Sustainability at the core of Netcontrol

Posted on October 8, 2024

As an international company in the electricity and energy sectors, Netcontrol has a responsibility to monitor and report on its sustainability efforts. We want to share with our stakeholders how the company is reaching its goals and working toward a better future. Sustainability at Netcontrol is divided into three main perspectives: resilience of the electricity distribution system, environmental performance and social responsibility.

Resilience of the electricity distribution system

The most important aspect of Netcontrol’s sustainability impact is ensuring a reliable, secure and efficient electricity supply. Electricity is a must for a functioning digital society, as well as the cleanest and most efficient way of supplying energy to consumers, industries and vehicles.

Our work for the secure supply of electricity consists of information security and maintaining system reliability under all circumstances. Netcontrol has implemented the ISO 27001:2022 standard for information security management, which monitors the quality of our activities, and we provide annual training in information security for all of our employees.

With the increasing number of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, our customers can always trust that Netcontrol’s products, services and systems are created according to the highest cybersecurity requirements. We comply to industrial cybersecurity standards, including IEC62351 (Cyber Security – Power Systems) and have created DOME, a new cybersecurity service for any OT network. The DOME service helps our customers monitor their assets, detect disturbances, as well as maintain the reliability of their supply networks.

Environmental performance

In addition to reducing our own environmental impact, we help our customers become more sustainable by

building remotely controlled products which reduce the need for on-site visits,
creating solutions and services that enable the safe integration of renewable energy sources to electricity networks, and
decreasing energy losses by identifying excess reactive power.

We make sure our products are modular and customizable from the beginning. This not only gives our customers the chance to adapt the chosen products to the needs of their business but also means a longer life cycle, with our automation components lasting around 20 years. The customizable nature of our products is very useful when one part of the product fails. In these instances, it is possible to change only the damaged part and not the entire product, reducing costs to the customer and negative impact to the environment. Netcontrol’s products are constantly developed to become smaller and lighter, which reduces the need for new materials and decreases emissions created in the transport of our products.

Netcontrol has an ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental management system, which helps us follow the progress of our sustainability efforts. On the group level, Netcontrol’s goal is carbon neutrality by 2035. The total CO₂ emissions of Netcontrol Group have dropped by an impressive 50 % from 507 tons in 2019 to 253 tons in 2023. This is welcome news, showing we are very much on track to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality.

In addition to monitoring our total emissions, we also monitor how much electricity is used in our offices in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Latvia and the United Kingdom. This number has reduced by 29% from 2019 to 2023. Factors that have contributed to the reduction of electricity and CO₂ emissions include, for example, increased levels of remote work brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, improving the energy efficiency of our offices and preferring the leasing of electric company cars above traditional ones.

Another big contributor to the reduction in our electricity consumption as well as to team spirit and wellbeing among our employees has been the move of our Helsinki office to new premises in January 2024. The office is situated at TakomoBase, which holds a BREEAM environmental certificate for sustainable buildings. One of Netcontrol’s targets for environmental performance is the recycling percentage of our own waste. This includes waste created both in the production and assembly of our products and everyday waste in the offices, such as lunch supplies or electronic waste. The recycling percentage level has remained at 90% the last few years, while our target is 95 %. Achieving this target has become one step closer, since plastic recycling started in our Helsinki office during autumn 2024.

Social responsibility

Employee wellbeing is very important at Netcontrol. We make sure our policies for ethical and transparent business are followed in all of our operating countries. Netcontrol stands for equal opportunity and nondiscrimination as well as freedom of association. To increase the transparency and openness of the company, we have implemented a whistleblowing policy and an online portal, where anyone who has concerns can create a report anonymously.

Netcontrol wants its employees to fulfil their entire potential both at work and outside of it. To recruit and retain the best people, the company offers flexible working hours, encourages employees to expand their knowledge with training courses and has a bonus system in place. If there are health concerns, the company provides occupational healthcare and additional health insurance. These investments have been effective, as employee satisfaction has remained high and sick leave levels low.

Read more about our sustainability efforts in the Netcontrol Sustainability report 2023.