Ylva Irresponsibility Report 2024

The Naked Truth: Ylva's 2024 Responsibility Revelations

In 2024 we boldly made waves and went viral within the sustainability scene in Finland and abroad with our first ever Irresponsibility Report for 2023. In it we revealed all the measures we've taken toward a more sustainable future. We were also up-front with how some things went a little sideways, despite our best efforts. This past year has been about doing the unglamorous but necessary work tackling challenges head-on and making real changes from the ground up.

We're back with our second Irresponsibility Report, reflecting on 2024's journey. We've equipped ourselves with solutions to maintain momentum, even as global politics hammers our shared planet and the EU Commission's Omnibus threatens to leave the most diligent players stranded at the stop.

Knowledge drives impact. Welcome to our 2024 Irresponsibility Report – part progress update, part roadmap for what's ahead.

1. Plot twist: We're turning our consumption habit into a regeneration story

So what did we actually promise for 2024? Two things: brutal honesty about our carbon neutrality goals and pushing our carbon output down.

Success!

We conduct business through building, repairing and renting spaces, alongside food production and sales. While our operations inevitably generate carbon emissions – and we're honest about not achieving carbon neutrality - we're firmly committed to minimizing our environmental impact. We rigorously track this impact through carbon emissions measurements, intensity metrics, and our ecological footprint. Environmental action isn't just talk – we back it with dedicated annual funding for nature and climate initiatives. Our efforts showed results in 2024: our carbon intensity (the ratio of emissions to revenue) decreased. We also contributed 3,000 euros to the John Nurminen Foundation's work to protect the Baltic Sea.

...and whoops! In a totally unexpected turn of events (kidding): We built more, consumed more energy, bought more materials, and produced more food than last year. Shocking revelation: all this came with a bigger environmental footprint. In 2024, our 6,000+ tCO2e emissions racked up an estimated social cost of over a million euros. Our responsibility budget? Let's just say it's swimming in an ocean of our own making. And yes, we know our donation targets deserve some side-eye since their environmental impact isn't exactly backed by peer-reviewed science.

Can growth be pursued sustainably? We believe so. In 2024, we committed to the Circular Economy Green Deal led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of the Environment. Under this deal, we pledged to maximize property utilization, halve construction material emissions, boost plant-based food sales in our restaurants, and reduce environmental harm by 2035. We're allocating at least one percent of our profits to environmental conservation, ramping up year by year to offset our environmental impact by the 2030s. Of course, making plans is the easy part – now comes the real work.

2. We sucked water out of Italy and harmed biodiversity in India – we will improve our procurement in the future

We promised to assess our environmental impact and set goals to reduce it.

Done!

During 2024, we calculated the environmental harm caused by our real estate and restaurant business. We applied the Science-based Targets for Nature framework, which was completed in 2025. We made fascinating observations about our environmental impacts. Although raw materials flow to us from five continents, over 60 percent of their eutrophication potential is in the Baltic Sea catchment area. We have also identified high-risk raw materials, especially in categories sourced from afar, such as coffee, nuts, fruits, and granite. For example, the granite tiles used at the Grand Hansa construction site, quarried in India, caused more biodiversity loss than the steel pillars of the Lyyra block's hotel and residential buildings combined.

So, are we giving up? Of course not! We're expanding our procurement criteria beyond just carbon footprint to include broader environmental impacts. For example, we will gradually replace the Italian rice served in our restaurants with domestic oats. This decision will save over 100 tCO2e annually, equivalent to about 5 percent of Uni Cafe's emissions. Additionally, it will direct our procurement to Finland, where there is more water than in drought-stricken Italy. As a bonus, oats are a cheaper ingredient than rice.

3. We built an emission wall – a repair kit from the circular economy?

We made it our mission to transform the real estate and construction industries by demonstrating environmentally friendly practices in every project.

Mission accomplished!

We successfully completed our sustainability-promoting Lyyra and Grand Hansa projects and reduced construction emissions by over 10 percent. We consume entirely emission-free energy in the completed properties, and the energy consumption per square meter of Ylva's entire real estate portfolio even decreased by a few percent. Both projects received LEED Platinum certification upon completion.

