Castrén & Snellman’s climate work has entered a new phase: this summer the firm completed its first carbon footprint calculation. As a member of the UN Global Compact, the firm is committed to the UN’s sustainable development goals and to taking action against climate change.
2.9.2020
Castrén & Snellman Maps Carbon Footprint – Commits to 25% Emissions Reduction by 2025
Anna Kuusniemi-Laine
Tags
‘In order to take action, we have to know where we stand. This carbon footprint calculation will help us get a handle on our climate impact. We have a long history of developing the sustainability of our business. We were the first Finnish law firm to join the WWF’s Green Office programme, and the work we have now started to reduce our emissions is a natural next step for us’, says Managing Partner Sakari Lukinmaa.
Calculating our carbon footprint is part of our firm’s sustainability work. We were assisted in the calculation by Gaia Consulting.
EMISSIONS 750 METRIC TONS IN 2019, 25% REDUCTION TARGET BY 2025
Castrén & Snellman’s carbon footprint in 2019 was approximately 750 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e). The figure corresponds to the carbon footprint of 75 average Finns. The firm’s largest emissions sources are business travel and heating, which make up about 80% of its footprint: business travel accounts for approximately 50% and heating for approximately 30%.
‘The most important function of this calculation is to spur us on in reducing our climate impact. We have now set a comprehensive emissions reduction target. We are going to reduce our emissions by 25% from our 2019 level by 2025. We plan to start with the largest items in our footprint, which are business travel and heating’, says Castrén & Snellman’s Head of Sustainability, Anna Kuusniemi-Laine.
Curbing climate change will also take removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In addition to reducing emissions, Castrén & Snellman is now committed to offsetting its annual emissions.
‘We will include all our personnel in deciding the form that this will take’, says Kuusniemi-Laine.
The firm has previously offset its air travel emissions.
Castrén & Snellman’s carbon footprint calculation is based on the GHG Protocol standards, the globally most widely used model for calculating the climate impact of organisations.
‘One of the goals of Finland’s current Government Programme is for Finland to be carbon neutral by 2035—and every little bit can make a difference. This emissions reduction target applies to every sector, and the pressure to make climate-smart decisions is set to continue growing. A increasingly wide range of Finnish legislation has also begun taking and encouraging a climate-oriented approach. Understanding their own carbon footprint will help Castrén & Snellman better understand their clients’ climate goals’, says Anna Heino of Gaia Consulting.
MORE WORK IN REFINING THE FOOTPRINT AND MONITORING TARGETS
Moving forward, Carbon footprint calculations will now form part of Castrén & Snellman’s annual sustainability work, and the firm intends to further refine its understanding of its climate impact and monitor its emissions goals.
‘Our emissions for 2020 already look very different from last year. We intend to continually monitor our goals and are prepared to raise the bar for our targets if necessary’, says Anna Kuusniemi-Laine.
For more information, please contact:
Anna Kuusniemi-Laine, Head of Sustainability, Partner, Castrén & Snellman, tel. +358 20 7765 423
Sakari Lukinmaa, Managing Partner, Castrén & Snellman, tel. +358 20 7765 391
More information on our sustainability work.
Latest news
Latest references
International reinsurance companies – Ad hoc arbitration proceedings
We successfully represented a panel of reinsurance companies in an international ad hoc arbitration. The dispute arose out of a reinsurance treaty under the terms of which the reinsurers had reinsured a portfolio of risks underwritten by the cedent. The parties disagreed as to whether the reinsurance provided coverage for a certain loss that had occurred because of the market turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The case involved highly complex legal and contractual questions requiring special expertise on reinsurance law and practice. The arbitral tribunal rejected the counterparty’s claims for reinsurance compensation against our clients in full. The amount in dispute was approximately EUR 34 million.
Case published 16.9.2025
byFounders.vc – DataCrunch’s USD 64 million Series A funding round
We supported byFounders.vc as the Finnish counsel in their investment in DataCrunch Oy in a USD 64 million Series A funding round. DataCrunch provides scalable AI compute solutions from energy-efficient data centers in Iceland and Finland. byFounders.vc is the community-powered early-stage venture fund investing in globally ambitious teams connected to the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Case published 11.9.2025
Springvest – ReOrbit’s EUR 45 million Series A funding round
We advised Springvest Oyj in organising a EUR 45 million Series A funding round for ReOrbit, a space technology company and a leading provider of software-first satellites. It’s the largest all-equity Series A round in Finland and one of the most significant deals overall in the European space and defence sector. The purpose of the funding round is to support ReOrbit’s growth. The round consisted of a private placement reserved for professional and institutional investors, which included, e.g. Icebreaker.vc, Expansion VC, 10xFounders, Inventure VC, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and an EUR 8 million public share offering, which was oversubscribed within 4.5 hours. Springvest is a Finland-based investment firm that connects unlisted growth companies with investors. ReOrbit builds sovereign satellites and connected systems for national security.
Case published 9.9.2025
Ten Eleven Ventures & Tesi – EUR 275 million Series B financing round of IQM Quantum Computers
Castrén & Snellman advised the lead investors Ten Eleven Ventures and Tesi in the EUR 275 million Series B financing round of IQM Quantum Computers, the global leader in building quantum computers. The round is largest Series B round ever in Finland and the second largest in the Nordics. In addition to the lead investors represented by C&S, the round was participated by several new and existing investors, including pension funds Elo Mutual Pension Insurance and Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, strategic investors Companies of Schwarz Group and Winbond Electronics Corporation, and sovereign wealth funds EIC and Bayern Kapital. Ten Eleven Ventures is the original cybersecurity-focused, global, and stage-agnostic investment firm. The firm identifies, invests in, and helps grow top cybersecurity companies addressing critical digital security needs, leveraging its team, network, and experience to build successful businesses. Since its founding, Ten Eleven Ventures has raised over USD 1 billion and made over 60 cybersecurity investments across various stages worldwide. Tesi (Suomen Teollisuussijoitus Oy / Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned investment company with an industrial policy mission focused on driving economic growth, renewal, and investments. Tesi invests on market terms both in venture capital and private equity funds, and directly in startups, scale-ups, and large industrial projects. IQM Quantum Computers, founded as a deep tech spin-off from Aalto University in 2019, specialises in developing quantum computers utilizing superconducting circuits. The company designs and produces quantum processors at its facility in Espoo, providing computing solutions and optimizations tailored to both research and industrial applications. In addition to its Finnish operations, IQM has expanded its presence to Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States.
Case published 4.9.2025