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Sustainability at Koas

Improving the sustainability of student living

Housing is known to be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. However, we can all influence the climate and environmental impact of housing through our actions!

At Koas, environmental actions have already been taken for over 15 years by utilizing building technology and automation-related solutions. In our strategy, we also prioritise climate and environmental action. Climate change is being tackled for example by procuring electricity produced from renewable sources and decreasing our carbon footprint together with Koas tenants. We aim to become carbon neutral by 2030 and encourage everyone in the housing sector to take climate action as well.

Sustainability is included in our strategy

Sustainable development is present in our four main strategy themes for years 2020-2025:

  • Becoming carbon neutral by 2030
  • Advancing community spirit
  • Desirable apartments in good locations
  • Improving equity ratio

Read more about our actions towards sustainability in our annual report (in Finnish only).

Carbon footprint of Koas

The goal to become carbon neutral in our own operations means that the net emissions of our operations would drop to zero by 2030.

In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we have started a systematic carbon footprint (hiilijalanjälki in Finnish) calculation, which allows us to monitor and reduce our carbon footprint. We aim to for example energy efficiency and smart energy procurement.

Our estimated carbon footprint in 2022 was 540 t CO2e. In 2021, the figure was approximately 2345 t CO2e. Our carbon footprint decreased significantly after we switched to green district heating. A carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) describes the climate impact of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the foundation’s operations.

When calculating emissions, we take into account the following five factors: electricity (sähkö) and heat (lämpö) consumption in Koas properties, transportation (kuljetukset) with our own vehicles, waste volumes in the properties (jätehuolto) and business trips (liikematkustaminen).

EcoCompassenvironmental management system

EcoCompass

We are committed to saving natural resources. We have been granted the EcoCompass Certificate. We are on our way towards a systematic, more environmentally friendly way of operating. EcoCompass is an environmental management system that helps systematically design environmental objectives and actions. It is based on international environmental standards such as EMAS and ISO14001.