Climate and ESG Strategy
We address our own environmental footprint, focusing on both climate and circularity. We strive to minimize our footprint across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by actively and continually managing that footprint. As the volume of network traffic rises in a more connected, digitalized world, we must work diligently to separate this growth in traffic from any equivalent growth in energy consumption. We also need to constantly strive to reduce GHG emissions across our operations and facilities, and work with our supply chain to help drive greater energy and resource efficiency through the whole chain.
To minimize our environmental footprint, we aim to be the leader in energy efficiency in silicon, software and systems. We intend to accelerate our ambition in energy efficiency in 5G-Advanced and 6G through early engagement in standardization and ecosystem development. We are also improving product circularity with more recycled content in new products and expanded circular product offerings to customers.
Our accelerated net-zero ambition
In 2023 we looked to investigate how to accelerate our net zero ambition and the related pathway and levers. In December 2023, the Nokia Group Leadership team approved the plan to fast forward both our net zero target (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) and our interim 2030 Scope 1 and 2 targets.
Nokia commits to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain (Scopes 1,2 and 3) by 2040. Nokia also commits to accelerate its existing 2030 target to reduce GHG emissions across its own operations (Scope 1 and 2), reaching an 83% reduction by 2030. This will be achieved through decarbonizing its car fleet and facilities faster than previously planned. Nokia is also taking action to reduce its hard-to-abate marine fleet emissions, in line with the International Maritime Organization decarbonization pathway. To ensure its targets are aligned with climate science, Nokia submitted its net-zero letter of commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in February 2024.
Our achievements in 2023
We achieved our renewable energy target of 75% by the end of 2023 across our facilities.
We achieved our short-term target of reducing the average power consumption of our mMimo 5G base station by 50% by the end of 2023.
Our final assembly suppliers provided a 49% reduction compared to 2019.
We introduced our first Sustainable Finance Framework that underscores the importance of ESG to its business and financing structure. We successfully completed an inaugural EUR 500 million sustainability-linked bond.
We announced our sponsorship of a professorship with the University of Jyväskylä in Finland to explore the measurement of our industry’s biodiversity impacts.
Net zero commitment
- 2040: Net zero by 2040 (Scopes 1, 2 and 3)
- 2030: 83% reduction across own operations (Scopes 1 and 2) including complete decarbonization of car fleet and facilities
Climate
Climate change remains a significant risk to society and the natural environment. It can negatively impact our supply chain and our customers’ business, as well as the global economy and political and social stability. We recognize that the products and services we provide globally may affect the environment and climate, as manufacturing, distributing and operating these products require energy and other natural resources.
Our key climate outcomes in 2023
Our current science-based target, is to reduce our total GHG emissions by 50% between 2019 and 2030 across our value chain (scopes 1, 2 and 3). Our current SBT covers the following activities: Scope 1: emissions from our facilities, car fleet and marine fleet own vessels. Scope 2: market-based emissions from purchased energy. Scope 3: emissions from the customer use of sold products (covering almost 100% of our current portfolio) and emissions from the logistics, the final assembly factories in our supply chain, and the marine fleet chartered vessels. Overall, Nokia’s SBT carbon emissions in 2023 saw a reduction of 9% compared to 2022.
Our scope 1 GHG emissions in 2023 increased by 7 % to 111 100 tons CO2e driven by our marine fleet. Our market-based scope 2 emissions reached 84 800 tons CO2e. This translates to a 37% reduction in our scope 2 emissions by the end of 2023, compared to 2022. In 2023 our scope 3 emissions included in SBT were 34 123 900 in 2023. This represents a reduction of 9% over the previous year.
Despite this decrease, our current SBT-related emissions in 2023 were at the same level as the 2019 baseline year. The reported emissions for the baseline year were 34 960 700 tons CO2e. Nokia’s 2030 science-based target is not on track with a linear trajectory. While we continue to accelerate innovations in product energy efficiency, and supplier collaboration, the availability and take up of renewable energy by our customers must rapidly increase to support the achievement of the interim target.
More and more Nokia customers are accelerating their journey towards renewable energy. In 2023 we started to collect customer-specific emission factors from our customers as we believe this could give a better indication of our total scope 3 category 11 (use of sold products) GHG emissions than using a GHG protocol mandated global emission factor.
