EcoVadis assesses companies on their sustainability performance from the perspectives of the environment, labour & human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Companies use the assessments to compare the subcontractors in their supply chain.
The independent assessment report was completed at the turn of the year. Varma’s previous EcoVadis result is from 2021, and since that assessment, Varma’s score increased from 73 to 80 out of 100.
“We are pleased and proud of this result. We don't have just a single indicator for the work we have done for sustainability; instead sustainability assessment takes into account processes and daily work in addition to figures. Sustainability is an integral part of Varma’s strategy, and we have actively developed its various aspects,” says Sustainability Director Hanna Kaskela.
According to EcoVadis’s assessment, Varma has comprehensive policies and practices in place in various sustainability areas, leading to good results. Our environmental sustainability work in particular received high scores, and our focus on human rights was also commended. Some areas are still in need of development, especially managing the sustainability of the supply chain.
“After the previous assessment, our points have increased thanks to additional measures and the implementation of new policies. For example, we revised our sustainability programme, tightened our climate policy and prepared a Biodiversity Roadmap and Principles for Human Rights. The EcoVadis assessment has given us new momentum to develop our sustainability,” Hanna Kaskela explains.
Biodiversity and human rights as sustainability focus areas
Varma has focussed a lot of attention in recent years on climate change, developing the work culture, promoting equality in working life and ensuring business ethics. Emissions have plummeted in various asset classes and in Varma’s own operations. Varma’s personnel surveys indicate that the employees are very satisfied with the work culture and with Varma’s efforts to promote equality and non-discrimination.
“Our sustainability work currently focuses on biodiversity and human rights in particular. We are also preparing for future sustainability reporting requirements,” says Kaskela.
We will report on our sustainability actions for 2022 in the Annual and Sustainability Report that comes out in March.
Established in 2007, EcoVadis assesses and rates companies’ sustainability. Its assessment methodology is based on international corporate sustainability standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative, the UN Global Compact and the ISO 26000 standard.
Examples of Varma’s sustainability
- The focus areas of our sustainability programme are managing pension assets, responsible investments and promoting a sustainable working life. Taking care of pension assets and paying pensions in the correct amount and on time are the cornerstone of everything we do. We invest pension assets profitably and securely, but also responsibly, while tackling global challenges. We help our customers anticipate and manage disability risk, and bear the responsibility for Varma employees.
- All Varma employees are taught business ethics in a special online course. The completion rate is monitored.
- We are committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which drives climate action through science-based emissions reduction targets. By committing to the SBT initiative, we want to increase the transparency of our operations and ensure that our climate actions are aligned with global targets, because we expect the same from our investees.
- In our Principles for Human Rights, we commit to intervene in human rights violations in our investees, among our personnel and in the supply chains. We monitor the realisation of human rights by extensively screening for norm violations.
- Varma’s contractual partners commit to Varma’s CSR requirements.
- As a partner of Helsinki Pride, Varma highlights the importance of equality in working life.
- We closely monitor how the employee experience develops. The PeoplePower index, which describes the overall result of the personnel survey conducted in late 2022, was the best yet and got Varma onto the list of Finland's most inspiring workplaces for the fifth consecutive time.
- The equality and non-discrimination of Varma employees are continuously taken into account. In the equality and non-discrimination survey conducted in autumn 2022, 96 per cent of Varma employees responded with a “yes” to the question “Do you feel that you can be yourself at work?”.
- All of Varma’s sustainability policies can be found on our website.