Significant emission reductions through long-term climate work

Situation

A-Katsastus Group is Finland’s leading provider of inspections, condition evaluations and registration services for vehicles. In addition to inspection services, the Group includes Ajovarma, a company specializing driving permits and road traffic licensing services. The Group’s service offering also covers the the sale of car equipment.

The company’s primary goal is to improve road safety and reduce the environmental impact of harmful emissions from traffic. Corporate responsibility is an integral part of A-Katsastus Group’s strategy, with reducing the carbon footprint being one of its key sustainability priorities.

Challenge

To effectively address its climate impacts, A-Katsastus Group first needed to establish a clear baseline through a carbon footprint assessment. A key challenge was to gain a more systematic understanding of the Group’s climate impacts, assess future emission development, and elevate climate work to a more strategic level within decision-making.

Annual carbon footprint calculations alone were not sufficient to answer the most critical questions for A‑Katsastus Group’s climate work, such as what actions should be taken to reduce emissions, which measures would have the greatest impact, and whether the planned actions would be sufficient in relation to stakeholder expectations and targets based on the Paris Agreement.

Solution

To better understand its climate impacts, A‑Katsastus Group has been calculating its organizational carbon footprint since 2021 in collaboration with UseLess Company. The carbon footprint calculation is based on the widely used GHG Protocol standards and covers the company’s key emission sources from its own operations (scopes 1 and 2) as well as from its value chain (scope 3). Annual carbon footprint calculations, including year‑on‑year comparisons and concise analyses, enable the company to track both its total carbon footprint and the development of greenhouse gas emissions at the category level.

In 2024, A‑Katsastus Group identified the need to develop a climate roadmap, which made it possible to elevate climate work to a more strategic level within the organization. UseLess Company developed a climate roadmap for A‑Katsastus Group extending all the way to 2050. Through this modeling, the company gained a clearer view of its future climate impacts and was able to manage its climate work in a more systematic way.

As A‑Katsastus Group’s largest emission sources arise from energy use in its properties, the climate roadmap focused primarily on energy-related measures, while still taking the value chain into account. The measures were modeled across multiple scenarios, of which the business‑as‑usual scenario provided the clearest visibility into the effectiveness and sufficiency of planned actions in relation to science‑based climate targets.

Systematic measurement of climate impacts and the setting of climate targets provided A‑Katsastus Group with the level of understanding and transparency needed to embed climate work into everyday business operations. The climate roadmap was also integrated into the climate roadmap of its owner, Cooperative Tradeka

Next steps

Monitoring climate impacts is a key part of A‑Katsastus Group’s sustainability work, and carbon footprint calculations will continue through 2026. The results of their climate work have so far been highly encouraging: for example, in 2025 the company succeeded in reducing its total carbon footprint by 16 %, primarily through changes in heating solutions, reductions in energy consumption, and the increased use of low‑emission energy.

Long-term work does not end here – there is still more to be done both within operations and across the value chain. However, the achieved results have clearly demonstrated that the measures taken have had a real impact, providing confidence and momentum to continue developing climate work in a systematic and well-managed way.

“Genuine project expertise, sticking to schedules and agreed matters, combined with professional execution that listens to and understands the customer. UseLess Company is a genuinely enthusiastic partner that takes the time to understand the customer’s business.”

Jari Punkka, Real Estate Director, A-Katsastus Group