With the support of Gaia’s carbon management expertise, Nokia Siemens Networks’ IT Unit is now aware of its climate impact, and aims at delivering ambitious reductions in its carbon dioxide emissions.
Reducing the carbon footprint is the main strategic objective of the Green IT initiative at Nokia Siemens Networks. The target is to achieve a 10% reduction within two years, compared with the baseline year 2008. That is why assessing the IT carbon footprint of Nokia Siemens Networks is topical.
Following the environmental policy of Nokia Siemens Networks the IT Unit also aims at maximising the positive influence of information technology. It will actively promote e.g. virtual team tools as a means to avoid CO2 emissions in the company. Nokia Siemens Networks has a Climate Savers partnership agreement with WWF that sets an ambitious target for CO2 emission reduction for the whole company. As a member of this programme, Nokia Siemens Networks supports the Let The Clean Economy Begin campaign that focuses on innovation and solutions.
“The Climate Savers companies have grown their businesses while cutting their emissions. They have proved that growth and low carbon are more than compatible – they are complementary.” said Oliver Rapf, Head, WWF Climate Business engagement.
SMART 2020, A report by The Climate Group and Global eSustainability Initiative (an organisation born out of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals), estimate that the ICT’s own sector footprint currently is two per cent of global emissions and will almost double by 2020. This is countered by the sector’s ability to monitor and maximize energy efficiency both within and outside of its own sector and its ability to cut CO2 emissions by up to five times ICTs own footprint. In Europe, one eighth of the ICT emissions originate from production and seven eights from the use of ICT products.
Nokia Siemens Networks IT followed the ISO 14064-1 standard and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative in its carbon footprint assessment. ISO 14064 comprises three standards, respectively detailing specifications and guidance for organizational and project levels, as well as for validation and verification.
Gaia verified the CO2 emissions of the Nokia Siemens Networks IT Unit from the baseline year according to the ISO 14064-3 standard. Gaia conducted the verification as an independent external verifier defined by the standard and required by the Climate Savers agreement.
More information:
- Juha Vanhanen, firstname.lastname@gaia.fi, tel. +358 50 5641889
- Anna Kumpulainen, firstname.lastname@gaia.fi, tel. +358 41 5458859
Notes for editors:
The WWF Climate Savers programme was established in 1999 as a unique voluntary partnership. It has been a trend-setter in demonstrating that absolute greenhouse gas emission reductions do not impede business growth. Climate Savers companies are showing that reducing the corporate carbon footprint makes business sense and should be a core element of business strategy. More information on WWF’s Let the Clean Economy Begin campaign: www.panda.org/cleaneconomy