Therefore in 2023, we also calculated a total scope 3 category 11 emissions number based on blended emission factors. The blended emissions factors are a combination of customer-specific factors confirmed by customers, country average factors and global average emission factor. Our total scope 3 category 11 emissions based on the 2023 blended emission factor was 33 691 400 tons CO2e. In this first year, the blended emissions consist of 5% calculated by customer-specific emission factors, 92% calculated by country average emission factors and 3% calculated by global emission factor. In 2023 97 % of our GHG emissions came from our products in use by our customers in their networks. We continue to minimize these emissions.
We also continue to drive energy efficiency in our own operations and our value chain. GHG emissions from our own operations account for less than 1% of Nokia’s total carbon emissions and are less prone to the impact of natural catastrophes and severe weather. However, we continue to reduce our energy consumption across our facilities through targeted programs and actions. This is further supported by our target to purchase 100% renewable electricity by 2025 across our facilities based on RE100 initiative.
We work with our suppliers to set clear targets, collaborating with them on climate issues and best practices. We collaborate with our customers on supply chain programs. We engage with our stakeholder ecosystem to drive improvements in the broader industry. Despite the potential positive impact of connectivity and digitalization, the ICT industry must continue to decarbonize its own operations and products, decoupling energy use from increasing capacity and data traffic demands.
Our climate targets from 2024 onwards
2024
- 85% renewable electricity in our own facilities
- 75% reduction of our facilities’ GHG emissions
2025
- 100% renewable electricity in our own facilities
- 65% reduction of scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, including 85% reduction of our facilities’ GHG emissions
2030
- 50% reduction of our total GHG emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3)
- Final assembly suppliers to reach zero emissions
- 50% reduction in suppliers’ GHG emissions
- 73% reduction in logistics’ GHG emissions
- 95% circularity rate for waste from our offices, labs, manufacturing, installation and product takeback
- Increase recycled content in mechanical part source materials
2040
- Commitment to SBT to reach Net Zero emissions across value chain
Our climate targets
Our current SBT is aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. We were the first telecoms equipment vendor to have a science-based target accepted by the SBTi in 2017. In 2023, we have been working to set a net-zero target with defined long-term actions and pathways for the decarbonization of our entire value chain.
We also have other short-, medium- and long-term targets in specific areas of our operations and the value chain to drive concrete actions that support and accelerate the achievement of the main SBT target.
The current science-based target covers the following activities:
- Scope 1: emissions from our facilities, car fleet and marine fleet own vessels
- Scope 2: market-based emissions from purchased energy
- Scope 3: emissions from the customer use of sold products (covering almost 100% of our current portfolio) and emissions from the logistics, the final assembly factories in our supply chain, and the marine fleet chartered vessels.
Suppliers
Our main final assembly suppliers have agreed to reduce GHG emissions by 100% by 2030 for the portion of their manufacturing attributed to Nokia. And we continue to advocate for greater uptake of decarbonized electricity. We encourage the use of more sustainable fuels by our logistics service providers, and work with energy utilities to help enable their transition.
We don’t just set targets for our suppliers, we support them by working together to lower our upstream indirect emissions and to promote circular practice and innovation. In 2023, we maintained and improved our supplier climate engagement and had 458 suppliers disclose their climate performance information to CDP and 283 also set emission reduction targets. We also had 247 suppliers participate in the CDP water security questionnaire. Finally, we urged suppliers to align their climate targets with the SBTi and again rewarded climate-related innovations as part of our Supplier Diamond Awards program.
We also focus on reducing the embodied emissions1 of our products, for example by offering circular products, adding recycled material content into new products and working with our suppliers on their journey to decarbonizing their energy sources. Read more from our key climate-related targets for 2023 and see a 2024 roadmap of all our ESG targets.
Understanding and tracking our total emissions
As shown in the following graph, Nokia’s total CO2e emissions from scope 1, 2 and 3 were 35 409 500tons CO2e.
From this total amount, scope 1 emissions were 111 100tons CO2e, scope 2 market-based emissions were 84 800 metric tons CO2e and scope 3 emissions totaled 35 213 600tons CO2e.
