Suomalainen Kirjakauppa Turns Emissions Data into Actionable Supply Chain Decision-Making with RELEX

Leading Finnish retailer gains real-time visibility into product and transport emissions, replacing annual spreadsheet reporting and enabling faster, more informed sustainability choices

Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Finland’s largest nationwide bookstore chain, has reported time savings and improved decision-making following its implementation of CO2 Analytics from RELEX Solutions. By automating emissions calculations, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa has real-time visibility, enabling them to identify emission spikes quickly and take targeted action.

Suomalainen Kirjakauppa operates book and stationery stores across Finland with a diverse product range. They are committed to environmental responsibility, calculating their carbon footprint annually and setting emission reduction targets. However, the manual, spreadsheet-based process for compiling emissions data from multiple sources proved time-consuming and limited their ability to respond to sustainability issues as they emerged.

As a result, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa implemented CO2 Analytics in April 2024 to automate and standardize emissions reporting, improve visibility into emission sources (especially transportation), and reduce their environmental footprint. They used data already flowing through the RELEX platform which included product information, supplier details, delivery records, and weights. This eliminated the need to manually compile data from disparate sources, giving them with consistent, standardized emissions reporting across different business units.

This real-time visibility has already enabled Suomalainen Kirjakauppa to make meaningful operational changes:

• Enabled faster, data-backed supply chain decisions: With CO2 Analytics, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa noticed significant emission spikes from air freight shipments of books from the United States and shifted sourcing to European suppliers using sea transport.
• Moved from annual to ongoing emissions visibility: CO2 Analytics replaced the once-a-year, spreadsheet-based CO2 reporting with continuous, on-demand emissions insight within the RELEX platform.
• Eliminated several days of manual reporting work: Automated emissions calculations reduced sustainability reporting effort from multiple working days to a streamlined, system-driven process.
• Established a foundation for emissions-informed planning: CO2 Analytics insight is a starting point for connecting emissions data with assortment planning, replenishment, and material choices to reduce waste and environmental impact over time.

“CO2 Analytics is proving to be beneficial for sustainability reporting and decision-making,” said Pekka Kuurne, Head of Development, Data and Logistics, Otava Group. “We have saved several working days that I previously spent compiling data in spreadsheets. More importantly, we now have transparency and real-time visibility into our emissions, which means we can react to issues as they emerge rather than waiting for annual reports.”

“Suomalainen Kirjakauppa demonstrates how retailers can move beyond annual compliance reporting to make sustainability an active part of daily decision-making,” said Svante Göthe, Head of Sustainability, RELEX Solutions. “By automating emissions calculations with data already in their supply chain systems, they have created the foundation to stay ahead of evolving regulations while making meaningful environmental progress.”