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our-approach

Our approach

 

 

 

Our approach to sustainability centers around our company's purpose that we create technology that helps the world act together. It is an integral part of our corporate narrative and embedded in how we operate our business and the decisions we make in our business. We adhere to high standards of integrity and security that build trust and we help create the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world. Nokia Bell Labs, our renowned research arm, looks to help solve the future needs of humanity through technological innovation.
 

Our ESG Strategy

The five ESG focus areas

 
At Nokia we believe that there is no green without digital. We believe that ESG is a driver of value creation and new revenue streams. Our ambition as first movers is to create new competitive opportunities while creating tangible environmental and social benefits. We have built on five strategic focus areas in our ESG strategy:

Environment (climate & circularity)

In the environment arena, we focus on two areas: climate and circularity. Our greatest source of emissions comes from the use of our products in our customers’ networks. To address this, we aim for leadership in energy efficiency, building on work in silicon, software, and systems and opportunities to optimize across the network with energy orchestration and green operations. In circularity we focus on opportunities to promote hardware circularity and manage the sourcing and reuse of key source materials.

Our handprint and footprint

We believe the technology we provide enables both environmental and social benefits to individuals, industries and communities that far outweigh any negative impacts. These benefits represent the handprint of digitalization and connectivity. We have both a social and an environmental handprint. We work hard to maximize this handprint. At the same time, we know we must continually strive to minimize any potential negative impacts of technology. This is our footprint. We work to make our footprint on the world around us as small as possible. We collaborate throughout our value chain to continually minimize our footprint.

These two aspects of our approach are underpinned by responsible and ethical business practices. We strive to be a trusted, ethical company that our employees, customers, partners and investors are proud to work for and with. As part of our responsible approach, we aim for: 

 

  • Robust practices, procedures and policies that minimize risk
  • Management accountability for ESG and responsibility throughout the organization
  • Trust, accountability, & ethical behavior as foundations on which we operate
  • Certified and audited management systems
  • A robust people strategy and mature processes to attract, retain and develop talent
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Governance and Materiality

Our governance model

Sustainability issues are reviewed regularly at all levels of the company. We will continue to strengthen our governance structures and the processes we have established to manage ethical business practices and corporate responsibility, reflecting the significant change in our mode of operation implemented in the company during 2021. Read more about our governance model here.

Materiality

As part of our strategy refresh and in line with good practice, we completed a materiality assessment in Spring 2022 with an external consultancy. The results of this assessment are based on desktop research, interviews and a survey conducted with internal and external stakeholder representatives (including employees, customers, investors, suppliers, partners, NGOs and academics), as well as insights from sustainability experts. The new materiality matrix was reviewed by the Group Leadership Team and the Board of Directors.

The diagram below shows the top right quadrant of our new materiality matrix. The magnified top right quadrant shows the topics that are all considered currently most relevant to our business and to stakeholders, the economy and the environment. The top 5 most material topics for Nokia are: 

  • Climate impact through products
  • Environmental impact through products and enabling transformation in other industries
  • Ethical business practices and ethical use of new technologies
  • Privacy and security
  • Responsible sourcing

Sources of input for the materiality work included:

 

  • Global macro trends with impact on sustainable development
  • Our regular engagement with various stakeholders
  • Requirements and information requests especially from our customers and investors Our benchmarking of 23 industry peers and the leaders in sustainability Our corporate strategy and Code of Conduct
  • Assessments of risks and opportunities through Nokia Enterprise Risk Management system
  • Analysis of the economic, environmental and social value we can create throughout our value chain.
  • Analysis of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Targets and their relevance to Nokia International sustainability frameworks such as SASB, TCFD, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 and the UN Global Compact
  • Our long history and experience in sustainability

Climate, ethical business practices, and how Nokia’s products can enable change in other industries, cities and society continue to be among the most material topics. The most significant growth in importance can be seen in privacy and security, responsible sourcing and circularity.

Sustainability reporting

Our sustainability report, People & Planet, is prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards. As part of our reporting, we also take into account other sustainability reporting frameworks, such as SASB, the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We have published annual corporate responsibility reports since 1999 and the reports are available in digital format from as far back as 2003 at our report archive.

Download the People & Planet 2022 report here. Our index on key ESG frameworks can be found on pages 117-133.

You can also watch this video about some key achievements and actions in 2022.

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Our priorities and targets

We set short, medium and long-term public targets and report progress on all of them annually in our sustainability report.

In 2022, we had a total of 26 external targets, of which 22 were either achieved or on track. 1 target was not achieved, 1 target was cancelled, and 2 were not on track. Our targets for 2023 and onward are presented below.