The scope of our science-based target covers 34 319 800tons CO2e, which is 97 %of our total 2023 emissions. Read more about the SBTi and the criteria for science-based targets here.
Our carbon footprint (Scope 1, 2 and 3)
- Reducing energy consumption in our chipsets
- We can reduce base station emissions
- Industry leading internet protocol innovations and sustainable operations
- Our fixed networks are reducing packaging size and weight
- We are providing refurbished network equipment
- Early research on sustainability in 6G
- Collaboration with other expert organizations
- Remote environmental monitoring system
Reducing energy consumption in our chipsets
ReefShark: At the 2023 Mobile World Congress Nokia launched its new generation of mobile network radios, which benefit from the integration of a new generation of Nokia ReefShark System-on-Chip. This can reduce radio use-phase energy consumption by some 30% and associated material carbon footprint by 30% compared to earlier products.
Quillion: Our Quillion chipset reduces power consumption for broadband access products. Quillion-based solutions consume about 50% less power in the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) than previous generations and are two years ahead of the European Union Code of Conduct for Broadband Communication Equipment targets – helping operators to meet their emissions goals. By the end of 2022 the 150th customer deployed our Quillion-based chipset in fixed broadband solutions bringing related energy efficiency benefits
FP5 and FPcx: Our FP5 routing silicon offers a 75% reduction in energy consumption and a 3X capacity increase compared to its previous generation. In fact, Nokia and BT are further collaborating on highly scalable, energy efficient IP networks. FP5 is the heart of Nokia’s 7750 Service Router. Nokia has also added support for high density, energy efficient 800G routing interfaces along with embedded line rate encryption and DDoS mitigation capabilities. Our FPcx silicon is at the heart of the 7730 Service Interconnect Router. It delivers the same energy efficiency as FP5 and enables new energy-saving architectures. Through these and other silicon and product innovations, Nokia is leading the way to ensure highly sustainable IP networks.
PSE-VI: Nokia’s sixth generation of super-coherent Photonic Service Engines (PSE-6s) opens a new frontier in scalable, high-performance, and power-efficient optical networking. The PSE-6s delivers the solution needed by network operators across a wide range of optical network applications., enabling operationally simple upgrades to Nokia’s transponder, compact modular and packet-optical switching (P-OTN) platforms.
ReefShark: At the 2023 Mobile World Congress Nokia launched its new generation of mobile network radios, which benefit from the integration of a new generation of Nokia ReefShark System-on-Chip. This can reduce radio use-phase energy consumption by some 30% and associated material carbon footprint by 30% compared to earlier products.
Quillion: Our Quillion chipset reduces power consumption for broadband access products. Quillion-based solutions consume about 50% less power in the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) than previous generations and are two years ahead of the European Union Code of Conduct for Broadband Communication Equipment targets – helping operators to meet their emissions goals. By the end of 2022 the 150th customer deployed our Quillion-based chipset in fixed broadband solutions bringing related energy efficiency benefits
FP5 and FPcx: Our FP5 routing silicon offers a 75% reduction in energy consumption and a 3X capacity increase compared to its previous generation. In fact, Nokia and BT are further collaborating on highly scalable, energy efficient IP networks. FP5 is the heart of Nokia’s 7750 Service Router. Nokia has also added support for high density, energy efficient 800G routing interfaces along with embedded line rate encryption and DDoS mitigation capabilities. Our FPcx silicon is at the heart of the 7730 Service Interconnect Router. It delivers the same energy efficiency as FP5 and enables new energy-saving architectures. Through these and other silicon and product innovations, Nokia is leading the way to ensure highly sustainable IP networks.
PSE-VI: Nokia’s sixth generation of super-coherent Photonic Service Engines (PSE-6s) opens a new frontier in scalable, high-performance, and power-efficient optical networking. The PSE-6s delivers the solution needed by network operators across a wide range of optical network applications., enabling operationally simple upgrades to Nokia’s transponder, compact modular and packet-optical switching (P-OTN) platforms.
Our liquid cooling solution can reduce the base station cooling system energy consumption by up to 90%, and base station CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional air-cooling systems. This can also reduce the level of carbon emissions. Once waste heat is captured and transferred by liquid it can be used for other purposes such as district or building heating.
