Nokia experienced another fulfilling year in 2007, with continuing rapid change in our business, markets, technologies and applications. We consolidated our position as the global leader in mobile communications and further developed our ambition to bring social, environmental and economic benefits to people throughout the world.

During the year, we created a new organizational structure for Nokia (introduced on 1 January 2008) which reflects the growing importance of services such as music and navigation. This follows the creation of Nokia Siemens Networks earlier in the year, aimed at strengthening infrastructure business.

Our vision is a world where everyone can be connected, and with mobile subscriptions expected to hit four billion in 2009, we are closer to that than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago. But our strategy is not just about growth, and the convergence of mobile and internet technologies. It is also about doing business in ways which benefit people, communities and the environment.

This is not new for Nokia. We have always aimed to do business responsibly and working specifically on reducing our environmental impact for more than a decade. This is reflected in our membership of the FTSE4Good and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.

But there are always new opportunities and challenges and this report describes how we have responded to them in 2007.

Increasing access to communications is key to achieving our vision. It is clear that mobile technology can make a positive contribution to societies, through connecting people to new opportunities. We are investing in research in developing countries to understand those opportunities better.

At Nokia, we see environmental responsibility as an opportunity rather than a constraint – we believe we can help people to make more sustainable choices, as well as reducing the environmental "footprint" of our products and operations.

Last year we placed a lot of emphasis on the environmental impact of our industry, especially energy efficiency. It is clear that strong, early action on climate change is essential, and while Nokia’s direct CO2 emissions are relatively small we can make a significant contribution to tackling climate change through the energy our products use. We have made great progress in reducing the energy lost by a charger when it remains plugged in once the device is fully charged. In 2007, we became the first mobile manufacturer to introduce alerts in devices reminding people to unplug their chargers when not charging.

These may on first look seem like small steps, but when multiplied by the many hundreds of millions of people owning Nokia devices the potential is huge. The energy that could be saved globally by all Nokia phone users unplugging their chargers when no longer needed is equivalent to enough to power 100 000 average-size European homes.

In 2007 we initiated work with suppliers to set energy efficiency targets that go beyond our current environmental supplier requirements. This builds on our ongoing work to further assess and develop environmental, labor and social conditions throughout the supply chain.

The contribution we can make is substantial, but I know our impact will be greater if we work with others – in our industry and beyond. That is why we have become a full member of the ICT industry’s Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and extended our partnership with the global conservation organization WWF, as well as embarking on many other external activities.

It is critical that we achieve our objectives in an ethical manner, and last year we reviewed and refined our core values, to better reflect the way we work. In creating the Values, we involved around 13 000 employees in the Nokia Way Jam, a 72-hour online discussion to debate our values and our future business strategy.

Nokia Siemens Networks employees have also participated in the training to understand and comply with the Code of Conduct. By the end of 2007, more than 22 000 out of 58 500 employees of Nokia Siemens Networks had successfully completed the training – over a third of Nokia Siemens Networks worldwide employees.

Looking forward

Corporate Responsibility (CR) is no longer a specialist subject of interest only to particular interest groups, but part of the general concern of consumers, investors, suppliers, customers, and of course employees. That is reflected in our plans to integrate CR into our mainstream reporting. We have already begun increasingly to incorporate CR data into our annual report on Form 20-F.

I look forward to another year when I am sure we will confront many challenges in this rapidly-changing world, and equally sure that we will make further progress in pursuing our strategy to be a responsible leader in our industry. Society faces a huge task in seeking to make progress in a range of social, economic and environmental issues over the next few years. We will play our part in bringing the benefits of mobile technology to many more millions of people and will continue to do that in ways which reflect the Nokia values.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo
President and CEO of Nokia Corporation