Category: Yleinen

calendar_month 29.1.2026
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Noora Mäkiaho wrote

We received an international sustainability certification

Biosphere – Sustainability Certification

What does the certification mean?

The Biosphere Sustainable certification is awarded to companies that are committed to the principles of sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The certification covers three key areas:

Environmental Responsibility – We focus on reducing emissions, using resources efficiently, and adopting environmentally friendly practices.

Social responsibility – We care for our staff, our customers, and the local community.

Economic responsibility – We operate transparently and ethically, while supporting the local economy.

Responsibility is important to us

Responsibility is not a new concept for us. We have long worked to ensure that our services are as environmentally friendly as possible and that we can offer a safe and comfortable travel experience to all our customers.

This certification is concrete proof that we are on the right track. It encourages us to continue our work to develop even better and more responsible travel services.

Follow us on social media

We want to openly share what sustainability means to us in practice. We’ll be sharing concrete examples of our everyday sustainability efforts—both big and small—on social media. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date!

Here’s an example of how we support our local community: Matka Mäkelä’s #softtrips safely transport Keuruu’s soccer players and staff to their destination 🧡⚽️.

You can also read our previous articles about our sustainability efforts here (in Finnish):

Thank you!

We would like to thank all our customers, partners, and staff for this achievement. Together, we are making travel more responsible and meaningful.

Learn more about our sustainability efforts on the Biosphere Sustainable website.

Let’s keep working together to promote sustainability!

Wishing you sunny days,
Noora Mäkiaho

Pallo blogiin

 

calendar_month 22.12.2025
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Johanna Noropirtti wrote

Sustainable Travel Finland 

Tourism is a growing industry that creates jobs and provides vital income for local communities. At the same time, climate change is making extreme weather more common and effecting where people choose to travel.
That is why also tourism industry must be built on sustainable and responsible choices. Sustainable travel is  how we can respond to climate change.

Climate change impacts the North especially hard. That is why we need Sustainable Travel Finland.

Sustainable travel is more than just a carbon footprint. It has three different dimensions: ecological, sociocultural and economic.

  • Ecological means how a business recycles, monitors its carbon footprint, and takes action to reduce it.
  • Sosiocultural means how a business respects local communities and culture, ensures accessibility, and treats customers and staff equally.
  • Economic means using local labor and making sustainable investments.

Sustainable work in Finland

Visit Finland has developed the Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) programme to help travel companies and destinations improve their sustainability. You can read more about Sustainable Travel Finland here.

In practise, STF is a journey where company evaluates its operations, work habits, investments, and future plans from a sustainability perspective. Companies must be honest and critical when assessing their methods and making necessary changes. After these steps, they can earn the STF label – a symbol that sustainability and responsibility are core values. The label is reviewed every two years to track progress.

We started our Sustainable Travel Finland journey at the end of 2022 and are still on this path. But how do sustainability and responsibility show up in our everyday work?

Our values

We have defined four main values in our strategy: safety, quality, caring and responsibility.

  • Responsibility means we work to improve sustainability in the travel industry and maintain our competitiveness responsibly.
  • Safety means we offer a safe and healthy work environment.
  • Quality means we deliver excellent services and experiences and that is why we carefully monitor our customers feedback.
  • Caring means we believe the community’s well-being depends on individual welfare. That is why we look after ourselves and each other.

How we take action

Our customers and staff have always been important to us. We employ local people and provide public transportation to keep rural areas vital and make it possible for people to live in the countryside.

We renovated our bus garage and our office, switched to a more environmentally friendly heating system, which we made in cooperation with many local companies.

Everyone can take part in sustainable action. These do not have to be big gestures. You can build a bug hotel or birdhouse next spring, for instance. Sustainability is about everyday choices, small actions, and the desire to keep moving forward. It is a path that never ends but offers new perspectives and connects you with others on the same journey.

Stay tuned! More news about sustainable travel and responsibility coming soon.