1818
based on law and good corporate governance, openness, fairness
and confidentiality. The Code of Conduct contains the company's
commitment to fighting bribery and corruption, compliance with all
competition laws, and engaging in collaboration and dialogue with
stakeholders. Oriola promotes equality. For example, the recruitment
of new employees is based on their expertise and skills, regardless
of cultural background, age, gender or religion. The company also
requires all employees to commit to confidentiality obligations and
avoiding conflicts of interest. Oriola has a confidential whistleblow-
ing channel for reporting actions that are suspected to be in violation
of the Code of Conduct. The company's Board of Directors monitors
compliance with the Code of Conduct. The training has been com-
pleted by over 3 500 employees from the end of the year 2017. Train-
ing is part of onboarding process for all employees.
ESG risk management
Oriola assesses ESG risks (environment, social and governance) as
part of the regular risk management process. Oriola has identified
the following most significant ESG risks: information security, and
transition risks related to climate change, such as changes in fossil
fuel pricing, environmental regulation becoming stricter, as well as
consumers' increasing demands for ethical, transparent and envi-
ronmentally sustainable products and services.
Oriola responds to these challenges and sees business opportu-
nities in systematic development of environmental work. Oriola
follows the development of environmental legislation. Commit-
ment to reducing CO2 emissions is a selection criterion for Oriola’s
transport partners. Oriola evaluates product sustainability in its as-
sortment decisions and develops its own products to meet the in-
creasing demands of consumers. In addition, Oriola develops con-
sumer-oriented health services in its pharmacies in Sweden.
In Finland, Oriola has developed Real World Evidence research,
which combines health data from national registers with patient
experience information. Information is collected from patients on a
research platform developed by the company, based on a fair data
economy. The research platform has been developed as part of The
Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra's IHAN® project on Fair Data Economy,
which creates new services and solutions by utilising personal infor-
mation with the permission of the users.
Environmental responsibility
Oriola´s environmental work is based on the ISO 14 001 framework
for environmental management, which, as part of Oriola's com-
mon management system, creates consistent ways of working for
the entire company. In Sweden, Oriola Sweden AB and Svensk Dos
AB are functions that have been certified according to the environ-
mental management standard. Oriola´s Environmental Policy out-
lines the commitment to reduce the environmental impacts of the
company’s operations and steers decision-making.
One of Oriola´s long-term sustainability goal is to become a carbon-
neutral company by 2030. Carbon neutrality means reducing the
company’s carbon emissions to zero. Oriola´s carbon footprint con-
sists of three emission groups: direct emissions, which include for
example, own fuel use and refrigerant leaks, emissions from pur-
chased energy, and other emissions in the supply chain. The carbon
footprint has been calculated in accordance with the Greenhouse
Gas Protocol accounting principles and covers the entire company.
Environmental responsibility: targets and results
Oriola´s intermediate targets for environmental responsibility are,
that by 2022 all energy used in the company's properties is renew-
able and at least 85% of all non-pharmaceutical waste is recycled.
In 2020, the company took a significant leap in renewable energy uti-
lisation, as the Mankkaa property in Finland switched to the use of re-
newable district heating. With the change, 92% of the energy used by
the Oriola comes from renewable sources (77%/2019). The transition
to district heating also had a significant impact on the company's to-
tal CO2 emissions.
Oriola’s operations aim at reducing waste, using materials effective-
ly and ensuring that the recycling rate is as high as possible. Oriola
delivers products from its distribution centres to recipients mainly
in reusable transport boxes. This way, the company contributes to
minimising the amount of packaging waste in the logistics chain of
the products it distributes.
Most of the waste generated in Oriola's operations comes from the
packaging materials of the goods arriving at its warehouses and distri-
bution centres. Enhancing waste recycling is one of the key initiatives
of Oriola’s environmental work. Possibilities to sort waste have been
systematically increased in the recent years, and in 2020, the company
started for example collecting plastic packaging in Finnish office prem-
ises and recycling the wooden pallets at the Swedish central ware-
house. As a result, Oriola's recycling rate increased from 71% to 74%.
Transport is Oriola's largest source of indirect emissions, as suppli-
ers are responsible for the entire transport network. Close coopera-
tion with transport partners makes it possible to reduce emissions by
optimising routes, using capacity efficiently and expanding the use of
alternative fuels, among other things. The emissions can also be im-
pacted at distribution centres, for example, by improving the filling
rate of transport boxes, which reduces the number of boxes delivered
to customers. The company monitors transport emissions by requiring
transport partners to report the emissions on regular basis. Transport
emissions account for nearly 30% of Oriola’s total CO2 emissions.
Social responsibility
Ensuring pharmaceutical safety and the availability of pharmaceuti-
cals is the highest priority in Oriola’s operations and the company´s
most societally significant task. Pharmaceuticals must be delivered
safely and on-time irrespective of external conditions. Oriola’s opera-
tions are designed to ensure that pharmaceuticals with marketing
authorisation are continuously available and that they are handled in
a manner compliant with the pharmaceutical sector's regulatory re-
quirements. Oriola’s pharmacy chain Kronans Apotek in Sweden, as
well as the company´s comprehensive patient support services and
dose-dispensing services promote safe usage of pharmaceuticals.
Oriola´s long-term sustainability goal is to improve people´s health.
To achieve this goal, the company has set the intermediate targets
of developing new health-promoting services, ensuring high-quali-
ty pharmaceutical deliveries in its operating countries, and extend-
ing the range of sustainable products to cover 20% of the private
label assortment in Sweden by 2022.
In 2020, advancing this goal became a special priority due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic that hit the company's operating
countries in March has created an unprecedented need for health se-
curity. Oriola has been able to bring services to the market, especially
through its own Kronans Apotek pharmacy chain, that have helped
Report of the Board of Directors
Oriola Financial review 2020