SATO’s sustainability report 2021: Sustainable housing as a foundation of a new strategy

SATOs sustainability report for 2021 has been published. In 2021 we refined our strategy, expanded the house expert model and invested in rental apartments near good public transportation routes and services.

We made sustainability one of the three cornerstones of our new strategy. Customer experience, sustainability and sustainable housing, and SATO employees now lie at the core of our strategy.

“We want to be closely involved in our customers’ daily lives in order to serve them in the best possible way. We further expanded the house expert operating model in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Tampere and Turku. The purpose of our house expert operating model is to create a better customer experience and more efficient maintenance”, SATO's CEO Antti Aarnio says.

For SATO, sustainability is about concrete actions that can be seen in everything we do.

“We build homes that stand the test of time and we take care of them in line with the life-cycle principles. We enable sustainable housing for our residents and encourage them to make sustainable choices in their daily lives”, Aarnio continues.

Sustainable housing

In 2021, we deepened our understanding of the risks and opportunities arising from climate change in line with the TCFD framework: We conducted an extensive assessment of the risks and opportunities arising from climate change for SATO’s entire supply chain and a 2- and 4-degree scenario analysis.

We did not reach our energy saving target during 2021: apartments needed to be heated more than normal due to the colder period, and as the COVID-19 pandemic continued, we had to postpone some of the most significant energy saving investments. This is why the CO₂ emissions resulting from our operations grew. We were able to save water compared to 2020, but we did not reach our target.

In 2021 SATO invested EUR 167.1 million in its housing portfolio. During the year under review, we invested around EUR 93.6 million in repairing and improving the quality of apartments, of which repair investments accounted for a total of EUR 75.9 million.

A total of 235 rental apartments and 71 owner-occupied apartments were completed in 2021. Renovations on a total of 354 rental apartments were completed during the reporting year. On 31 December 2021, 1,100 rental apartments and 52 FlexHomes were under construction, and 422 rental apartments were under renovation.

In November 2021, we agreed on a loan of EUR 80 million with the European Investment Bank. The funding will support renovations that will improve the energy efficiency of SATO’s current rental housing stock in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Turku and Tampere. The renovation projects aim to improve the energy efficiency of properties by at least 30%, while at the same time supporting the EU’s climate change mitigation targets.

T****hree stars in GRESB

We participated in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) assessment for the seventh time. SATO received three stars on a scale of one to five. According to the assessment, SATO’s strengths are, in addition to sustainability reporting, risk management, resident satisfaction and community, stakeholder engagement and comprehensive monitoring, as well as transparent operating principles and reporting.

SATO’s sustainability report is the eighth consecutive report prepared in accordance with the GRI guidelines.

You will find our Sustainability Report at: https://www.sato.fi/annual-report-2021

For more information please contact:

SATO Corporation

CEO Antti Aarnio, p. +358 20 134 4200, antti.aarnio@sato.fi
CFO Markku Honkasalo, tel. +358 20 134 4226, markku.honkasalo@sato.fi Communications Manager, Jenni Rantanen, p. +358 50 386 4381, jenni.rantanen@sato.fi