Main grid use, maintenance and construction affect the environment in many ways. Environmental safety is vital to Fingrid, so we compiled a pocket-sized information package – an environmental pack – for convenient use at worksites.
Fingrid has committed to the United Nations’ Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative and to promoting its sustainable development goals. Responsibility has been a part of the transmission system operator’s values and operating methods for a long time. Now the UN’s global sustainable development goals have also been linked with Fingrid’s business targets.
Don’t keep the windows open too long. We have to save nature because otherwise we won’t have it anymore. These are just some of the practical and even global issues that second graders at Pohjois-Haaga elementary school pondered when we asked them about what they had learned during Energy Saving Week.
Fingrid has about 130 substations and chemical safety is handled very carefully at all of them. Nearly half of these are transformer stations, which have a lot more chemicals than switchyards.
This autumn, Fingrid introduced the new ISO 14001 environmental system, which applies to reserve power plant operations.
Fingrid always strives to take environmental factors into consideration responsibly and to communicate openly about matters related to them. The company occasionally has to apply to the ELY Centre for permission to deviate from the prohibition on deterioration and destruction of threatened and protected species in accordance with Nature Conservation Act. However, applying for a special permit is always the last alternative.
Whenever there are plans to construct new transmission lines, the valuable habitats and species of the area are thoroughly surveyed. The protected Moor Frog or a species-rich swamp may send the plans back to the drawing board.
There are many ways for a landowner to utilise transmission line areas. Would you like some extra income from Christmas tree sales, or are environmentally friendly values close to your heart? Various land-use tips can be found in the new Landowner’s idea cards.
Supporting the diversity of nature and varied recreational use enables versatile use of the land under transmission lines. Rather than emphasising what may not or cannot be done there, the focus is on the different uses that are permitted. European transmission system operators are making diverse use of transmission line clearings for different purposes. Fingrid is part of this work.
Fingrid manages the entire life cycle of the main grid, from construction to demolition. In 2016, this work produced over 9,600 tons of waste. Nearly one hundred per cent of the waste was recycled, reused or otherwise utilised. UPDATED ON 6.6.2017
