Development of Corporate Responsibility in 2022

Atria updated its sustainability programme in 2021, and the implementation of the revised programme started during the reporting year. We continue to improve our responsibility performance through three major themes: Planet, Products and People.

The main objective under the Planet theme is Carbon Neutral Atria. Atria has been actively seeking solutions for the use of renewable energy by expanding its solar park, exploring and investigating the potential of wind power, and by promoting the construction of a biogas plant. Atria has set sustainability targets for its own production through a number of commitments. These include the Science Based Target (SBTi) climate commitment and the material efficiency and energy efficiency commitments. In spring 2022, Atria joined the international UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative and was accepted to the Climate Ambition Accelerator training programme. Joining the UN Global Compact strengthens Atria’s development work in environmental and social responsibility.

At the heart of the Products theme is, of course, the food that Atria produces. We want to be part of all the consumers’ mealtimes by offering them responsibly produced food that respects the environment. For Atria, nutritious and safe food means a transparent and traceable chain, antibiotic-free production, animal welfare, product safety and taking nutritional considerations into account in product development. During the reporting year, Atria expanded its production of antibiotic-free pork.

Under the People theme, our most important project is Safely home from Atria, where we have been achieving good results for many years, including a reduction in accidents at work. During the year under review, Atria started close cooperation with the Association of Friends of the University Children’s Hospitals. The Dinner Table Conversations partnership brings an important message to families with children about supporting children’s and young people’s mental health – conversations promote children’s emotional wellbeing and interaction, and strengthen family relationships.

Merja Leino
Executive Vice President, Responsibility

Planet

In 2022, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has officially approved Atria’s emission reduction targets. The targets are based on the Paris Climate Agreement and aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius globally. We are taking concrete actions towards reaching the targets: expanding our solar power park and implementing energy efficiency measures at our plants. As part of the Material Efficiency Commitment for the Food Industry, we have defined measures to enhance material efficiency in our production processes and to develop improved product and packaging solutions. We have explored various options for using lighter and thinner packaging materials and started using bioplastic in our packaging.

Products

We continued developing a sustainable, safe and transparent food chain during the year. We have offered traceable, farm-of-origin labelled products for a full decade, and we have made antibiotic-free pork production available to all our producers. One hundred percent of the chicken products sold under the Atria brand are antibiotic-free. We continued the compilation of a biosecurity strategy spanning our entire production chain. Based on the One Health approach, the biosecurity strategy covers the health of people and animals, well-being of the environment, and product safety. All of our products’ health and safety effects have been assessed. In 2022, we continued promoting sustainable farming methods and operating practices, and participated in a research aimed at promoting the health and well-being of animals.

People

Our long-term target is zero accidents at work throughout the Group. We have proceeded towards this target: our accident rate has decreased by nearly 50% over the past five years. To enhance our safety culture, we have implemented the group-wide ‘Safely home from Atria’ programme. In 2022, we developed a new human resources programme entitled Winning Together. The primary goal of this programme is to jointly develop sustainable and productive ways of working and more engaging leadership. We are committed to reducing the sodium content in our consumer products and maintaining Heart Symbol-labelled options in all key product categories. In 2022, our selection included a total of 127 Heart Symbol products in Finland, 15 Nøglehullet products in Denmark and 210 Nyckelhålet products in Sweden. We are also committed to maintaining and developing our vegetable product range. At year-end 2022, Atria-labelled product ranges included 30 vegan and 98 vegetarian products.