Tallink Grupp Sustainability in 2023
Tallink Grupp at a glance in 2024
14 Vessels
12 passenger vessels
2 cargo vessels
5 regular routes on the Baltic Sea
3 vessels in charter
Both long-term and medium-term
3.1 M Club One members
4 Hotels
3 in Tallinn
1 in Riga
21 Burger King
restaurants
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
2 stand-alone
restaurants
in Tallinn
>4900 employees
Estonia, Finland, Germany
Latvia, Sweden
Shopping
on board, on shore, online
42 shops on board, 6 on shore, webshop in EST, FIN, SWE, LAT & LIT
2023 Key facts
- Net profit for the year 2023 EUR 78.9 million
- 4912 employees as at 31 December 2023
- 5.7 million passengers transported in 2023
- 450 000 guests in our hotels in 2023
- Tallink Hotel Riga reopened in April 2023 after COVID years
- Shuttle vessel MyStar carries 1.8 million passengers in its first year
- 3.1 million Club One loyalty club members
- 4.7 million purchases in our on board shops
- 2.4 million buffet restaurant visitors in on board restaurants
- Absolute CO2 emissions of our core fleet* reduced by 6% in 2023 (*Core fleet on core company routes include: MyStar, Megastar, Baltic Queen, Silja Serenade, Silja Symphony, Baltic Princess)
- All 4 Tallink Hotels received Green Key certification in 2023
- Ranked 9th among all employers in Estonia in the CV Keskus Most Attractive Employers in Estonia Survey 2023
- Ranked 4th among sustainable brands In Estonia overall in the Sustainable Brands Index 2024, and 2nd among transport sector companies
Sustainability at Tallink Grupp
- On the one hand we continued to take steps to achieve our ESG goals set before the COVID years;
- And on the other hand, we set our sights firmly on the future and started making preparations for new ESG reporting requirements taking effect for us from 2025 onwards, according to the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standard.
The foundation of the new ESG reporting is a thorough Double Materiality analysis, which was the key activity we carried out within Tallink Grupp and engaged also a wide range of our stakeholders and value chain into the process, from Q2 2023 to Q1 2024. As a result of the thorough analysis, we identified the following key impact areas for our group, in line with the ESRS standard.
Tallink Grupp Double Materiality matrix 2024:
The impact areas identified will now form the basis of our ESG activities and reporting for the years to come. Following approval from the Tallink Grupp Management Board of the ESG impact areas and DM matrix in February 2024, the focus now for the rest of 2024 will be on SMART target and KPI setting for each of the material areas, agreeing action plans for achieving the targets, carrying out a data gap analysis, and establishing processes for enhanced ESG data collection and reporting.
2023 Sustainability Highlights
I Environment
Tallink Grupp’s greatest environmental focus is and has been for many years on the reduction of our GHG emissions, most importantly CO2 emissions, but also NOx, Sox, etc. A significant amount of our investments and resources, both human and financial, are directed towards identifying solutions and technologies that will help us reduce our emissions and thus our greatest environmental footprint. As a result of several key pilot projects on our vessels in 2023, we were able to exceed our target of reducing the absolute CO2 emissions of our core fleet (vessels continuously operating on our core routes) by 2% annually and we actually achieved a reduction of 6% in 2023. It is a great achievement, considering how challenging it is at present to get to even 1-2% reductions without new sustainable fuels, so we are happy with this result. Overall this means that our absolute CO2 emissions across the fleet have been reduced by a significant 51.9% since the baseline year of 2008. It gets harder and harder to achieve any reductions as the years progress, and the next great leap ahead in emissions reductions can only be achieved with new, green, sustainable shipping fuels.
Total CO2 emission
Scope 1 and scope 2 emissions – sea vs shore
Since 2022, Tallink Grupp has been analysing and reporting on the whole group’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. It has taken some time to get the shore organisation used to the annual emissions analysis process, but three years into it, we are getting the hang of it and our data quality continues to improve.
- The company’s total CO2 emissions in 2023 amounted to 386 187.4 tCO2.
- The company’s onshore CO2 emissions in 2023 increased by 33.8% compared to 2022, totalling 16 085 tCO2. The increase is a result of significantly increased use of shore power by the company’s vessels during longer port stays.
- Onshore CO2e emissions formed 4.2% of the company’s total emissions in 2023, with the majority of the emissions coming from the shipping operations.
