At Nokia, we believe you can have both purpose and profit. And there can be no green without digital. 

Our People and Planet report 2022 describes how the technology we create can help in the fight against climate change while enabling our customers to improve their productivity as well as energy and resource efficiency. We aim to continually improve our environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and embed sustainability into every part of our business. In early 2023, we made it clear that our ambition is to make ESG a competitive advantage for Nokia.

The importance of ESG to our company is affirmed in our purpose: “At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.” This has helped create a virtuous cycle where our purpose drives our long-term technology and business strategy, and vice versa. ESG drives how we innovate, manufacture, deliver and maintain our products, and how we conduct ourselves as an organization. 

In 2022 we took another step forward to make ESG a driver of value creation with the launch of a new ESG Strategy with five focus areas and accompanying goals.

Environment: Become the leader in energy efficiency and circular practices. We’ve set an ambitious science-based target to reduce our Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% between 2019 and 2030. We’ve also set a target of 100% renewable electricity in our facilities by 2025, both of which are stepping-stones on our path to net zero.

Industrial digitalization: Transform physical industries to make them more productive, safer, efficient and sustainable through the connectivity and digital solutions we provide. This ambition is at the heart of our increasing work with non-service provider customers, such as manufacturers, energy producers and public sector organizations. 

Security and privacy: Design products so security and privacy are built into their life cycle at every stage. Our networks underpin critical infrastructure so partners, customers and regulators must be able to trust them. 

Bridging the digital divide: Build a bridge for digital inclusion and more equal access to healthcare, education and employment. We will achieve this ambition through connectivity and digital skill building. 

Responsible business: Be a trusted, ethical company that our employees, customers, partners and investors are proud to work for and with. 

Embedding energy efficiency into our technology

Improved performance with less power consumption is at the heart of our product design and development. In 2022, around 95% of Nokia’s greenhouse gas emissions came from use of our products by customers, rather than through our own operations.   Our focus on upgrading customer networks and deploying our latest solutions means we can reduce our Scope 3 emissions and make concrete progress towards decoupling data growth from energy consumption. 

For example, in Mobile Networks, we are on target for a 50% reduction in average power consumption of 5G mMIMO base stations by 2023 (from the 2019 baseline). The radio networks we modernized in 2022 used on average 44% less energy than those that were not modernized. 

In Network Infrastructure, we have now reached 150 customers for our Quillion-based chipset for fixed broadband which uses about half the power of previous generations. We have more than 100 customers for PSE-V, our advanced coherent optical solution, which uses up to 50% less power. Our latest FP5-based routing silicon, which reduces power consumption by up to 75%, is now being used by more than 30 customers. And our sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) for optical networking offers customers more capacity while reducing power consumption by up to 60%.  

There are many other examples of Nokia products and services increasing performance while reducing power consumption throughout this year’s People and Planet report. 

Embedding sustainability into our company 

Our reputation as an ESG-committed company, with the highest ethical standards, is dependent on continually delivering what we promise and taking action where we need to do better. We were pleased to surpass our annual target for renewable energy use across our facilities, reaching 63% in 2022 – on track to achieve our target of 100% renewable electricity in our own facilities by 2025. 

We were pleased to be ranked in the Clean200 list of global companies leading the way on sustainability by placing it at the heart of their products, services and business models. 

To further support our climate commitments, we introduced a Sustainable Finance Framework in early 2023 with the intention of strengthening the connection between our ESG and financing strategies. The leading independent ESG ratings firm, Sustainalytics, determined our sustainability targets to be highly ambitious and rated the KPIs of our framework as very strong. Based on our target of a 50% emission reduction in greenhouse gases across our value chain by 2030, Nokia successfully completed an inaugural 500 million Euro sustainability-linked bond issuance over 8 years with positive feedback from the investor community.

In 2022 we also launched a new Nokia People Strategy, with the aim of creating a working environment in which all our people can perform at their best and fulfill their potential. Continuing to make progress in our inclusion and diversity efforts is a key component. I was pleased that Nokia was named in Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index for the third time in a row in 2022. And I was happy to see industry recognition for our OUTLeaders program, which supports and develops LGBT+ leaders at Nokia. 

Maximizing our positive impact

This year’s People and Planet report includes many examples of how Nokia is maximizing its positive impact on the world. We are working with UNICEF to increase digital skills in Senegal, with the John Nurminen Foundation to protect biodiversity in the Baltic Sea, and with many other partners to achieve real results where they are needed most. Two of my favorites are our work on bringing broadband connectivity to underserved students in California, and the expansion of our Smartpur project to take connectivity to remote villages in India. Two countries, two completely different contexts, but both demonstrating the power and potential of technology when we act together. 

Our purpose will continue acting as our guiding star as we strive to deliver for people and our planet.