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Awards and recognitions

We are proud to have been recognized for the achievements and actions carried out by our employees to enable a more sustainable business, products and planet. A few recognitions are listed below.

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Bloomberg has given Nokia a strong score in its Gender Equality Index (GEI) – the fifth time in a row that we are included in this index. In the 2023 Bloomberg GEI, Nokia achieved a Bloomberg GEI overall score of 83.03 percent – our highest score so far and considerably higher than the tech industry’s average score of 72.36 percent.

CDP

In December 2022 we were ranked as A- and Leadership status by CDP for our work on and disclosure of climate change data. In February 2023, we received a score of A- from CDP Supplier Engagement Rating (SER). It evaluates companies’ work with suppliers to reduce emissions and lower environmental risks in the supply chain.

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In August 2023, we received a rating of AAA (on a scale of AAA-CCC) in the MSCI ESG Ratings assessment.

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In June 2023, FTSE Russell (the trading name of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company) confirmed that Nokia has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, and has satisfied the requirements to become a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series.

ecovadis

In March 2023 we were again awarded a Platinum EcoVadis Medal. This places our company among the top 1 percent of companies assessed by EcoVadis, with especially high scores for environment and sustainable procurement.

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In March 2023 we were once again named by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® and were one of only two winners in the telecommunications industry and the only Finnish company to be honored. In 2023, 135 honorees were recognized spanning 19 countries and 46 industries.

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In September 2022 we were recognized as best newcomer by RE100 for our work on renewable energy.

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In November 2022, Nokia received an ESG Risk Rating of 9.8 and was assessed by Sustainalytics to be at negligible risk of experiencing material financial impacts from ESG factors. In February 2023 Nokia was included in Sustainalytics’ 2023 Top-Rated ESG Companies List.

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In March 2023 we were recognized as the leading European hardware company in the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark, where we were placed 24th out of the 200 companies assessed. The benchmark measures how the world’s most influential technology companies are helping to advance a more inclusive digital society.

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In December 2022, Nokia was rated ‘Prime’ by ISS ESG Corporate Rating.

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In March 2023 we were certified as a ‘Nasdaq ESG Transparency Partner’ for our engagement in market transparency and in raising environmental standards.

Other awards and recognitions

We are a member of RE100, which gives us a framework to report our renewable energy related activities transparently. Nokia was selected as the winner of the Best Newcomer category in the 2022 RE100 Leadership Awards.

In 2022 we also received the Bharti Foundation's Silver Award for Social Initiative (India), and the first ever Vodafone Group planet award at the Arch Summit in Luxembourg for our work on climate challenges.

RE100 Leadership Awards 2022

Nokia and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets remain a key framework for our sustainability work and for many of our customers and partners. Goals 8, 9 and 13 are the most relevant for our business and reflect the areas in which we believe we can have the greatest positive impact. We believe digitalization and connectivity will continue to play a critical role in accelerating and achieving all 17 SDGs.

Click on the sustainable development goals icons below to learn more about how we actively support the global goals.

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8. Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work.

As a global company we have significant direct and indirect economic impact. Our direct economic impact includes for example our purchasing from suppliers, wages and benefits paid to our employees, income taxes paid to the public sector, and community investments. We contribute indirectly to the economy in many ways, but the benefits of the technology we provide deliver our greatest indirect impact. Our own research has found that 5G-enabled industries have the potential to add USD 8 trillion to global GDP by 2030, as COVID-19 has accelerated medium and long-term digital investment and value creation.

Read more in the 5G readiness report

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9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

This remains the most material SDG for us in the area of improving people’s lives with our technology. It relates directly to the core of our business. The networks we supply to our customers serve billions of subscriptions, providing access to people everywhere, connecting them to more information, more public services and greater economic opportunities. We are powering the fourth industrial revolution, bringing infinite new possibilities for industries, governments and cities that dream of building a more agile, digital, resilient and sustainable future.

Read more about purpose-designed networks built for Industry 4.0 digitalization and beyond

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13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

We take responsibility for minimizing our own global footprint but we also aim to maximize our positive impact by driving innovation and digitalization through the technology we create to help industries, cities, supply chains and individuals to reduce their footprints. We have set ambitious targets in line with the 1.5°C warming scenario, and we are committed to reduce our emissions by 50 percent by year 2030.

Read more about how we are combating climate change

Engaging with stakeholders

We work with a range of stakeholders and look for where we can increase collaboration and also respond to requirements in building sustainable solutions. The table below summarizes those key stakeholders and our interaction.