Extending EMS to Non-Production Facilities
All Nokia production sites have ISO 14001 certified environmental management systems (EMS). Now the focus is in Nokia real estates and facilities larger than 10 000 m2. The goal is to build one EMS for facilities in Finland, and finally have one single EMS for all Nokia offices and R&D sites globally.
"We noticed that most of Nokia's people are based in office and R&D sites, and hence we should take care of environmental issues there as well," tells environmental specialist Sirpa Salminen, who is in charge of building the Finland-wide EMS. "By focusing in energy and water consumption as well as waste management, we can also save money."
Sirpa and her network, which consists of people from facility management, environmental management, and other functions, started their work in 2002. Plans were made during the spring, and the first action, developing a waste management system for Nokia's Salo offices, was carried out during the summer. Activities have continued since then and are still underway in 2003.
Effective EMS Allows Business Units to Focus on Business
Most of the work has consisted of consolidating old environmental tools and systems, looking for best practices, implementing them in new operational environments, and gathering and preparing documentation.
The goal is a single, global document pool where Nokia employees can find the best practices and adapt them in their facilities. Sharing good practices saves time, and overlapping information is avoided.
"By developing, for instance, follow-up methods, improvement needs can be defined more easily. For instance, if we notice that energy consumption has increased significantly in an office, we can intervene immediately," says Sirpa. "Also developing environmental data collection and metrics for global performance reporting is very important."
The new EMS combines older systems and creates a new tool for managing facility-related environmental issues in a consistent way around the globe as an integral part of everyday processes. By providing business units with an environmentally sound facility infrastructure, the new EMS allows them to concentrate on product-related issues.
Employee Activity
One of the most important aspects in facility EMS is staff participation, and to this end facility maintenance specialists are trained throughout Nokia. Nokia newcomers are informed about environmental issues during orientation, and Sirpa and her team have also organized open training sessions where any Nokia employee is welcome. Information and slide sets are available through Nokia's intranet, and important updates are posted near copy and coffee machines.
"Our employees are concerned about this kind of issues. For instance, we have studied if we should use paper coffee cups or ceramic cups in our offices. There is no single clear answer, and we continue studying," Sirpa explains.
Extending EMS to Partners
The work will continue with building a global Nokia EMS for large facilities. In the future, Nokia aims to use global partners, for instance, in cleaning and catering services to ease compliance.
Environmental issues are also an integral part of all partnering projects. In addition to environmental benefits, cost savings can be significant in big projects.