Sustainable and profitable business is the key to solving climate change

Solving climate change and responding to other global megatrends are prerequisites for companies wanting to succeed in the future. Demand recovered and discourse on climate change increased in 2021 even amidst the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to mark the year 2021. The health and safety of our personnel were priorities for us in Vaisala also this past year, and many of our employees kept working remotely to ensure the safety of those employees who cannot work from home due to the nature of their work. In addition to our own actions, we are proud that our instruments have enabled us to also be a part of the solution and help to alleviate the pandemic. We help our customers to ensure optimal conditions in vaccine development, production, and transfer and thus protect people and societies all over the world.

Despite the pandemic, the economy started to recover during the year, shown in customers’ willingness to invest in measurement technology. Our excellent result and net sales demonstrate that even in the uncertain world situation we managed to strengthen our position in the global markets. The component shortage created significant challenges for all companies worldwide, but with active supplier management and operational excellence, Vaisala was able to keep up its delivery capability and even increase market share throughout the year. We served our customers commendably. For this, we want to give our sincere thanks to our personnel globally and especially to our employees in Operations.

For investors, we offer responsible returns and scalable, long-term growth. We raised our growth ambition in 2021, and our updated strategy is to actively seek sustainable growth by solving business-critical challenges for our customers and to aim to the leading position in our selected markets. The success drivers to our strategy are first and foremost our engaged and talented employees as well as product and technology leadership, deep customer understanding and application knowhow, and scalability in high-mix, low volume business.

Vaisala’s business is extremely well-positioned at the core of key megatrends, such as climate change, renewable energy, resource efficiency, and health. Our customers’ will to invest in Vaisala’s solutions stems from our product and solution leadership: we enable them to make business-critical decisions reliably and achieve their own profitability and sustainability targets.

Corporate sustainability is more than carbon neutrality

Sustainability is at the core of Vaisala’s business. We continued integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals into our business, and we are committed to the UN Global Compact initiative and its 10 principles regarding human rights, labor standards, environment, and anti-corruption. We strive to ensure human rights in our network, which is imperative for sustainable business in our global world.

Therefore, we are happy to report that our sustainability work gained outstanding recognition during the past year. Vaisala was in fifth place in Sustainalytics’ global ESG comparison covering over 10,000 listed companies. In Finland, private investors voted Vaisala as the most sustainable among Finnish listed companies. Moreover, Vaisala was at the top of Financial Times’ listing of 300 European climate leaders – companies that have decreased their emissions the most during 2014–2019.

Climate change took space in the wider discussion after the sixth IPCC report that highlighted the urgency of the situation. It is no longer enough that a company decreases its own environmental footprint and manages its ESG risks. In this day and age, all companies wanting to succeed in the future need to look at how their business relates to the world’s challenges and to renew their business accordingly. The business itself should have such an impact that it becomes a part of building our planet into a sustainable place to live for all humankind.

Vaisala aims to minimize its own carbon footprint by, for example, continuing to use 100% renewable electricity and emphasizing energy efficiency in all its facilities. Even more importantly, however, Vaisala participates in understanding, mitigating, and adapting to climate change through its business. Firstly, our weather measurement technology helps experts and scientists to understand the phenomenon. Secondly, we mitigate climate change by helping customers to decrease their emissions and use our planets’ scarce resources more efficiently as well as by providing solutions for cost-effective production of renewable energy. Thirdly, through our weather observation solutions, we increase companies and societies’ capabilities to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather.

To have a long-term positive impact on humankind, our business needs to be both sustainable and profitable.