1. Annual report 2014
  2. Responsibility
  3. Environment
  4. Emissions
  • Supervisory Board
  • Risk management
  • Insider administration
  • Audit
  • Internal audit
  • Remuneration
  • VR City Traffic
  • Properties
  • Conductor
  • For the investor

    • Work to combat climate change is continuing 

    The aim of VR Group is to increase the proportion of renewable energy of its total energy consumption to more than 60 per cent.

    The environmental awareness generated by climate change offers growth potential for public transport, and especially for environmentally friendly rail services. At the same time, extreme weather phenomena associated with climate change will become more frequent and it will cause disruptions in traffic.

    The Group's direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope1) mainly consist of liquid fuels consumed by traffic and construction machines and natural gas used for heating properties. The buses and coaches of Pohjolan Liikenne consumed more than half a million litres of renewable diesel oil, which was about four per cent of the total fuel consumption.

    Indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope2) result from the district heating of properties. All electricity consumed by VR Group is generated by means of hydropower. Its origin has been verified with certificates of origin.

    Fuel consumption by the mass goods logistics subcontracting is monitored as the source of indirect greenhouse gas emissions outside the Group (Scope3).

    On its environmental balance sheet, VR Group states  the carbon dioxide emissions of its rail and road traffic and mass goods logistics subcontracting. The emissions are calculated on the basis of fuel consumption. As other emissions, VR Group reports the nitrogen oxide and particle emissions of rail and road traffic, which are calculated using the emission coefficients of the LIPASTO system of VTT and the RASTU project.

    People living in the vicinity of the Hämeenlinna rail yard complained about the noise and emissions generated by shunting locomotives. In order to reduce the inconvenience VR Group took a number of operational measures: Changes were made to train operations and the holding place of the locomotives was moved.