Small and medium-sized companies can enhance their sustainability and reduce their climate impacts with long-span work over value chains, shows Gaia’s client Finn Spring.
The carbon footprint of the bottles used by Finn Spring, a Finnish beverage manufacturer, has been reduced by almost 10% by reducing the amount of plastic used in the bottles. According to Gaia’s calculations, Finn Spring’s carbon footprint was 10 419 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2011. 81% of the carbon footprint is due to indirect emissions from, for example, bottle production, transportation and package materials. Of the carbon footprint, 19% is due to electricity and heating, and only 0,2% is caused by the company’s own activities, i.e. using cars.
”The example of Finn Spring shows that small and medium-sized companies may contribute significantly to sustainability if they offer solutions that help to reduce their clients’ emission. This is also an interesting example on the sustainability collaboration within a value chain. The demand for sustainability know-how in SMEs is currently growing globally, leading to strict requirements on whole business branches”, says Pasi Rinne, Chairman of Gaia.
”In 2011, Finn Spring launched the first Finnish carbon-neutral soft drink, SPRING. We continuously develop our processes and products so that their environmental impact would diminish. Having Gaia as our partner has helped us to identify the main sources of our climate impacts where we can strive for improvements with our clients. In addition, we also compensate the greenhouse gas emissions of our SPRING products by supporting the LuanTang Hydroelectric Project in China”, says Virpi Ali-Haapala, Director of Administration of Finn Spring.
Finn Spring Oy, founded in 1991, is a Finnish internationally expanding, family-owned company which develops and manufactures spring water-based beverages. Product carbon footprint is the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas removals of a product system, expressed in CO2 equivalents.
For further information:
- Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the Board, Gaia Group, tel. +41 79 472 6909
