The production and distribution of energy impacts the environment at all phases of the life-cycle – from building the infrastructure to the end use of an energy product. We are aware of the environmental impacts from our operations and are systematically reducing those impacts.
OAO Fortum's power plants in Russia are partly outdated, and their level of technology and environmental protection doesn't correspond to the level of technology used at Fortum's European plants. Our goal is to raise OAO Fortum's performance in environmental, health and safety issues to the same level as our European operations. To achieve these goals we have drafted a comprehensive Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) programme for 2009–2015.
Responsible management of environmental issues requires the continuous improvement of operations. Comprehensive environmental certification is one of the means we use to systematically develop our operations. Our target is to obtain ISO 14001 environmental certification for all the operations.
By the end of 2011, 99% of our power and heat plants in Europe had received ISO 14001 certification. The operations of Jelgava in Latvia, Pärnu in Estonia and as well as Fortum Fjernvarme in Norway were certified in 2011. In Fortum’s Russian operation, preparations for ISO 14001 certification continued actively during 2011 and were well ahead of the original schedule. In December 2011, OAO Fortum’s operations passed the first phase of the ISO 14001 certification audit representing 70% of Fortum’s operations in Russia. At the end of 2011, our overall certification rate was 95%, that is the share of net sales generated in certified operations (2011 net sales values) out of our total sales.