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Sustainability
The Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) is sustainable and trustworthy
We offer daily content and services to a large proportion of Finns. We seek to increase understanding of one other and the world, strengthen Finnish society and culture and offer a multifaceted and multi-voiced perspective on Finland. We have a special role in maintaining basic trust within society and communicating reliable information to all Finns. The people’s Yle must continue to be worthy of trust – common to all and specific to each.
We comply with ethical principles in our own operations and require the same from our partners. We have in place a Code of Conduct that covers the whole company and a Ethical Guidelines for the Production of Programmes and Content that covers our editorial work. We also comply with the Guidelines for Journalists drawn up by the Council for Mass Media.
We are committed to openness and transparency in all our activities. The activities are reported to the transparency register semi-annually.
Our Sustainability Goals
We make sustainable use of the funding we recieve through taxation
Yle's funding is based on the Act on the State Television and Radio Fund.
The Act on Public Broadcasting Tax specifies the amount of public broadcasting tax paid by individuals and corporations.
Our duties are stated in the Act on the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Under the Act on Public Contracts, we are a procurement unit which must put its contracts out to tender in accordance with the above Act. Content and programme procurements, however, are not covered by the Act on Public Contracts.
Goals
We use our tax funding sustainably, carefully and appropriately in order to fulfil our statutory tasks.
Our procurements are carried out sustainably
We take care of the well-being of our personnel
We work to improve diversity, work atmosphere, equality, parity and well-being within our workplace. Through our activities, we develop the quality of our leadership, experience of our personnel, and functioning of the whole work community. We ensure that both our organisational capacity and the skills and competence of our personnel are able to meet the changing needs of the operating environment.
Goals
We monitor job satisfaction and the work atmosphere using the Enthusiasm Index and eNPS Recommendation Index included in our scorecard goals.
We operate independently from any external sources of influence
Promoting independent journalism is at the heart of our sustainability work. We uncompromisingly foster reliability and independence in journalism, culture, education and all our other operations. Through our operations, we promote freedom of expression and offer content and services that promote media literacy.
Our publishing activities and content production are based on our values and the ethical principles of the media sector. Our responsible editors direct and supervise our editorial work. The responsibilities and duties of the responsible editors are defined in the Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass Media, and these editors appointed by the company’s Board of Directors. The responsible editors are the ones that make the final decision on publishing content.
Goals
We operate independently from any external sources of influence. We promote the sustainable exercise of freedom of expression and media literacy in collaboration with its partners.
We promote accessibility and non-impediment
Accessibility relates to the services produced for Yle’s customers, such as audio descriptions, services in plain language in sign language, voice subtitling, programme subtitling and online availability, as well as the functionality of internal services provided for Yle personnel.
Non-impediment refers to areas such as the usability of premises.
Goals
We promote equality by increasing the accessibility of our TV, radio and online services.
We aim to become a pioneer in accessibility issues in Finland.
We promote the vitality of the media sector
We cooperate widely with other actors in the audiovisual sector as well as with educational institutions, cultural institutions and event organisers. Through this cooperation, we also create value for the creative sector, the media sector, and for our extensive network of partners. We promote the sustainability of the creative field by developing the creative sector’s sustainability model.
Potential abuses observed or suspected in Yle's operations must be reported centrally to Yle's ethical reporting channel.
Goals
We promote the vitality of our field by engaging in diverse collaborative initiatives with other actors in the media sector.
We promote sustainable activities within the media sector.
We use technology sustainably
We also make ethical assessments of our activities when collecting and using data and choosing between technology options.
The preservation of trust and confidentiality and the safe handling of information and content are important to us.
Goals
We use technology and the data we collect in a sustainable and ethical manner.
We take care of the environment
We promote the objectives through which Finland will become carbon neutral by 2035.
Goals
We reduce the amount of waste we produce, operate in an energy-efficient manner, reduce the harmful effects of transport and develop the circular economy.
Yle's year 2023
Yle's Sustainability in 2023
Get to know how sustainability was implemented in our public service.
How we lead our sustainability work
Yle’s Management Group is sustainable for all operational activities and strategic management. The Management Group is also responsible for the realisation of Yle’s sustainability objectives in its daily operations and the measurement of their implementation.
The Board of Directors approved Yle’s social sustainability principles on 13 March 2019. Yle’s Legal Department is responsible for all sustainability-related development, coordination and reporting activities.
The implementation of Yle’s sustainability objectives is monitored in small groups that report to the sustainability steering group.
Yle’s environmental sustainability work is supported by the environmental steering group, which convenes two to four times per year and includes specialists who represent Yle’s various areas of sustainability. The Management Group is represented by Yle’s Director of Technology and Development in the environmental steering group.
Yle uses qualitative and quantitative indicators and internal and external audits to monitor the achievement of its goals.
Yle has served as a member of the Finnish corporate sustainability network FIBS since 2011.
Reporting principles and scope
Yle's sustainability report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards Universal framework.
The report covers Yle’s operations as a public service broadcasting company in Finland and places particular emphasis on the special characteristics of the media’s sustainability as a producer of contents and services and an operator in the media sector.
The information on Yle’s environmental sustainability work covers the impact of Yle’s own operations. The key figures concerning energy consumption cover the properties owned by Yle, as some monitoring data is not available for leased facilities.
Additional information:
Compliance Officer Irene Tommiska-Jarva, irene.tommiska-jarva@yle.fi