We encourage our customers to make healthy and sustainable choices. Our goal is that in 2030, at least 65 per cent of the food we sell will be plant-based, and 80 per cent will be produced in Finland. We will also ensure the improvement of animal welfare. We also promote the carbon-neutral mobility of Finnish people.

• Promoting a planetary diet – 65% plant-based
• Promoting local products – 80% domestic food products
• Sustainable consuption services for customers
• Animal welfare
• Towards carbon-neutral transport

Food plays an important role in promoting the health and well-being of people and the environment, and commerce can influence the way Finland eats. We want healthy eating to be possible for everyone, and we believe that when smart choices are easy, they are also made.

The key idea of a climate-friendly diet is that healthy eating also allows you to act sensibly from the climate point of view. It is also important for the choice of food what is available, how easy it is to prepare and what it costs. Our goal is that 65% of the food we sell is plant-based by the end of 2030. We are already close to the goal; in 2021, plant-based food accounted for 59% of sales. With different actions, we encourage our customers to eat even more healthily and in a more climate-friendly fashion.

• We bring seasonal vegetables, fruit and berries to the front in our grocery stores.
• We highlight the freshest and tastiest fish products of the season in our grocery stores. In 2021, the sales of fish increased by 4% from the previous year.
• The buffets in ABC restaurants are increasingly fish- and vegetable-oriented.
• We are committed to taking the amount of salt, sugar and fat into consideration when developing our private label products and aim for an end result that is as healthy as possible.
• The recipes of Yhteishyvä magazine are committed to increasing the use of vegetables and fish, favouring good fats, reducing the use of salt and sugar, and favouring ingredients rich in fibre in the recipes, and more detailed nutritional information has been added to the recipes on the Yhteishyvä.fi website.
• The carbon footprint calculator, domestic content calculator and nutrition calculator in the My Purchases service of S-mobiili provide information on the climate impacts, domestic content and healthiness of your shopping basket and offer alternatives for more sustainable and healthier consumption.

Read more about our actions from S Group's annual report and sustainability review.

Our customers value the domestic origin of products. The demand for Finnish products also promotes employment in Finland. Climate change, global population growth, urbanisation, technological development and consumers’ changing needs are challenging traditional food chain operations. We believe that the food sector can be one of the growth engines of the Finnish economy. The food production and technologies of the future offer opportunities for Finland.

We are Finland’s largest seller of groceries and Finnish food. In 2020, sales of products of Finnish origin grew in nearly all product categories compared to the previous year. Our goal is that 80% of the food we sell is of domestic origin by the end of 2030. Nearly 78% of the food we sold in the grocery stores in 2021 was produced in Finland. We work to actively promote the success and future of Finnish food through our actions and by providing our customers with a wide range of options through our products and services.

• We are running campaigns to promote Finnish fish at S Group’s grocery stores. As a result of the seasonal fish concept and the more diverse selection of fish, sales of Finnish fish increased by 10% from the previous year.
• Our Kotimaista Private label range includes almost 450 products of Finnish origin that meet the generally accepted requirements of the Hyvää Suomesta label or the Sirkkalehti label for Finnish origin, meaning that their raw materials come from Finland and the products have been produced in Finland.
• Our ABC restaurants have only served Finnish pork, beef and chicken since 2015.
• The fresh chicken and pork served in other S Group’s restaurants is always of Finnish origin. For frozen and processed foods, the goal is 90% of Finnish origin.
• The domestic content calculator in S-mobiili allows customers to check the domestic origin of the raw materials and manufacture of the products they buy.
• In our grocery stores, the Hyvää Suomesta label is also included in all shelf labels of Finnish products.
• Together with ProAgria, we provide food producers with future-focused coaching sessions.
• With the Finnish Recipe for Success competition, we give small and medium-sized Finnish food companies an opportunity to present their products for sale on the shelves of our grocery stores.
• Together with the Finnish Food Information Association, we provide schoolchildren with food education with the “Trip to the Store” concept.

Read more about our actions to promote Finnish food from S Group's annual report and sustainability review.

Value-based consumption is gaining increasing emphasis, and as a major operator, we have an important role to play in and the responsibility for helping our customers make sustainable choices. We listen to our customers’ wishes and seek and develop new ways in which to take them into account.

