Espoo Catering’s 11 sustainability actions in 2024

1. We send leftover lunch food to those who need it

We are delighted with the active cooperation we have started with various food aid operators. Our goal is to ensure that leftover lunch food is utilised properly in cooperation with Manna-Talo, Espoonlahti Parish and Kivenkolo.

2. We are more sustainable when our records are more precise

We record increasingly more precisely in our systems how much lunch our customers eat and how much is wasted. This has allowed us to steer our operations in a more responsible and sustainable direction.

3. We have determined our carbon footprint

We calculated our carbon footprint and regularly monitor its development. We aim to reduce our carbon footprint with various measures.

4. We are sustainable together

Achieving sustainability is hard, but we do not work for our goal alone! In addition to our own sustainability work, we are also involved in the Futurum project to boost employment in Espoo, in OSKEto support the employment of immigrants in Finland and in the Food Waste Ecosystem project to improve the circular economy of food in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

5. We are financially sustainable

We take care of Espoo Catering’s finances and goals. We ensure that our operations are financially sustainable: We spend our money wisely on things that drive our operations forward.

6. We buy responsibly

We buy products and ingredients that are sustainably manufactured and of high quality. We have clear sustainability criteria for all procurements we make.

7. We design menus sustainably

When designing our menus, we take into account the harvest seasons, which means that we buy the products that are at their best in each season. This contributes not only to the freshness and deliciousness of our food but also our sustainability efforts. We also implement various food themes related to sustainability. For example, on Baltic Sea Day this year, we served Baltic herring caught in the Baltic Sea.

8. We cooperate with school food influencers

We have school food influencers (Kouluruokavaikuttajat) in schools. They are pupils and students who have in active cooperation with the school kitchen and representatives of the whole school developed the school food experience to be even better than before.

9. We facilitate great customer interactions

We meet our customers every day at lunch and receive thanks and development ideas from them every day. In addition to these interactions, we also organise some special and surprising things every now and then! This year, we had a wheel of fortune and vegetarian school food tastings for Espoo residents at the shopping centre Sello. We also organised things such as the fish food challenge Fisuhaaste, which involved pupils of the Espoo school Karhusuon koulu tasting a variety of fish foods, as well as the early start to summer holidays Kesälomaetkot in Haukilahden lukio upper secondary school where we served new dishes and iced coffee.

10. We report responsibly

Our sustainability reporting took a big step forward in 2024. Namely, we developed our sustainability reporting towards the requirements of the CSRD directive and carried out a materiality analysis related to sustainability. In our sustainability report, our goal is to compile into one document all the work we do for sustainability, and always annually compare our sustainability to the previous year to see how we have developed.

11. We act in a socially responsible manner

In 2024, our work on social responsibility was even a candidate for PRO2025 – a sign of how strongly we believe in the work we do in this area of responsibility! We at Espoo Catering have a wonderfully diverse and multicultural work environment: we employ people born in Finland, people who have moved to Finland from other countries and people with different work capacities. Diversity is our way of working.