Solving Mutual Challenges Together – Insights from the Responsible Care Seminar
The Responsible Care seminar, held on Tuesday, September 10, once again brought together representatives from our member companies, as well as other stakeholders, to discuss current sustainability topics.
The Responsible Care program has been running in Finland for over 30 years. During this time, the world has changed many times over – including sustainability efforts and reporting obligations. We aim to support our member companies through these changes, both in the present and in preparing for the future. For example, the most extensive reform of sustainability reporting in history – CSRD – is currently underway, a topic that was also discussed at this year’s seminar.
The Chemical Industry Federation of Finland has just completed a sector-wide double materiality assessment related to CSRD sustainability reporting. Johanna Pentjärvi, our sustainability advisor, presented the results of this assessment. In her presentation, Pentjärvi emphasized that since the chemical industry broadly covers production from lipstick to car tires, it is important to remember that the industry-wide double materiality analysis serves mainly as a benchmark, and each company should conduct its own analysis based on its specific operations.
Defining key CSRD topics really sparked thoughts during the round table discussions. To help our member companies in this process, we at the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland have been brainstorming “mentor programs” related to CSRD reporting, and in the seminar we aimed to gather our members’ preferences regarding this initiative. There is great need for training and coaching, because even experienced sustainability professionals find the content and practical requirements of the new reporting standards somewhat unclear. Within the Responsible Care community, we have the opportunity to collectively find solutions to these challenges.
The seminar also featured a presentation led by our Senior Skills & Competence Advisor, Anni Siltanen, on a study on diversity in the workplace. The study was commissioned by the Federation’s Skills & Competence Committee. The key finding of the study was unsurprising: supporting diversity in the workplace significantly increases job satisfaction and, consequently, productivity. Language issues emerged as a challenge, a topic that is certainly relevant for many Finnish companies. In the near future it will be necessary to consider how to attract skilled workers from an increasingly diverse spectrum.
Safety Advisor Mirva Ojala‘s briefing on process safety covered the CER directive related to crisis resilience and the NIS2 cyber security directive, which will be implemented nationally this fall. In recent years, our security environment has undergone many unprecedented changes, and it is clear that the entire industry needs to prepare for and anticipate future changes more closely.
“Nothing beats face-to-face interaction, organic discussion, and solving issues together.”
Tuomas Kohvakka, Advisor, Sustainability
In-person seminars have clearly been overshadowed these days by webinars and other online events. Online events certainly make participation easier, reduce travel, and have proven their usefulness. However, nothing can replace face-to-face meetings, spontaneous and organic discussions, and solving issues together, as was demonstrated again at the Responsible Care seminar. Especially CSRD reporting involves complex and challenging elements that are hard to define, but when people come together around the same table to discuss the topics and try to find solutions together, the challenges suddenly seem less daunting.
It has been a truly interesting journey so far to be involved in developing the Responsible Care program. Along the way, I have learned something new every day. Responsible Care has been and will continue to be a relevant and valuable tool for the sustainability work of the Finnish chemical industry. Thank you to all our member companies involved and for the fantastic work you are doing. Together, we will overcome future challenges and move toward our goals.
