Environmental management in Nokia Mobile Phones

Commitment to the ICC business charter for sustainable development initiated the development of environmental management within NMP. This coincided with the widening scope of quality management to include the impact of the business on the community, and the increasing requirement from personnel to contribute to environmental responsibility. The first steps, to assess the relative impact of NMP within the telecommunications industry, revealed a consistent status across the industry and initiated the formation of various industry associations to promote further development. Although legislation is impending on many issues, public opinion tends to dominate the priorities, particularly for suppliers of consumer products. Legislation is no longer the driving force behind environmental action, demonstrating environmental responsibility has become the key issue and is motivated by customer and internal pressure. This requires the disclosure of information, once seen as confidential, leading to external assessment of products and internal operations sometimes conflicting with the desire to protect Intellectual Property Rights. The environmental consequences of any activity can result in unforeseen liabilities from what was initiated through good intentions, as every action has some impact on the environment both short and long term. Environmental performance is assessed using the whole life impact of the products and processes. This also provides feedback to determine the priorities in product design