© Finnish Ski Association/Jesse Väänänen
DHL's mission statement "Connecting people, improving lives" is a fitting way to sum up DHL Finland's support for Finnish winter sports. With their cooperation, the Finnish Ski Association and DHL aim to promote both top-level and popular sports in equal measure, thereby fulfilling their social responsibility even better. DHL Finland is also an important partner of the traditional Lahti Ski Games.
Connecting people and improving lives with winter sports
In a country where the ski season runs from October to May, it is no surprise that winter sports are a popular sport - especially cross-country skiing. Winter sports move Finns and bring people together. DHL Finland's cooperation with the Finnish national ski association Suomen Hiihtoliitto therefore radiates directly to the general Finnish public and ideally reflects the DHL mission statement. By supporting winter sports, DHL promotes individual well-being and community spirit, getting children and young people excited about exercise and improving people's quality of life.
Three Finnish DHL divisions are involved in the commitment to winter sports (DHL Freight, DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding Finland). In October 2022, DHL and the ski association signed a multi-year cooperation agreement. Since then, DHL has been an official partner of the Finnish Ski Association on the one hand and the main partner of the national teams in Nordic combined, where the disciplines of cross-country skiing and ski jumping come together, on the other.
In this way, DHL Finland supports not only popular sports but also top-level sports. By supporting young talents on their way to becoming top athletes.
Sustainability is a big issue: in logistics and in winter sports
But it is not only social commitment and the desire for top performance that connect the two cooperation partners - DHL and the Finnish Ski Association are both aware of their ecological responsibility. Just as the future viability of global transport logistics is inconceivable without ecological sustainability, the future of winter sports depends on whether we succeed in slowing down global warming in time: without snow, there can be no winter sports.
100 years of the Lahti Ski Games - DHL is there as a partner
The ecological dimension of winter sports is also well known in the Finnish winter sports resort of Lahti, where the Lahti Ski Games for cross-country skiers, ski jumpers and Nordic combined athletes take place. The Lahti Games are the oldest regularly held sporting event in Finland. They were first held in 1923 - one year before the first Winter Olympics. From March 24 to 26, 2023, Lahti celebrated the 100th anniversary of the traditional sporting event.
© Finnish Ski Association/Jesse Väänänen
© Finnish Ski Association/Jesse Väänänen
© Finnish Ski Association/Jesse Väänänen
The organizers' awareness of the problem found its clearest expression in the conference "Sustainable Future of Winter Sports - The Next Hundred Years." The internationally attended event was held one day before the start of the skiing competitions. The fact that DHL, as a pioneer of green logistics, is one of the Local Main Sponsors of the Lahti Ski Games therefore fits in perfectly.
After all, just as Deutsche Post DHL Group is an ecological pioneer in logistics and has committed to reducing all logistics-related emissions to net zero as part of its "Mission 2050," the Lahti Ski Games want to reduce the ecological footprint of their sporting event - and also play an important role in promoting sustainability and sustainable development in top-level and mass sports. DHL Finland organized the DHL Fan Zone at the Lahti Ski Games, which not only catered for visitors' physical well-being, but also provided the best musical entertainment with live performances on the festival stage. DHL also organized a customer event for around 100 guests. Those who traveled from Helsinki were introduced to the festive atmosphere of the anniversary on the train ride to Lahti in a traditional steam locomotive.
