibility objectives of the Tokmanni Strategy, which were updated in early 2021 and which focus on Products and Supply Chain, Climate, People and Honest Business Operations.

Support for the John Nurminen Foundation’s operations is a natural part of Tokmanni’s climate and environmental work.

“The John Nurminen Foundation is carrying out concrete and long-term work to reduce the load on the Baltic Sea and environmental risks. For the past three summers, we have been working with the foundation to protect the Baltic Sea by making a donation for each Pisara product we have sold during the campaign period, a total of EUR 148,000. Pisara is our own brand focused on beauty and cleanliness,” says Emilia Koski, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Tokmanni.

Tokmanni’s most significant impacts on biodiversity and climate are generated through the products it sells and their raw materials. This is why Tokmanni takes biodiversity into account in its product range and, in this way, is building its selections sustainably. One example of this is the risk raw material policy, under which Tokmanni is committed to sourcing cotton, palm oil, wood-based raw materials and fish for its own products in a more sustainable way. Another example is product certification, which is a means of affecting biodiversity, for example, through controlling the depletion of species and ecosystems.

Tokmanni is also involved in amfori BEPI, an environmental programme which also helps to prevent the risks posed to biodiversity in the company’s supply chain. In BEPI, factories assess, among other things, the impacts of their land use on biodiversity and their water consumption as well as emissions to soil and water.

Conservation of biodiversity is also supported by Tokmanni’s ambitious climate targets. According to the climate targets officially adopted by the Science Based Targets initiative in the summer of 2020, Tokmanni is committed to limiting the global temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5 °C in its own operations. Tokmanni also aims to be carbon-neutral in 2025 across its operations (i.e. Scope 1 and 2 emissions).

“In order to achieve our ambitious sustainability goals, we need partners like the John Nurminen Foundation. For 30 years, the John Nurminen Foundation has been working consistently to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage for future generations. We greatly appreciate the Foundation’s concrete projects to improve the condition of the Baltic Sea, reduce the load on the sea and minimise environmental risks,” says Koski.

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The Finnish swimwear brand Lilja the Label is the new corporate partner of the John Nurminen Foundation participating in saving the Baltic Sea.

“We manufacture all our swimwear from recycled materials, such as recycled marine plastic waste. However, we feel that this alone is not enough. By cooperating with someone who shares our values, we can do more,” says Laura Saarinen, CEO of Lilja the Label.

By launching the litter collection challenge called Liljapicking at the same time as launching the foundation collaboration, Lilja the Label has been able to draw its customers’ attention to the well-being of nature. The company has turned its product packaging into a collection bag, which will challenge the customer to head to their local nature and fill the bag full of non-natural rubbish. Lilja the Label will donate EUR 1 for each order to the John Nurminen Foundation. For each participation in the Liljapicking challenge, the donation will even be doubled.

“After all, we are surrounded here in the north by wonderful unique nature that we can enjoy all year round. There is no need to travel long distances to wear a swimsuit. On the shores of the Baltic Sea, it is possible to ice-swim in the winter, sunbathe in the summer and even surf in the autumn. Moving around in the local environment is also a more environmentally friendly thing to do than to go abroad,” says Saarinen.

Working to save the Baltic Sea means cooperation and action. CEO Laura Saarinen describes what the John Nurminen Foundation’s corporate partnership means to them: “When it comes to responsibility, local nature and enjoying water, standing behind the John Nurminen Foundation is an undeniable honour for Lilja the Label.”