Life cycle thinking

Life cycle thinking helps us continuously improve the environmental aspects of our products and processes. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool we use for calculating the environmental impacts, the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of our products and processes. Our calculations include the entire mobile device life cycle, from raw material acquisition to the end of life of the product.

The picture visualizes how the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are split between the different life cycle phases of a mobile device. The total energy consumption for creating, using and recycling a typical Nokia mobile device is 270 MJ and emissions are 17,5 kg C02e. This equals 170 km driven with a hybrid car.

Based on the identification of the largest sources of emissions and energy use over the lifecycle, we have already taken many actions to improve the footprint of Nokia mobile devices. Click the picture to find out more.

Energy use

Greenhouse gas emissions

Raw materials and component manufacture:

We are working in collaboration with our suppliers to minimize the environmental impacts. We and our key suppliers have set targets to reduce energy use, emissions, waste and water use in our operations, and we constantly follow up the progress.

Transportation:

By moving to smaller packages we have taken at least 12.000 trucks off the roads and saved 100.000 tons of paper based materials already in years 2006-2008 only. We have increased transportation packaging efficiency a lot during recent years. We continuously work on our delivery network optimization and use of alternative transportation modes to minimize transportation emissions still further.

Product usage:

The use phase of a mobile phone accounts for about one third of the energy use of the total life cycle, and up to two thirds of that used energy can be wasted if the charger remains unplugged after charging. That is why we have developed High Efficiency Chargers AC-8 and AC-10 and Compact Travel Charger AC-15. Today, the majority of our chargers reach the highest 4-5 star ratings on the Mobile Charger Energy Rating.

You can help by pledging to unplug your charger from the socket once it has finished charging. To remind you to do that, we have implemented the "Unplug charger reminder" across the Nokia product range.

Nokia factory

In our own facilities and factories we have reduced the use of energy by 3.5% already during years 2003-2006. We are targetting to 6% energy savings in technical building maintenance systems between 2007 and 2012 compared to the baseline year 2006. We've also started to deploy green electricity purchases in countries where we operate and where buying green electricity makes the most impacts on CO2 savings.

Recycling

We design our products to be easily recyclable; up to 80% of a Nokia device can be recycled. Nokia has the largest take-back network. We work with carefully selected companies who reclaim materials from the phones and accessories we pass on to them.

How do we calculate this?

The results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) always depend on the calculation method, scoping and assumptions used. Although general LCA standards exist, the mobile industry does not yet have commonly agreed assesment criteria and therefore LCAs are not comparable with ones conducted by other parties. We use the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards as framework for our calculations, and they include the entire life cycle, from raw material acquisition to end of life of the product. The source data is measured at our own factories and operations and collected from suppliers. In addition we use internationally available LCI databases. We will provide more LCA information about our products in 2010.

What does this assessment cover

The above analysis focuses on the life cycle impact of a typical Nokia mobile phone from 2008, including the entire life cycle. In the LCA calculations we assume 3 years of use time, including both the impact of charging and no-load. For the transportation phase, both inbound and outbound logistics, as well as transportation to recycling facility are included.The impact from different accessories, packaging, user guides, and Nokia corporate overhead including travel is not included. However, if these were to be added, the greenhouse gas emissions would increase by roughly 30 % to a total of some 23kg CO2e.

Also the energy consumed by mobile networks and other infrastructure is excluded from the analysis as it forms a complex, separate system of its own and provides varied environmental impacts due to the differences in network configuration and the services available. Modeling such variables is considered to belong to the LCA of a particular telecom operator or service provider.