Organisational responsibility | About Kela | KelaSkip to content

Organisational responsibility

The goal of our responsibility work is to promote sustainable wellbeing that is accessible to all – future generations included.

Kela’s mission is to support access to the basic components of wellbeing: we secure our customers’ livelihood, promote health and provide support for our customers’ functional capacity in different life situations. Our operations have a significant impact on society.

By engaging in responsibility work, we ensure that we promote equity and safeguard human rights, stay within environmentally sustainable limits in our operations and bolster sustainable governance. In this way, we promote sustainable wellbeing and strengthen trust in our shared system.

Kela’s strategic sustainability policy

Kela’s strategic sustainability policy sets the priorities for our operations and ensures that we focus on the most impactful sustainability issues. The policy sets out how we can operate in a more sustainable way in relation to our customers, the environment, our partner organisations and society as a whole.

Our sustainability policy comprises the following principles:

  1. Social sustainability is foundational to trust.
    • We offer everyone equally the services they need.
    • We strengthen our shared basic values by securing human rights.
  2. By acting in an environmentally sustainable way, we create a secure basis for wellbeing.
    • We work systematically to support common environmental goals and to combat the loss of biodiversity.
    • We promote sustainability by adopting resource-smart solutions and practices.
  3. Sustainable governance helps us to support social stability.
    • We strengthen public trust.
    • We use public resources in a sustainable way.

At Kela, we promote social sustainability by supporting equity among our customers and employees, safeguarding human rights, encouraging participation and welcoming a diverse range of voices. As a provider of social protection and public authority, Kela has a particular responsibility when it comes to promoting equity and human rights. By engaging in these efforts, we also strengthen trust in our shared system.

The promotion of equity is at the core of our operations

  • We work to improve our understanding of the diversity of our customer base and their various needs and develop cost-effective services that are easy to use and promote equity among our customers.
  • We make certain that all voices are heard, focusing particularly on the inclusion of our more vulnerable customer segments, who may be at risk of social inequality.
  • We make conscious efforts to remove barriers to equity.
  • We create conditions where everyone is seen and where everyone has equal opportunities to participate.

Human rights as a fundamental value and right

  • We identify and evaluate the direct and indirect risks that our operations pose in terms of the implementation of human rights.
  • In our operations, we strive to promote human rights and to identify risks that may prevent their implementation.

Sustainable wellbeing requires us to honour the limits of environmental sustainability. The ongoing environmental crisis gives rise to escalating inequality and health risks, while making subsistence more difficult. These detrimental effects often hit the hardest against those who are already in the most vulnerable position. By participating in the fight against environmental challenges, we can create a basis for economic security and health for all – both now and in the future.

Our sustainability agenda is based on environmental responsibility

  • We make conscious and determined efforts to reduce our impact on the climate.
  • We strive to improve the sustainability of our procurements.
  • We promote digitalisation, where technological solutions promote sustainability.
  • We make more efficient use of our premises and make decisions that help us use our resources wisely.
  • We employ the ekotuki model (ekotuki.fi, in Finnish) to ensure a more ecologically sustainable working environment.

Sustainable governance is an operating principle that ensures that ecological, social and long-term impacts are taken into account in the organisation’s operations.

By ensuring that our operations comply with the criteria of sustainable governance, we strengthen trust in our shared system and contribute to social stability – both key prerequisites for achieving sustainable wellbeing.

Sustainable governance as a guiding principle

  • We promote ethical practices.
  • We improve transparency and the efficiency of our administration.
  • We ensure that public resources will be available for future generations.
  • We ensure data security.
  • We use new technologies responsibly.
  • When we make decisions, we assess their ecological and social aspects and their impacts in the long term.

Implementing our sustainability policy in practice

Sustainability is a goal with strategic importance to Kela and one that moves us towards the future we have envisioned. We promote the different facets of sustainability through sustained efforts and strategic management. We also promote sustainability in our daily work and our daily encounters with each other – we build the basis for wellbeing together.

  • We remove barriers to equity in accordance with our non-discrimination plans that apply to both our customers and employees.
  • We improve our understanding of our customers’ needs and give them more say in the development of our services.
  • We regularly assess and develop our ethical guidelines with regard to operating procedures such as the use of artificial intelligence.
  • We monitor our climate emissions in accordance with the GHG protocol and reduce them through measures such as using our premises more efficiently and by improving our resource efficiency.
  • We constantly strive to improve how we assess and manage the impact of our procurements.
  • We educate our employees on themes related to sustainability by, for instance, organising regular information sessions (vastuullisuusvartti).

 

Our responsibility agenda is grounded in our strategy

Kela’s strategic sustainability policy is based on six key themes with instrumental importance for Kela. These themes are equity and human rights, climate and nature preservation efforts, resource-smart operations, societal trust and the sustainable use of public resources.

Kela’s strategic sustainability policy (PDF)

Read our annual report for a detailed look at the results of our efforts

Kela’s latest sustainability report presents the results of the previous year’s responsibility work.

Sustainability Report 2024 (PDF, in Finnish)
Last modified 23/5/2025