Reducing CO₂ emissions with clever use of mobile technologies

Over one billion people today own and use Nokia devices and services. We have great possibilities to contribute to reduction of CO₂ emissions with some simple and easy everyday actions.

To demonstrate the possibility and the power of combined individual actions, we have made some calculations and assumptions based on people’s behavior.

Let’s assume that just 10% of people using Nokia devices - that’s around 110 million people - would do the following with Nokia devices and services for one year:

• Use their mobile device for attending a meeting once instead of travelling to the meeting by plane. ¹⁾
• Use their mobile device to work remotely once a week instead of driving to work ²⁾
• Use their mobile device instead of buying a separate music player, camera, video recorder, fixed line telephone, PC and a car navigator ³⁾

With these actions just 10% of people using our devices could reduce global CO₂ emissions by over 170 million tonnes ! This is about the same amount as the annual CO₂ emissions of the countries of Denmark and Belgium combined. ⁴⁾

These savings are naturally dependant on how people behave and what kind of individual choices they make. The above represents a small percentage of all the mobile device users globally, and even they could be doing more.

For example, additional savings could be achieved if people used digital services instead of buying physical products. A good example is music. Downloading digital music instead of buying a CD can reduce the energy and CO₂ emissions of delivering music to consumers by 40-80%. ⁵⁾

Also the use of mobile GPS and maps can help in reducing the traffic related emissions.

Nokia as a company has a role to play in this by reducing energy consumption in our operations , making energy efficient devices and giving people tools to reduce their own footprint. For example, recently we have launched a service for sustainable lifestyle, the Green Explorer, helping people make more sustainable choices when travelling. It’s a free Nokia service and available from Ovi.

Main assumptions:
1) Average one way air travel: 3000 km; emission factor 0.12 kg CO₂ per km
2) Average one way home - office commuting distance 16 km; emission factor 0.15 kg CO₂ per km
3) Life cycle CO₂ equivalent emissions are based on figures published by the equipment manufacturers. The used figures are for three year lifecycle and are annualized for our example.
4) Source: International Energy Agency 2006 data.
5) Source: ”The energy and climate change impact of different music delivery methods” by CarnegieMellon University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Standford University