Our next-generation baseband capacity cards powered by latest ReefShark System-on-Chip technology also bring the power of Artificial Intelligence to mobile networks, reducing energy consumption compared to previous generations.
The IP Networks team is committed to combatting climate change through industry leading internet protocol (IP) innovations and sustainable operations, to deliver a sustainable IP networking portfolio. Read the white paper and find out more.
Reducing our packaging
Today our beacon packaging includes cardboard boxes, bio-degradable bag (no plastic). We have replaced our foam packaging with flexible cardboard packaging and reduced the size of the package by 50%. Space-saving packaging also increases our transport efficiency through pallet or container load optimization, which can reduce CO2 emissions from transportation. In 2022, we received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award: Best of the Best for our ground-breaking design in sustainable packaging solutions.
Committing to circularity
In 2021 Orange and Nokia made the first telco framework agreement covering the inclusion of refurbished network equipment under the Orange OSCAR program. This framework establishes the first definitions and terms that will govern the purchase and sale of refurbished equipment.
As demands on the network increase, electricity demands shift to different elements, meaning we need to find holistic solutions to achieve our aggressive energy targets. A new Nokia Bell Labs white paper details the specific technologies we are researching that will minimize energy consumption as network conditions change.
In the future, equipment with an energy-efficient design will affect the development of 6G, IoT and other technologies in a variety of fields, such as transportation, online communications and health. Aalto University and Nokia have announced the launch of a new XG Doctoral Programme which will focus on the development of hardware for new mobile communications systems. It will place a particular emphasis on the design and construction of energy-efficient integrated circuits and antenna systems.
Our work in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) includes actively contributing to the standardization work in the telecommunications sector (ITU-T) and the radiocommunications sector (ITU-R) as well as to the regional preparatory meetings of the development sector (ITU-D). We provide transparent direction, guidance and assessment methods for the development and enforcement of the regulation related to topics such as sustainable development, spectrum management and cybersecurity.
In 2023 Nokia was the most active contributor on circularity-related standardization topics in ITU-T. As one example, we actively contributed to the ITU-T product circularity standard by adding infrastructure-relevant circularity indicators such as robustness, recycled metal content, metal recycling, packaging recycling and recycled content in packaging. This ITU-T L.1023 standard was published in August.
Sustainability is the cornerstone for 6G system design. During 2023 we gave presentations on sustainable 6G and 6G for sustainability, for example at the Berlin 6G Summit, the EuCNC & 6G Summit in Gothenburg and the TTDD conference “6G Horizons: Converging Technologies for a Connected Society.”
In the future, equipment with an energy-efficient design will affect the development of 6G, IoT and other technologies in a variety of fields, such as transportation, online communications and health. Aalto University and Nokia have announced the launch of a new XG Doctoral Programme which will focus on the development of hardware for new mobile communications systems. It will place a particular emphasis on the design and construction of energy-efficient integrated circuits and antenna systems.
Our Remote Environmental Monitoring system is a universal multi-modal sensing device platform supported by a comprehensive end-to-end analytics solution. It’s designed to monitor outdoor environmental conditions such as particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, heat, moisture, air quality, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and more. This allows us to offer monitoring and analytic services to various use cases.
Maximizing our handprint
Our technology solutions make asset intensive industries more efficient, helping minimize waste and enabling greater reuse of precious resources and materials. We work with customers across asset intensive industries such as utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, transportation, mining, agriculture as well as in other areas of business. Enhanced connectivity and new advanced digital solutions also underpin everyday life, creating more energy efficient, cleaner, less polluted cities and communities, helping to manage and reduce waste. For more see industrial digitalization section
Minimizing our footprint
We have a key responsibility to limit potential negative impacts of our business and operations. We strive to minimize our footprint by actively and continually managing that footprint. As the volume of traffic rises in a more connected, digitalized world, we must work to separate this growth in traffic from any equivalent growth in energy consumption. We also need to constantly strive to reduce GHG emissions across our operations and facilities, and work with our supply chain to help drive greater energy and resource efficiency through the whole chain.