Changing attitudes, step by step

The stylish offices of the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto in Kamppi, Helsinki are actually home to more than one organisation. Maintaining a shared environmental management system could be difficult for the offices of many small organisations, but at Teosto things are taken care of.

“Every organisation in the building has its own representative on our Green Office team. Cooperation took some getting used to at first, but now it’s going very well. We raise Green Office matters in various ways, for example at our joint coffee meetings one Friday a month,” explains Teosto’s Service Advisor Anu Prinkkilä.

The other companies sharing the Kamppi premises with Teosto are the Society of Finnish Composers; the Finnish Music Publishers Association; Säveltäjät ja Sanoittajat Elvis ry (an organisation for composers and lyricists); Music Finland; the audiovisual copyright organisation Tuotos; and Audiovisual Finland.

“We have received plenty of support from WWF’s Green Office specialists when we needed it, which has been a great help.”

Putting the environment first

With the help of the environmental programme, transport emissions have been reduced significantly, amongst other improvements. Cooperation with other organisations in the sector throughout Europe has in the past meant a lot of air travel. Nowadays, however, more and more meetings are done through videoconferencing. Cutting down on flights has reduced emissions, but also costs.

“Although many of the Green Office measures bring cost savings, in our view we believe the main motivation must be concern for the environment. Taking it into account is essential,” says Prinkkilä.

Teosto became a Green Office in 2009, and moved to its current premises in 2014. Moving to the city centre has encouraged staff to use public transport. At the same time, the added flexibility of remote working has made work easier.

“Changes take time, especially changes to attitudes. It took some time to get the idea of remote working accepted, but after beginning the practice we received only positive feedback,” says Prinkkilä.

Uniting forces

Gradual attitude changes have also extended to sorting waste.

“I often find that my colleagues will ask at the rubbish bins, ‘which one does this belong to?’ In the past, it wasn’t self-evident that anyone would have even noticed such things, but now these matters are discussed, and people make an effort to sort waste properly,” says Helena Koskinen, who is on Teosto’s Green Office team.

There are also other new things in the kitchen. Instead of disposable cups, there are reusable mugs with lids beside the water cooler and the coffee machine, and they are in active use.

In addition to the everyday measures, Teosto’s team has also developed joint activities for the whole office. On the flea market day, for instance, the meeting room is converted into a flea market, where everyone brings something to sell, and everyone goes there to bargain-hunt at the end of the working day. The staff trip to the Kaisaniemi Botanical Gardens was very popular.

“The outing got so much positive feedback that we’re going to do the same thing again soon,” says Koskinen.