Operations and supply chain
 

Besides meeting the requirements stated in the Nokia Substance List (NSL), suppliers product documentation must also provide us with a list of any EU REACH candidate substance of very high concern present in a product. Furthermore, products, parts, modules, and components must not contain any substance listed as To be Avoided in our Substance List to the extent technically and economically possible. See more on restricted substances in our REACH declaration. 

We work with our electronics waste recyclers in determining the destination of gold from our obsolete products and matching those companies with the ones that our suppliers use for gold purchases to close the loop. 

Suppliers product documentation must also provide us with a list of any EU REACH candidate substance of very high concern present in a product

We work with our suppliers to reduce emissions, setting targets across our supply chain. Our target for our final assembly suppliers is part of our SBT climate target and requires that the final assembly suppliers achieve zero emissions by 2030 for the portion of their manufacturing allocated to Nokia. All final assembly suppliers have detailed roadmaps on a factory level, and we track their execution at business review meetings. We have also set a 50% reduction target by 2030 for other suppliers.

In 2024, we continued our close collaboration on our 2030 roadmap with our Joint Design Manufacturing (JDM) suppliers as well as supplier categories with high emission intensity such as suppliers of integrated circuits, semi-discretes and printed wiring boards.
 
We require our suppliers to have a documented environmental management system (EMS). We also require key suppliers to be ISO 14001 certified, which we track. We have worked with the CDP Supply Chain Climate program for more than 12 years and together create programs to drive continuous improvements in our upstream scope 3 emissions.

We encourage our key suppliers to report their emissions, set reduction targets and roadmaps, get data verified and cascade emission reduction expectations and due diligence also to the next tiers. By following up with suppliers on improvement areas, we also share our good practices and help them reach their targets.

We send out an annual climate assessment questionnaire via CDP to nearly 600 suppliers, supported by practical guidance and sessions on how to measure CO2 and how to fill out the required information. CDP (formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project), is a global not-for-profit organization that helps cities and companies like ours disclose their environmental impact, with the aim of making environmental reporting and risk management a business norm for all. Following these assessment rounds, results are communicated with suppliers and tailored advice is shared as part of the suggested next steps, based on their performance. When it comes to our final assembly suppliers, data collection and monitoring take place on a much more stringent monthly basis. Performance and reduction projects track and benchmark impact within our own factories.
 
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. All suppliers whose CDP performance was below expectations were provided with improvement requirements and recommendations on next priorities.
Every year, we host the Nokia Supplier Climate webinar where we share our expectations, 2030 targets and good practices coming from different stakeholders within Nokia such as R&D, Logistics, Travel and Fleet and Real Estate. The aim is to cultivate good practice across our supplier networks and find innovative new approaches for our suppliers to work on each year.

As a result of Nokia’s supplier engagement, 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.

In 2024, we continued to address the data quality challenges (accuracy) in emissions allocations by comparing the supplier-reported data with life cycle assessment (LCA) data tools and addressing quality issues with suppliers with significant deviations from sector-average and LCA values.

Our Supplier Diamond Awards recognize suppliers across several categories. Expert juries judge supplier presentations, and the best are announced at our annual supplier event. The winning supplier in the sustainability category has previously included one of the leaders in sustainable semiconductor manufacturing – examining the decarbonization of its own operations, establishing a net-zero target for 2040 and collaborating with Nokia to reduce the emissions of our products.

We work with our suppliers to reduce emissions, setting targets across our supply chain

We aim to save space, reduce packaging materials and maximize transport efficiency, thereby reducing inbound and outbound shipments. The continuous optimization of our manufacturing and supplier network across the regions will not only enable us to deliver a more rapid response to our customers’ needs, but also decrease transportation costs and reduce CO2e emissions. The reuse of packaging materials also contributes to reductions in the use of new packaging material. 

In terms of our logistics, we look to explore and use the most efficient product transportation options. This involves continuous efforts to reduce air transportation while increasing sea, road and multimodal modes (e.g. combining sea and air) and partly to the regionalization that moves activities closer to customers. As a result, in the last two years we have nearly halved our air transportation deliveries. This significant drop in CO2e emissions is due to our continuous efforts to reduce air transportation while increasing sea, road and multimodal modes (e.g. combining sea and air), to the regionalization that moves activities closer to customers and to the improvements in the containers fill-rate.

As one of the emission reduction methods in our transportation activities, we have explored carbon in-setting, which is similar to carbon offsetting except the activities that lead to carbon footprint reduction take place within the context of the value chain. In 2024, we continued applying our sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) carbon in-setting model, which aims at a direct carbon mitigation of the transport system. This is one of the most sustainable ways to reduce carbon emissions in air freight, as it saves any additional energy consumption arising from compensation measures. We further engaged with our logistics partners on our requirements related to the offering of SAF and have expanded the collaboration on SAF to four logistics partners.  

For 2025 our focus will be on continuing to improve the environmental efficiency of our transportation by collaborating with the biggest contributors (for example logistics providers, partners or customers) and concentrating on minimizing the most environmentally detrimental modes of transport. 

We aim to contribute to a long-term solution to the issue of conflict minerals that ensures responsible and conflict-free sourcing via legitimate trade that brings sustainable improvements in those countries where the risks are greatest. We demand that our suppliers commit to sourcing these key materials from environmentally and socially responsible sources. We work with the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) and Public Private Alliance to increase impact through industry wide collaboration.