• S-mobiili’s My Purchases service offers carbon footprint, Finnish origin and restaurant calculators. It also includes a price comparison tool.
• Since late 2021, Sokos Hotels customers have been able to off¬set the carbon footprint of their overnight stays and breakfasts at Sokos Hotels. The hotel chain is the first in Finland to offer private customers the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint.The cost of offsetting will be low, as the long-term climate work done by S Group and the hotels has already been taken into account. The partner in the offsetting is the Finnish company Compensate.
• There are currently 12 Sokos Hotels to which the Sustainable Travel Finland label has been granted and we aim to get the rest on board during 2022 and 2023.
• Sokos offers the Tailor Guide service in its online store with the aim of making it easier for customers to purchase clothes online.
• Rekki second hand opened its Rekki Shop-in-shop, where people can buy high-quality second hand clothing and accessories, or take them there for sale – at Sokos Tampere in June 2021.
• Several of our Cooperative Societies offer Parkkinat Parking lot jumble sales where customers can sell their goods in the parking lots on flea market days without a separate charge.
• We offer service points for bicycles and sports equipment at Prisma stores Kaari in Helsinki an in Rauma.
• S-Bank is among the pioneers in the sustainability and impact of investment activities.
• S-Bank’s podcast on sustainable investment discusses topical themes and phenomena related to money, sustainability and investment, as well as their backgrounds, under the lead of industry experts.

In addition to domestic origin, animal welfare is also an important element of the responsibility of food to our customers. S Group is committed to responsible procurement, as well as to respecting and promoting animal welfare. Our animal welfare policy has species-specific requirements.

• We require that the primary production, transport, handling and slaughter of production animals are performed without causing unnecessary suffering. In the supply chain of animal-based products, valid regulations on the protection of animals must be followed, and the natural and species-specific needs of the animals must be respected.
• We want to promote animal welfare beyond the requirements of legislation and to develop conditions so that the animals have more possibilities to move, stretch their legs and enjoy outdoor air and their foot health is improved.
• We encourage producers to develop their production towards methods that allow animals to move (e.g. free-range pastures and free farrowing). However, changes to production facilities require significant investment by producers, so an appropriate transition period should be allowed.
• We will discontinue the sale of enriched cage eggs in stages by the end of 2026. Our hotels and restaurants discontinued the use of enriched cage eggs by the en of 2021. The change will be implemented in two stages at S Group’s grocery stores: the sale of enriched cage eggs under the Kotimaista brand will be discontinued by the end of 2023, and the sale of other enriched cage eggs will be discontinued gradually by the end of 2026. This policy also concerns S Group’s Prisma stores and hotels in Estonia.
• In meat production, we are committed to compliance with stricter restrictions on antibiotics than the regulations require. The excessive use of antibiotics leads to ever stronger antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. This is a global problem.
• We do not approve of routine antibiotic medication or antibiotic feed for healthy animals. Antibiotics must only be used when prescribed by a veterinarian, and their use must be limited to treating sick animals.
• In the future, we will require all suppliers that produce our private label products using foreign meat to comply with S Group’s best practices and requirements for using antibiotics.

Many different forms of energy will be used in Finnish transport for a long time, and that is why they all must be good, sustainable and developing. Our aim is that Finnish people could drive more sustainably irrespective of the power source. It is important that we look for cost-efficient and technically feasible solutions to reduce the fossil emissions of transport now and in the future.

• S Group aims to build a network of ABC charging stations for electric cars covering the whole country during 2021–2024. By the end of 2021, 50 of our locations already had ABC-lataus charging stations. The charging station network uses renewable electricity. For further information about the charging points, please visit here (in Finnish). In addition to the ABC-lataus, the electrical charging stations of our partners can be found at more than a hundred S Group outlets or locations.
• Biofuel is also mixed in the liquid fuels we sell. It reduces the traffic emissions. In 2021, biofuels reduced the total emissions from liquid fuels by 530,000 tonnes compared to liquid fuels of fossil origin. In 2030, biofuels will represent 30 per cent of all liquid fuels.
• In 2021, 78% of biofuel raw materials were based on waste materials and leftovers. Part of the biowaste used as raw material is collected from our own outlets.
• ABC’s range of fuels also includes the Eko E85 high-level ethanol blend which reduces the fossil carbon dioxide emissions of cars by up to 80%. In June 2021, the ABC chain also began selling the new fossil-free Nero Diesel. It is a diesel fuel made entirely from renewable materials and allows reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared to regular diesel.