As part of Nokia’s recently announced Sustainable Finance Framework, sustainability is a core value for stakeholders as well as a central part of its business strategy. By ensuring Nokia’s financing strategy supports the company’s recently enhanced ESG strategy, the framework reinforces Nokia’s commitment to sustainable growth.
Nokia’s ESG strategy emphasises that purpose and profit go hand in hand. The strategy consists of five pillars where Nokia can have a significant material impact. By linking the ESG strategy with the Sustainable Finance Framework, Nokia believes it can embed sustainability throughout the organisation and create long-term value for stakeholders, internal and external alike.
Nokia has made reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions a top priority within its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. The company aims to cut its GHG emissions by half between 2019 and 2030 throughout its entire value chain. This goal has been endorsed by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and is in line with the 1.5°C global warming scenario. It has been designated as the Sustainability Performance Target in Nokia’s Sustainable Finance Framework, allowing for the issuance of sustainability-linked financing instruments. By focusing on this objective, Nokia can effectively monitor and track its GHG emissions reduction in Scopes 1, 2, and 3.
Sustainalytics, a second-party opinion provider, evaluated Nokia’s Sustainability Performance Target and deemed it “Highly Ambitious”. Additionally, the company’s chosen Key Performance Indicator for reducing absolute GHG emissions throughout its value chain was judged as “Very Strong”
Marco Wirén, Chief Financial Officer of Nokia, said: “Complementing our enhanced ESG strategy with the Framework is a logical next step in our progress to strengthen the connection between our ESG and financing strategies. We linked the margin of our EUR 1.5 billion revolving credit facility to our sustainability targets already in 2019 and signed our first sustainability-linked guarantee facility in 2022. As we accelerate our growth, we remain deeply committed to being part of the solution to the world’s biggest challenges.”
Melissa Schoeb, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Nokia, said: “Sustainability is core to Nokia’s purpose of creating technology that helps the world act together. We’re delighted that Sustainalytics’ opinion aligns with our view regarding the strength of our Framework and that our target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain was assessed as highly ambitious.”
