Ari-Pekka Lassila

Ari-Pekka Lassila, who first joined the company while he was still a tech student, is SYK’s expert on sustainable development.

Environmental Engineer Ari-Pekka Lassila was first hired by SYK for a summer job in 2011 and he’s never looked back.
One reason why he enjoys being part of the SYK team is the spirit of getting things done.

“We operate openly and we have a flat hierarchy. Everyone can genuinely be themselves here. Compared to the size of the company, our group is relatively small and tight-knit. We know our responsibilities and understand how this workplace operates as a system,” says Ari-Pekka, also known by his initials as A-P.

In 2016, A-P was kept busy by a strategic sustainable development project related to the new strategy period. He is responsible for the project’s coordination. SYK aims to recognise its social, economic and environmental footprint and significantly influence all three.

As part of the project, A-P visited all of SYK’s campuses over the summer and interviewed representatives of the higher education institutes that are their tenants. The goal of his tour was to survey the sustainable development status of the universities and assess their needs and wishes towards the property owner.

“We can significantly promote sustainable development through cooperation with our partners. We work together with our stakeholders, including service providers, universities and other customers, to achieve an even higher level of sustainable development,” A-P says.

He found out that the universities have not set many concrete targets or indicators for sustainable development.

“Nevertheless, sustainable development is frequently mentioned in the universities’ strategies. For our part, we want to support the sustainability of our customers’ operations. We have a shared goal, which is promoting sustainable development on campuses. We just have to find the right path towards this common objective,” A-P explains.

In 2016, A-P also focused on developing sustainable development targets and indicators.

“We developed an emission calculation framework that suits our operations and takes regional differences into consideration. We operate in many different parts of the country, so the origin of the energy we purchase varies. We also incorporated emissions data into the monthly consumption reports we deliver to our customers and also improved the reports’ readability in other ways,” he adds.