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 90% reduction by 2030. This will be achieved through decarbonizing its car fleet and facilities faster than previously planned. 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. The SBTi approved Nokia's targets in January 2025.
Nokia's SBTi approved Net-Zero target
- Nokia commits to reach Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2040.
- Nokia commits to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year.
- Nokia commits to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 90% by 2040 from a 2019 base year.
Our SBTi-approved targets:
- Total greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 28% compared to 2023 and 36% compared to the base year 2019.
- Emissions from use of sold products (scope 3, category 11) reduced 30% compared to base year 2019.
- 87% renewable electricity was used in Nokia’s facilities in 2024 as we look to reach our target of 100% renewable electricity across our facilities by 2025.
Since then, Nokia has been recognized as the overall leader in ABI Research’s competitive ranking for Telco Scope 3 Emissions Management. Nokia was awarded with the highest scores in both the implementation and innovation categories. This ranking assesses top telecom vendors based on their efforts, progress and long-term commitment in reducing Scope 3 emissions, the largest contributor to their carbon footprint. These emissions arise from upstream and downstream activities, including customer product usage and supplier operations.
Our achievements in 2024
- Total GHG emissions reduced by 28% compared to 2023 and 36% compared to the base year 2019.
- Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduced by 38% compared to 2023 and 76% compared to the base year 2019.
- Nokia is a member of the RE100 initiative aligned with its global ambition to use 100% renewable electricity across our facilities by 2025. In 2024, 87% renewable electricity was used.
- Achieved a 47% decrease in our logistics emissions from the 2019 baseline.
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.
Progress and actions taken in 2024
GHG emissions from our own operations (market-based, scope 1 and 2) were 90 498 tCO2eq (excluding ASN) which account for 0.4% of Nokia’s total carbon emissions. Nokia continued to increase the share of total renewable electricity to reduce scope 2 market-based GHG emissions. Scope 2 emissions reduced by 38% compared to 2023 and 76% compared to the base year 2019.
Nokia is a member of the RE100 initiative aligned with its global ambition to use 100% renewable electricity across our facilities by 2025. In 2024, 87% renewable electricity was used.
Many of Nokia’s customers are interested in reducing their power consumption and their emissions, and Nokia considers energy efficiency to be one of the key factors in product competitiveness. We also have customers who are interested in examining new business opportunities that spring from decarbonization. These developments create new business opportunities for us as a company and we are releasing and delivering new innovations that cater for that demand.
One of the key actions required for reducing GHG emissions during the product use phase is product energy efficiency improvements in product development. Key actions taken in 2024 include:
- Nokia continued to improve the energy efficiency of its products through incremental as well as generational hardware improvements;
- New energy efficiency software features have been released such as Extreme Deep Sleep mode which can help operators reduce energy consumption in zero-traffic conditions and MantaRay Anomaly detection which can identify specific radio sites to optimize energy consumption as well as Wavence Sleep modes which can lower the power consumption of the microwave radios; and
- New innovations like the virtual power plant can enable operators to use their existing back-up batteries and contribute to power reserve markets and the grid.
Our climate targets from 2025 onwards
2025
- 100% renewable electricity in our own facilities
- 80% reduction of scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from 2019
2030
- Reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2019.
- Reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 90% by 2040 from 2019.
- Final assembly suppliers to reach zero emissions from 2019
- 50% reduction in suppliers’ GHG emissions from 2019
- 73% reduction in logistics’ GHG emissions from 2019
- 95% circularity rate for waste from our offices, labs, manufacturing, installation and product takeback
- Increase recycled content in mechanical part source materials
- Packaging recyclability: ensure all packaging is 100% recyclable
2040
- Reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions 90% by 2040 from 2019
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.
Nokia is having regular engagements with its 600 larger suppliers, organized around the CDP Climate program cycle. In addition, close collaboration is pursued with Nokia’s Joint Design Manufacturing suppliers as well as supplier categories with high emission intensity. In 2024, 408 of Nokia’s key suppliers responded to CDP’s request to disclose their climate performance information, while 257 also provided emission reduction targets.
Gradual reduction of Nokia’s scope 3 category 1 emissions have been observed. In 2024, final assembly supplier emissions were reduced by further 15% compared to 2023 and by 56% from the baseline year 2019. The total supplier emissions (category 1) were reduced by 28% compared to 2023 and 77% compared to the base year 2019.
Understanding and tracking our total emissions
As shown in the following graph, Nokia’s total CO2e emissions from scope 1, 2 and 3 were 26 011 608 tons CO2e.
From this total amount, scope 3 emissions totaled 24 736 044 tons CO2e.
- Reducing energy consumption in our chipsets
- We can reduce base station emissions
- Industry leading internet protocol innovations and sustainable operations
- 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: Nokia's ReefShark System-on-Chips 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.
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: Nokia's ReefShark System-on-Chips 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.
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.
Nokia is committed to a new set of 2030 packaging targets:
- Packaging recyclability: Ensure all packaging is 100% recyclable
- Recycled material content: Cardboard and plastic packaging materials to contain at least 50% recycled content
- Plastics: Plastic packaging to be limited to no more than 10% by weight of total primary packaging
Committing to circularity
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 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.