Nokia Siemens Networks

Climate savers unite

Is it possible to combine environmental responsibility and good business sense?

 Several companies participating in a new program believe it is possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time improving shareholder and stakeholder value.

Climate Savers is a collaboration between the WWF (World Wildlife Fund)and some of the world’s leading companies, including Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, IBM, Novo Nordisk, Nike and Johnson & Johnson. The partnerships, bridging the gap between different business sectors, generate innovative solutions and strategies to battle climate change. WWF supports the companies in setting appropriate environmental targets and observes compliance with them.

“There are serious business reasons for having a low-carbon strategy, and companies must act now to sustain their businesses even in the near future,” says Mr. Oliver Rapf, Head of the WWF’s Climate Business Engagement Unit.

Details of the agreement

A Climate Savers agreement involves negotiations between WWF, the company concerned and independent technical experts. The agreement must be demonstrably more ambitious than previously planned or communicated, placing the company at the forefront of emission reductions in its business sector. Outside experts monitor and verify compliance with the agreement.

In its agreement with WWF’s Climate Savers, Nokia Siemens Networks has committed to improve the energy efficiency of its base station products so that the equivalent total annual carbon dioxide footprint will decrease by 28 percent by 2012, compared to 2007 best product performance. In specific terms, improving energy efficiency to a level of 300W for typical WCDMA BTS sites and 650W for typical GSM BTS sites.

Nokia too has targeted a series of energy savings, including halving the average no-load power consumption of its mobile phone chargers from 2006 levels. Both companies are committed to decrease energy consumption of their buildings by 6 percent by 2012 and to increase the use of renewable energy to cover 50 percent of the overall electricity needs by the end of 2010.

WWF Climate Savers program consists of sixteen major international companies who have agreed to reduce their total emissions by at least 14 million tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2010.