Nokia today announced its enhanced Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, which the company says is integrated within its business and technology strategies, and is "focused on the areas where it can make the greatest impact," according to a corporate statement, which further explained that:
Sustainability is core to Nokia’s purpose of creating technology that helps the world act together. Building on years of robust sustainability programs and practices, Nokia has spent the past 12 months developing an enhanced company-wide ESG strategy to ensure that sustainability is a fundamental part of how Nokia develops technology and makes business decisions.
5 strategic focus areas
The company said its new ESG strategy builds on five strategic focus areas, where Nokia "looks to differentiate and create tangible environmental and social benefits," for:
- Environment - Focusing on both climate and circularity
- Industrial Digitalization
- Security & Privacy
- Bridging the Digital Divide
- Responsible Business
- Within the Environment focus area, Nokia said it aims to be the leader in energy efficiency, building on its silicon, software, and systems, and further leveraging opportunities to optimize across the network with energy orchestration and green operations. The company noted it is already working to improve energy efficiency in 5G-Advanced and 6G through early engagement in standardization and ecosystem development. Nokia also said it focuses on hardware circularity, both in the use of recycled material in its own products, and the refurbishment and recycling of products when removed from customers networks.
- In Industrial Digitalization, Nokia provides connectivity and digital solutions that sustainably transform physical industries, making them more sustainable, safe and productive. To achieve this, the company emphasized focus on the ‘Green Digital’ proposition in its Enterprise systems portfolio.
- In Security and Privacy, Nokia said it is working to ensure a common security baseline for products and services and accelerating its security offering. Here, product development follows the company's ‘Design for Security’ methodology, building security into the life cycle from the very start. Nokia said its security experts partner with its customers to not only build and maintain secure networks, compliant with national regulations for critical telecom infrastructure, but also to assess the security resilience of networks against real attack scenarios and incursions.
- Nokia aims to bridge the so-called "Digital Divide" with its broad product portfolio, maintaining focused strategies with non-terrestrial network operators and digital skills building solutions.
Nokia said that in implementing the strategy, it "will continue to take a proactive and values-driven approach in driving responsible business practices internally and in its value chain, working closely with customers and suppliers to engage on systemic issues related to environment, mitigating the misuse of technology (and advocating for responsible AI principles), ethics, human rights, and working conditions."
Nokia noted its enhanced ESG strategy was developed with input from across the company, leveraging its portfolio strengths, as well as with Bell Labs’ research, the better to accelerate Nokia’s positive impact, create new value opportunities for its customers, and deliver sustainable value creation for shareholders.
Nicole Robertson, VP, ESG at Nokia, commented:
“The line between purpose and profit is dissolving and companies are looking to identify the best ESG strategies to deliver measurable impact to societal challenges and drive value creation. At Nokia we believe we have a unique opportunity to address some of the world’s biggest challenges where connectivity and digitalization will play a critical role. With this strategy we look to maximize our impact, working together with our customers and stakeholders."
