Sustainability work creates new roles – Nitor appointed two Sustainability Engineers

Sustainable development and sustainability are topical issues, perhaps more so than ever before. In addition to traditional industries, the environmental footprint and social responsibility of the IT sector are also recognised.

“Awareness of sustainability has increased, and developing the role of sustainability work is a natural development for Nitor. We want to lead by example with sustainable digital development and inspire the entire industry in sustainability issues,” says Olli Auvinen, CEO of Nitor.

Renowned for its customer and personnel satisfaction, Nitor has previously committed to the City of Helsinki’s climate programme and the UN Global Compact initiative. In addition to compensating for its emissions, Nitor has done sustainability work in the past as well, for example, by organising internal Digital Sustainability Hackathon events in which it has calculated its own carbon footprint. Furthermore, the company’s employees have created and advanced their own sustainability projects in the Nitor Core programme on which everyone can spend 10% of their working hours.

Digital engineers drive sustainability work forward

Now the sustainability and responsibility of Nitor’s operations are promoted through transparent evaluation and the establishment of the position of a Sustainability Engineer. Markku and Ari, who have started in the role, will from now on use part of their working hours for sustainability work and for promoting related activities together with Nitor employees and other partners.

“Our goal is, among other things, to develop our sustainability indicators and promote Nitor’s sustainability programme in a variety of ways. I see the appointment as a sign of trust, but also as a very responsible task in developing Nitor and its employees and customers towards sustainable development. Sustainable development is a very similar change in mindset and operating models as I have driven forward as a coach in agile development,” Sustainability Engineer Ari Koli says.

Ari Koli has a background as a business-oriented Lean-Agile consultant and a coach with years of experience in service development. Starting in the new role alongside him, Markku Rontu, is a Senior Software Architect who has worked at Nitor for more than 13 years implementing software solutions. In addition to his regular job, he has excelled in building a better workplace culture which brought victory in the Great Place to Work survey, organising various hackathons, participating in open source projects as well as developing Nitor Academy and Nitor Core which focus on continuous learning.

“Sustainability has always been a topic of interest to me, and not just as an ecological dimension. From the beginning, one of Nitor’s value promises to its employees has been that this is the company from which they will retire, so it is important to promote the employees’ well-being at work throughout their long careers. Responsibility and fairness as an employer are also essential factors enabling a long career. And when it comes to our specialty of digital sustainability, the quality of code, open-source code and its support, and the lifetime warranty we grant our solutions are close to my heart,” says new Sustainability Engineer Markku Rontu.