Waste management
In addition to managing and reducing our emissions, at Tallink Grupp we focus heavily on reducing waste generated on our vessels as a whole and on ensuring that increasing amounts of our waste get reused or recycled.
In 2023 we continued to focus on increasing the circularity of Tallink Grupp’s reusable items, which were destined for landfill, such as used mattresses, furniture and furnishings from vessels, bedding, food and much more. The main cooperation partners for our key circularity projects included Lääne-Harju county, SOS Children’s Villages Estonia, Kose Secondary School, Türi county, Ukrainian societies in Estonia and other NGOs and social welfare organisations across Estonia.
II People and communities
Our colleagues
Number of active employees (at 31.12.2023)
TOTAL
4904
Land
1823
Sea
3090
Different nationalities of employees – 44
Average length of employment in company – 7.8 years
Gender split across group
54% female / 46% male
Gender split on Management Board
40% female / 60% male
Age split across group
Health and safety
The health and safety of our employees is a priority for Tallink Grupp. In 2023 we continued to monitor workplace accidents and incidents closely, improving risk management procedures, reporting and working towards an overall reduction in the workplace accidents rate.
Tallink Grupp has two KPIs in the area of employee health and safety:
- Maintain employee LTIFR (lost time injury frequency rate , i.e. the number of lost time injuries in the relevant calendar year x 1,000,000 / Total hours worked in the relevant calendar year) rate under the level of 13.3 annually;
- And maintain a zero level of fatal workplace incidents annually.
Both KPIs were achieved in 2023.
Well-being
In October-November 2023, the fifth annual well-being months took place across the company, focusing on both physical and mental health and well-being of employees. Activities during these two months included talks on mental health topics, such as stress management and burnout prevention, discounts for employees for physical health activities, and so much more. The company’s well-being months are now firmly embedded into the annual calendar and overall culture, and activities are stretching beyond the two regular months throughout the year.
Training
At Tallink Grupp we believe that continuous training and work will offer our colleagues as many opportunities for personal growth through training as possible. Whether it is external training, in-house training, on-the-job training or mentoring, there are many opportunities for everyone at Tallink Grupp to enhance their knowledge and improve their skills.
A total of 14 training hours per employee were provided on average in 2023, including courses on basic safety, security awareness, evacuation, first aid, service standards, guest experience and leadership. In 2024, following employee survey feedback, the training programme will be widened even more to include further Leadership and management trainings, AI trainings, and so much more.
In addition to training our own employees, we firmly believe in building the future of maritime education and careers, so in 2023 we carried out two careers and training days in partnership with the TalTech Maritime Academy in Tallinn for secondary school kids. Approximately 150 school kids from all over Estonia took part in the careers days on board Baltic Queen during the year.
Top employer rankings
Supporting communities
In 2023, we continued to support the humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine by providing free or discounted transport for humanitarian cargo on our vessels.
Our regional and domestic community support continues to be directed towards organisations and NGOs whose activities align with those of our company, e.g. helping and supporting families and communities (Min Stora Dag, Minu Unistuste Päev, SOS Lastekülad, Kummit, Hope ry), supporting maritime education and maritime rescue volunteers (Tallinn SAR, Helsinki SAR), etc. During the year we provided free “dream days” (i.e. trips on board our vessels and stays in our spa and hotels) to dozens of children with life-limiting illnesses and their families in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. We donated over EUR 35,000 to maritime rescue organisations to support their equipment purchases and maritime safety training development for kids, and we offered free maritime safety training sessions for nearly 30 children and funded the creation of a safety training video for schools.
Our suppliers and business partners
As part of Tallink Grupp’s sustainability strategy, the company continues to work towards increasing its share of suppliers who are local to the company’s home markets and who use sustainable production practices. In April 2024, Tallink Grupp had 4068 approved suppliers on its certified suppliers list (3911 in April 2023).
The suppliers are:
- 42% Estonian origin
- 5% Latvian origin
- 24% Finnish origin
- 3% German origin
- 14% Swedish origin
- 10% other origin
In 2023 16 supplier audits were carried out by the company audit committee with minor improvement areas identified and no major issues identified.
100% of the company’s large and strategic suppliers adhere to the company’s Supplier Code of conduct (contract value in excess of EUR 50,000).
III Governance
| Whistle blowing reports made | 0 |
| Suspected corruption incidents | 0 |
| Human rights violations or reports | 0 |
| Fines the company has had to pay | No |
| GDPR or other data breach incidents reported | 2 |
| Governance related issues relevant and reportable | No |