A sustainable way of working and economic sustainability lay a solid foundation for the operations of the NLS. Reliability in all operations has long been one of the strengths of the NLS, based on various stakeholder surveys. In the context of public administration, economic sustainability also means using public finances sustainably, thus producing as much added value to society and its citizens as possible.
The goals defined in the NLS sustainability programme are:
- In our operations, we foster reliability, interactivity and transparency, and develop our sustainability skills.
- We use our resources responsibly and develop operational effectiveness.
In 2024, we will promote the following sustainability acts:
- We will improve our services by preparing the principles of a customer-driven language and implementing them in different change projects.
- We will increase proactivity and transparency in procurement, as well as the sustainable use of resources, by preparing a procurement plan for strategic procurement.
- We will prepare a plan to determine how sustainability can be a built-in feature of all our development activities.
In 2023, we promoted the following sustainability acts:
- Every National Land Survey team/group/department selects and implements a sustainability act each year. We also encourage other groups to implement their own sustainability acts. We will share our actions and experiences openly.
- We will provide accessibility training for our staff and review the necessary tools.
- All our staff will undergo basic and further training on data protection (Tietosuojan ABC training).
- We will actively monitor and rationalise how we use office space in cooperation with the landlord. Moving to shared government offices is a key component.
- We will identify purchased IT services that have significant environmental impacts. We will examine the sustainability of IT procurement chains.
In 2022, we promoted the following sustainability acts:
- We develop our sustainability competence through the recruitment of a sustainability specialist and critical external assessment of the sustainability report.
- We ensure the implementation of sustainability aspects in our procurement operations and in the guidelines related to supply chains. In 2022, we will focus on examining the procurement chain of IT service production.
- We aim to have 1,5 per cent development in annual productivity. Positive productivity development is favourably reflected in the use of financial resources. Effective action reduces the growth pressure on customer prices, for example.
The Best Practices at NLS
The Best Practices at NLS publication includes the organisation’s key principles. They have been compiled under five themes: economic sustainability; leadership and work community skills; legality and good administration; openness and privacy principles; and risk management. Of these, risk management was added to the programme in May 2024. The principles are summarised in the publication intended for stakeholders, which is supplemented by the manual of best practices and online training for the personnel.
Best Practices at NLS publication (pdf)
We take accessibility into account
The Act on the Provision of Digital Services, implementing the EU Accessibility Directive, entered into force in 2019. ‘Accessibility’ refers to the provision of digital services in a manner that ensures that they are accessible to everyone in terms of communications, structure and technology, whatever special needs users may have.
In 2019, the NLS completed a project to update electronic services to fulfil the requirements of the new accessibility legislation and ensure that the requirements were considered in the future development and procurement of new applications.
To ensure and develop accessibility in the future, the NLS appointed an accessibility team in the early spring of 2020 to coordinate questions and contact related to the accessibility of websites. The team is also responsible for providing the personnel with internal guidance and instructions in matters related to accessibility.
Sustainable economy
Approximately two thirds of the funding of the NLS comes from customers, and one third comes from the Government’s budget funding. The share of the latter in operations and funding has decreased in recent years due to the balancing measures of the national budget. The share of customer-funded operations has increased, driven by higher demand. The majority of income-funded operations comprise public services, in which pricing is based transparently on covering operating expenses.
A sign of economic sustainability is the fact that even though the NLS’s area of sustainability has grown and the amount of budget funding has decreased, we have successfully met our customers’ expectations. This is apparent in our customer satisfaction ratings.
We control the pressure to minimise costs by deliberately working towards improving the productivity of our work. The development of our productivity has already been positive for several years now. The number of personnel has decreased through retirement, positions have been partly filled by internal transfers, facility rents have decreased thanks to the reorganisation of facilities, and the efficiency of our operations has improved. Information system development projects also support the improvement of productivity.
Read more in the sustainability report
In the National Land Survey’s sustainability report for 2023 (pdf), you can read more about how methods of work are developed and the economy is taken care of.