But wait! Although we held on to our values and sustainability efforts, construction projects still caused our largest emission load. Our entire real estate portfolio consumes about 7 percent more energy after the completion of Lyyra and Grand Hansa.

Let's correct course! In 2025, our annual emissions will drop to about a third as construction volume decreases. The pursuit of regenerative business continues. To succeed in the Circular Economy Green Deal goals (link in Finnish), we need to increase the utilization rates of our properties, repair more, demand low-emission products, and cause as little harm to the environment as possible. The average demolition age of buildings needs to be extended, and energy efficiency must be improved twice as fast as currently, for the construction industry to succeed within the planet's resources. The increase in office space vacancy rates in the Helsinki metropolitan area must be reversed (link in Finnish).

4. We gave up the vegan discount – but we're taking a bigger bite out of emissions than we did by eliminating beef

We promised to calculate our carbon footprint more accurately and reduce it to the best of our ability. In our restaurants, the main means of reducing emissions has been to increase the sales of plant-based dishes.

Well... it's complicated

Using Carbonlink, we calculated our emissions directly from our purchase invoice data. This more detailed analysis revealed additional emissions: our reportable Scope 3 emissions increased by 50 percent. In our restaurant business, we successfully increased plant-based dish sales to nearly 47 percent (up from 45 percent in 2023). However, we also saw increased sales of our highest-carbon meals (Mexican style baked sausage, meatballs, and fish sticks), which kept our average lunch emission at last year's level (approximately 0.64 kgCO2e per meal). With over 150,000 more meals sold compared to the previous year, our total lunch-related emissions increased by 16 percent.

Here's to improvement! To reach a climate-sustainable level for our average lunch emissions (0.5 kgCO2e per dish), we need to work some plant-based magic on our carnivorous friends. It's not about preaching – it's about making plant-based dishes so irresistible that even the most dedicated meat lovers do a double-take. That's why in early 2025, we ditched the underwhelming 10-cent plant-based incentive and redirected those funds where they really matter: premium plant proteins and knockout recipes that let vegetables steal the show.

Achieving a climate-sustainable level would reduce Uni Cafe's annual lunch emissions by about 20 percent, or 280 tCO2e. For comparison, removing beef from the recipes in 2020 reduced Uni Cafe's emissions by about 11 percent, or 240 tCO2e.

5. Let's be honest: we're dragging our feet on social risks. A fair transition isn't optional – it's essential.

We set out to uncover the most pressing social risks in our operations and supply chains.

Yes, indeed!

To track our high-risk materials, we required our largest suppliers to provide detailed responsibility reports on their supply chains. We remain committed to not purchasing products linked to Russia, which continues its illegal occupation and war in Ukraine. At the request of our company's principal owner, we also investigated our operations' connections to Israel.

Reality check: How deep does our responsibility really go? We still have no visibility into the end of long supply chains, only our suppliers' confirmation of commitment to Ylva's Code of Conduct (link in Finnish). Ensuring a fair green transition throughout the supply chain is challenging: wind farms producing clean energy threaten the livelihood of Sámi reindeer herders, and there is a risk of forced labor associated with solar panels produced in China.

Enough talk – here's our action plan. We're diving deep into human rights risks across our value chains through the UN Global Compact Finland's Business and Human Rights Accelerator program. The goal? Creating a systematic framework to tackle our most significant social risks head-on.

Time for our responsibility report card: How did we measure up?

Responsibility is a constantly evolving landscape, and we're learning new perspectives every step of the way. This report zeroes in on the issues most critical to Ylva's business. In today's tense global climate, being transparent about our challenges isn't just important – it's essential.

Love this report? Hate what you read? Did we just ruin your morning coffee? Whether you're nodding in agreement or rolling your eyes, we want to hear about it! Drop us an email or use our anonymous notification channel – we can take the heat. Thanks for diving into our reality check – see you next time when we bare it all again!