Earlier this year, Nokia announced a commitment to reducing our total global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to net zero by 2040, accelerating our previous target by ten years, and putting us ahead of the Paris Agreement target of net zero by 2050.

In this post I will outline the steps we are taking in our Real Estate operations to contribute to our net zero target.

What does net zero mean?

Net zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period (IPCC, 2018).

In practice net zero refers to the reduction of at least 90% of a company’s scope 1, 2 and 3 Greenhouse Gas emissions, with a maximum of up to 10% remaining hard-to-abate emissions being neutralized trough carbon removals.

Understanding real estate emissions:

Real estate emissions include direct emissions occurring in our facilities (Scope 1 emissions) and indirect emissions created during the production of energy that we purchase and consume in our facilities (Scope 2 emissions).

More specifically, the following items make up our Scope 1 and 2 facilities emissions:

Scope 1

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) released from refrigerant leakage or from the use of some types of fire extinguishing gases.

• Greenhouse gas from fuel combustion in facilities. This includes:

• Natural gas

• Diesel

• Liquefied petroleum gas

Scope 2

• Purchased electricity

• Purchased heating (most commonly in the form of district heating)

• Purchased cooling (most commonly in the form of district cooling)

The majority of our facilities emissions originate from the purchase of electricity. Since 2019, the base year for our net zero targets, we have significantly reduced these emissions by increasing the purchase of renewable electricity*.

However, the transition to renewable electricity alone is not enough to reach our net zero target.

Our roadmap for the decarbonization of our facilities is made up of the following three levers:

• Energy efficiency

• Renewable energy

• Transition from fossil fuel 

Energy efficiency

Any unit of energy that we don’t need to consume is a unit of energy that doesn’t need to be produced. As such, the first lever is to review opportunities to improve our energy efficiency.

In Nokia Real Estate, we are doing this through the following initiatives:

• Site selection: we take into consideration the energy efficiency of the potential sites, where possible. This can be done by selecting sites which have sustainability certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, NABERS.

• Workplace Design: we create office spaces with energy saving in mind.

• Housekeeping initiatives: we ensure that implemented energy saving measures and best practices are maintained in the day-to-day operations of our sites. This can be as simple as ensuring that office and labs temperature set points are maintained at a comfortable and energy efficient level.

• Asset replacement: when replacing assets such as cooling, heating or electrical equipment, this is a perfect time to upgrade them with the latest more energy efficient options.

• Space optimization: we continuously monitor our space utilization to minimize the amount of unused space in our labs and offices.

• Waste heat recovery: when reasonably practicable, the reuse of the waste heat from our labs to heat the office space is also implemented. 

Renewable energy

The second lever for decarbonization is the use of renewable and low emissions energy sources. We already covered the use of renewable electricity in a previous blog and, as an update, Nokia reached 75% renewable electricity in 2023 and is on track to reach the 85% target set for 2024. Our initiatives under this lever include:

• On-site solar: we have installed solar panels at some of our owned sites and have partnered with landlords at select leased locations to implement solar solutions. While this is a positive step, we recognize that it's not enough to meet our full electricity needs, so we are actively exploring additional deployment options to further increase our reliance on renewable energy.

• Renewable electricity purchases: we purchase renewable electricity in line with the RE100 technical specifications in order to meet our target of 100% renewable electricity by 2025.

• Renewable heating and cooling purchase: we are investigating options for renewable or low emissions options. For example, in Oulu, Finland, our purchased heating is 100% renewable and low emission.

Transitioning from fossil fuels

To meet our net zero target, we also need to find opportunities to transition away from fossil fuels in our scope 1. This can be done through:

• Site selection: this includes, when possible, selecting locations that do not rely on fossil fuels.
• Workplace design: collaborating early with developers in the design phase of a new site can influence ensure no or minimal reliance on fossil fuel.
• Asset replacement: phasing out the reliance on fossil fuels when replacing end of life equipment.
• Waste heat recovery: implementing projects that reinject excess heat into the building heating systems, hence reducing need for other energy sources to heat the office space.

In this article, I focused on the various levers employed to reduce our Real Estate greenhouse gas emissions in support of Nokia’s net zero target. Additionally, other initiatives have been implemented which, whilst not reducing Nokia’s greenhouse gas emissions, will assist in reducing the emissions of our local communities. You can find more information about this topic in this article.

*This article assumes market-based accounting for scope 2 emissions since the market-based method reflects emissions from energy that companies have purposefully chosen and derives emission factors from contractual instruments, which include any type of contract between two parties for the sale and purchase of energy bundled with attributes about the energy generation, or for unbundled attribute claims.