Ecological responsibility

Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency as a significant contracting authority

As the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is a significant contracting authority, it strives to promote the achievement of climate, circular economy and sustainable development objectives through procurement. 

In 2023, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency continued to examine environmental criteria in the procurement categories with the highest impact. The next step in this work will be implementation plans, in which a preliminary examination will be conducted in 2024 on all procurement categories to pave the way for introducing the criteria. An emission calculation program was also produced in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment. 

In the initial phase, service providers have been encouraged to introduce low-emission and energy and material efficient solutions, products and services that will be included in the mid-2020s in contracts as requirements with specified environmental criteria. The requirements will factor in such aspects as the climate, emission calculation, life-cycle costs and the circular economy. 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is developing indicators to support environmental work and objectives. The aim is to introduce the indicators in 2024 to support the objectives set out in the Government Programme for 2024–2027. They include calculating the environmental impacts of implementation options in the design phase while taking the life cycle perspective into account and calculating emissions from machinery used in construction and maintenance work. The service providers' environmental pledges, which are evaluated when comparing tenders, can also be used as the basis for assessing the fulfilment of procurement criteria. Pledges should always be accompanied by reliable monitoring and a bonus and sanction procedure based on it.  

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has also joined the expert group on Ecological objectives of public procurement led by the Ministry of the Environment. The aim is to prepare targets for the carbon footprint, ecological footprint and circular economy promotion for those procurements that have the greatest environmental impact.

In 2023, a working group on Low-carbon procurement was also set up with the Infra Association and the City of Helsinki to promote the development of low-carbon procurements, harmonisation of operating practices and dialogue in the field. 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency additionally participated in KEINO Competence Centre’s low-carbon procurement management academy in winter 2023–2024. In this academy, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s aim was to produce information for a low-carbon procurement model and to support the production of an assessment method for low-carbon infrastructure construction. A draft for a low-carbon procurement operating model was prepared in the academy and nine proposals for measures were identified through which the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency can promote low-carbon procurement.

An extensive impact assessment conducted as part of design projects includes not only ecological responsibility but also an examination of social and economic impacts. 

Joukko työntekijöitä ratatöissä suurten kaivureiden kanssa. Sää on pilvinen ja taustalla näkyy korkeita savupiippuja.

Construction and repairs 

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency makes efforts to reduce emissions from construction in its contracts, for example by including environmental criteria in the procurements as discussed above and through measures that support the circular economy.

One of the criteria is the Green Deal concept of zeroemission construction sites which, among other things, aims to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and harmful exhaust gases from construction sites. At the centre of a Green Deal contract are fleet requirements focusing on exhaust gas emissions from machinery and trucks, which were introduced in the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's investment projects in 2023.

Image: Share of machinery powered by electricity, biogas or hydrogen at construction sites (target for 2022–2030).

In contracts performed in demanding operating environments, the emission requirements are at least Stage IV for machinery and Euro VI for trucks. Based on fleet monitoring in the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's investment projects, 70% of machines had an emission class of Stage IV or higher, while 48% of trucks had the emission class Euro VI. The calculations include 34 investment projects launched in 2023, whose total contract price is approximately EUR 150 million. Regarding other targets for Green Deal zero-emission worksites, heating was based on fossil-free energy in 37% of contracts, the requirement of receiving training on zero-emission sites was met by 5% of machinery operators, and 95% of sites had environmental plans.

The circular economy was promoted by such as the following means:

  • In road projects, striving to achieve the highest possible utilisation rate of soil masses
  • Demolished asphalt is used as raw material for new asphalt
  • Old road structures are used in new embankments
  • Concrete from demolition sites is used as crushed rock in embankments
  • Some of the timber is reused
  • In rail projects, an effort is made to reuse or recycle superstructure materials (including tracks, sleepers, traffic control and safety equipment, points).

In addition, a general effort is made to increase the use of recycled materials in projects.

In 2023, energy efficiency and circular economy measures were also advanced by preparing for the inclusion of low-carbon procurement criteria that support the circular economy in infrastructure construction projects, for example by working on the requirements regarding the content of circular economy plans and reports and circular economy competence in procurements.

The preparation of a Green Deal for the circular economy was additionally already launched in May 2022, and the joint commitment model has almost been completed. The Green Deal is a voluntary commitment to reducing the use of natural resources, setting high-impact targets and taking measures that promote low-carbon circular economy.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has been involved in preparing measures for the commitment model in the change area ‘Resource-wise built environment’. This area contains three action areas, the first one of which focuses on the planning and preparation of projects, the second on the existing built environment, and the third on reused and recycled products. A party giving a commitment must select measures from at least two action areas. 

Halting biodiversity loss has become an important objective both internationally and nationally. Transport routes fragment large integrated wildlife habitats and have a major impact on biodiversity. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency published a preliminary study and commissioned a Master's thesis on the biodiversity impacts of transport infrastructure networks and infrastructure maintenance in 2023. These are only the first steps, and FTIA will strive to assess the biodiversity impacts and to identify concrete measures in the next few years.


Premises and travel

The adequate premises and travel required for administrative work increase the footprint of the activities. In keeping with the central government's facilities strategy, the premises have been developed towards a multilocation model, which has reduced the volume of facilities required. 

In accordance with the Government's travel strategy, remote connections are used, which achieves cost savings and reduces environmental loading. In addition to reducing travel, environmental responsibility is promoted by favouring environmentally friendly modes of travel and by reducing air travel over distances of less than 500 kilometres if it can be replaced by other connections with a reasonable delay.