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Consumers choose Elovena as Finland’s most sustainable brand

Elovena, an iconic oat brand owned by Raisio, has been named by consumers as the most sustainable brand in Finland.

Raisio

Known particularly for pre-packaged oat flakes and other cereal products, Elovena has been chosen by consumers as the most sustainable brand in Finland, according to Sustainable Brand Index.

The recognisable oat brand took over the top spot from Valio, which had held on to it since the second edition of the index in 2014.

“Elovena manages to balance traditional values with modern topics such as climate change and renewable packaging,” analysedErik Elvingsson Hedén, founder of Sustainable Brand Index. “This is appreciated by Finnish consumers who value both tradition and sustainability.”

Raisio, the company behind Elovena, welcomed the news as evidence of public appreciation of not only its use of domestic ingredients and production sites, but also its investments in production, carbon-neutral energy and climate-friendly packagings.

“We have built an entire factory to produce new responsible products. This way, responsibility is an inherent part of our operations and we are not concentrating exclusively on mitigating negative impacts,” commentedSari Koivulehto-Mäkitalo, head of responsibility at Raisio.

“We have accomplished a lot to eliminate emissions from our own production, so going forward we can take impactful action outside the gates of our factories. For example, we are interested in how to mitigate the emissions created in the production of raw materials with our contract farmers and how to preserve natural biodiversity.”

The top 10 of the index was rounded out by Valio, S Group, Fiskars, VR, Kotimaista, Myllyn Paras, Fazer, Prisma and K-Market. Some of the other brands and stores that fared best in their respective sectors were Yliopiston Apteekki, Paulig, Partioaitta, Finlayson, Sokos Hotels, Lumene and S Bank.

Sweden’s H&M made the most meteoric rise from the previous year by climbing 53 spots in the ranking.

In Finland, consumer interest in sustainability has increased markedly over the lifetime of the survey – from 36 per cent in 2013 to 60 per cent in 2022, including four percentage-point increase in 2021–2022.

Sustainable Brand Index is Europe’s largest independent brand sustainability survey. Its Finnish edition covers 214 brands in 26 sectors and is based on responses collected from 9 150 consumers between December 2021 and February 2022.

The respondents were asked to assess brands’ perceived performance in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

By: Aleksi Teivainen
05.04.2022