Environmental responsibility

In 2022, we decided to create the position of Quality Officer, whose responsibilities include drafting an environmental policy at Luke level and coordinating of the environmental programme. Quality Officer is also responsible for planning and coordinating quality work, creating an audit model for project activities, organising training for auditors and conducting management reviews.

In addition, the preparation of the standardisation of the environmental management system was started in the Research Infrastructure Services unit in 2022.

We are working to modernise our research infrastructures and introduce new methods to reduce the environmental impact of our research activities. In 2022, we completed the modernisation of our fish farming facilities in Laukaa for aquaculture research and selective fish breeding. Laukaa has the world’s second oldest selective breeding programme for rainbow trout and the world’s only selective breeding programme for European whitefish.

In June 2022, we opened our responsibly renovated and implemented fish research and fish farming facilities in Laukaa. The project was completed in the autumn with the completion of the waste water treatment system for the broodstock halls.

In addition to the new fish farming tanks, existing decades-old family rearing and nursery tanks were renovated. The new hall houses 240 family rearing tanks, 20 other rearing tanks and four broodstock tanks. The 30-year-old rearing tanks have been renovated and should last another 30 years.

State-of-the-art automated feeding, heating, cooling and cleaning systems have modernised the controllability of the infrastructure. Instead of using peat, effluent is now treated by drum filters and then discharged into the municipal sewage system. In terms of heating, fuel oil has been replaced with wood pellets, and solar panels have been installed on the roof of one of the halls.

Senate Properties has invested more than EUR 6 million in the responsible modernisation of the Laukaa research infrastructure. The modernisation project, which started in 2021, has provided Luke with state-of-the-art fish farming facilities in line with the principles of the circular economy.

The Research Infrastructure Services unit also carried out the following environmental improvements in 2022:

• the use of animal feed by-products to generate electricity and heat
• the construction and commissioning of a heavy machinery washing station (management of wastewater through drainage)
• the commissioning of precision fertiliser spreaders (to allow more accurate application of fertilisers and reduce environmental impact).