Sustainability
Carelia Grill® Together for More Sustainable Development
Our values are strongly guided by responsible and sustainable development. As most of Carelia Grill products are open fireplaces, they are designed to use locally produced, clean wood. We therefore recommend using it as the primary fuel source instead of charcoal. While burning wood creates both warmth and ambience, wood is a great fuel choice for several reasons: It’s affordable and easily available. It’s a natural and renewable fuel source. Moreover, when a new seedling is planted for every tree that has burnt, the carbon footprint is practically neutral. Accordingly, we’re planning the practical implementation of this to plant an equivalent number of trees for every grill sold.
We’re aware of the scientific facts that wood burning may produce harmful emissions. However, we’d like to point out that this largely depends on the quality of the wood, how you burn the wood, and where you burn it. Considering all these factors, you can influence the cleanliness or dirtiness of the combustion process. For example, burning damp wood and rubbish increase sootiness and emissions. In addition, compared to traditional fireplaces and wood stoves (especially if they’re old), open fireplaces are more efficient in terms of air intake (especially when used outdoors). High air intake is directly proportional to a clean combustion process, while minimising emissions, fine particles and smoke production.
Therefore, wood burning is designed to be efficient in Carelia Grill products. Locally produced wood is the most environmentally friendly grill/barbecue fuel because it has a low or even negative carbon footprint. This can be compared to charcoal produced in the Far East or America, or alternatively LPG, which require environmentally heavy production and therefore have a much larger carbon footprint. Needless to say, whenever fuel is imported from further afield, transport distances also increase the carbon footprint.
All in all, locally grown and clean-burning wood minimises emissions and is naturally renewable, recyclable and absorbs high levels of carbon dioxide as it grows. Not forgetting, of course, the invincible taste of the food cooked over an open fire - the taste that is given by pure wood.
Charcoal that is used for grilling often has a lot of different chemicals put into them, which causes more emissions and various toxins are released into the atmosphere. Gas and electricity as energy sources depend largely on where they are from. If the energy from electricity is wind or solar for example, or gas biogas, they come closer to being as efficient as natural firewood is. Hopefully in the future they can be equals but right now they aren’t.
Climate change is a cause that we have avoided for too long and fossil fuels are still used too much nowadays. The European Union has declared that their goal is for 45 % of the energy consumed in the EU to be from renewable energy sources by the year 2030. Grilling is and has become a big part of food cultures all over the world, for example, over 40 % of Finnish people and 20 % of German people grill every week and estimates say that there are over 100 million grills housed in the USA, where grilling is a major part in the local cuisines. Perhaps more alarmingly, almost all of those grills in the US are gas or charcoal grills.
Environmental causes are things we care deeply for and we want to have a part in making grilling green and more carbon neutral. The following chart is aimed to help visualize the carbon dioxide emissions of different types of grills. The chart is based upon a peer reviewed paper, USA Carbon Footprints of Grills, by Fuel & Grill Type, published on MDPI.com which is the world’s fifth largest published of scientific papers.
Responsibility
We act in a truly responsible manner and comply strictly with all the laws and requirements that apply to our business. Sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do. At Carelia Grill, we're committed to continuous improvement of our production, operations, products and, of course, our staff. We operate under an environmental permit, which ensures that our processes comply with the regulations specified in the environmental permit. However, it's not enough just to comply with environmental permit conditions; we also pay particular attention to sustainable development. The aim is to minimise the company's environmental impact, for example by gradually switching to renewable energy sources, choosing more environmentally friendly materials, and improving the recycling and reuse of materials.
In line with the sustainable values, we're now involved in managing the producer responsibility of our product packaging. In other words, we're committed to offsetting the packaging materials we use. Furthermore, the powder coating used in our fireplaces is environmentally friendly - unlike wet paints, which contain harmful solvents. Powder coating doesn't release harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the environment. Moreover, the chosen powder coatings are safe for cooking and no harmful substances are released during use. Carefully selected materials result in a product with high standards and high quality, which as such prolong the product life and thus support sustainability.
In addition to environmental issues, Carelia Grill wants to sustain social sustainability. We contribute to the wellbeing of the local community, for example by supporting leisure and voluntary activities related to the wellbeing of young people.
