ESPOO, Finland – The natural reaction at Nokia may be to blush coyly with news that it has today been named the world’s most sustainable technology company, according to the freshly released Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for 2009-10. However, here on Conversations we’re unabashedly proud to see Nokia earn the top slot as the most sustainable technology company in the world, because we’ve been keen followers, eagerly writing about many of the great stories, projects and initiatives that Nokia has been committed to in order to help get it to the position it has achieved today.
Of course, most of the folk directly involved with bringing the ethos of innovative sustainability to life at Nokia are indeed of the blushing breed, but as we’re not (remember Conversations is written by an Anglo-Brazilian, a couple of Americans and an Irishman!) we’ll happily shine a light on some of the smart projects and some lesser-read public Nokia documents that go some way to understanding how and why Nokia continues to be so focused on being a company actively in pursuit of employing great sustainability practices.
GLOBAL – We recently wrote about some things we discovered about Nokia’s attitude towards spreading environmentally sensitive thinking across the company and suppliers. These discoveries were prompted by an article on a phone buy-back scheme we had highlighted and which was called out by some of our colleagues.
What ensued was a fascinating travel through the problems of e-waste and finding out why Nokia does not like to promote buy-back and reuse schemes. Below, we discuss some issues of e-waste and the reasons behind Nokia’s stance. We hope that it helps you understand a problem that is basically invisible to most of us in Europe and North America.
GLOBAL – We have been writing a lot about all the actions Nokia takes related to the environment. Part of it is our interest in all the amazing things Nokia does and the awards it gets. But it’s also a fascination with just how prevalent care for the environment is at Nokia.
An article we wrote last month, exploring the question of phone buy-back schemes, was called into question by some of my colleagues, setting me off on an exploration of buy-back schemes, e-waste, and a deeper discovery of how far care for the environment goes at Nokia.
Join me, after the jump, in the first part of this discovery: Nokia and the environment. Continue reading>>
GLOBAL – Welcome to the first ever poll on Nokia Conversations! Each week we’ll be asking you to vote on hot topics. The ambition is that your responses will help steer some of what we write about here – no doubt there will be controversial consensuses and surprise results, both of which will lead us to probe deeper and write follow-up stories on the subjects that interest you most.
Plus, of course, we want you to suggest poll questions (visit our suggest a topic page) – questions you’d like seen answered by the Nokia Conversations community. So to kick things off we thought we’d run a poll on eco phones and ask what do you think is most important?
GLOBAL – So, what’s going to be hot this year? Well, we’re no astrologers, but to be fair, it doesn’t take a genius to work out what will be tripping off the tongues of folks around Nokia, and the wider Nokia community, this year. We’ve been scratching our heads, and come up with our little list. Feel free to add yours at the end. Full rundown, after the jump.
LONDON, England – In April Nokia opened the doors of its new London design studio to us and selected media. It was interesting for any number of reasons, chiefly because it was the first time many of us stepped into a design studio. However, there was a lot more to it. The theme for the day was sustainability and the assembled speakers flew in from all over the world to talk about the work they did. Designing for sustainability is a concept Nokia takes very seriously and that day revealed a sizable chunk of the kind of thinking that’s going on.
GLOBAL – 2008 was the year that saw mobile phone chargers become a serious talking point and their shortfalls actively and openly addressed. The lifeblood of our devices, phone chargers have in many cases been rightly demonized for wasting energy, but this year we’ve witnessed the beginnings of a revolutionary change.
INTERNATIONAL – The past 24 hours have been awash with online news, chatter and general global reaction to Nokia’s new recycling survey. The shock figures have certainly begun to raise awareness, but now its time to turn up the heat and for us to collectively attempt to influence the way we behave with our redundant technology, regardless of if you’re using Nokia’s We Recycle service or any other local phone recycling program.
Get the full lowdown on all the top stories, right here…
LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Next Thursday 5 June sees the launch of the new Nokia Research Center (NRC) program in Lausanne. Fusing the talents of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and NRC, this collaborative research venture is already promising to explore some of the most exciting and unchartered paths on the mobile development landscape, including contextually aware interaction, environment sensors and bold new visions for sustainability.
LONDON, UK – In the second part of our interview with N96 designer, Daniel Dhondt, and N78 creator, Joeske Schellen, Nokia’s top industrial designers talk about the role of sustainability in design and how the smallest design details can often be the most significant ones.
ESPOO, Finland – The natural reaction at Nokia may be to blush coyly with news that it has today been named the world’s most sustainable technology company, according to the freshly released Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for 2009-10. However, here on Conversations we’re unabashedly proud to see Nokia earn the top slot as the most sustainable technology company in the world, because we’ve been keen followers, eagerly writing about many of the great stories, projects and initiatives that Nokia has been committed to in order to help get it to the position it has achieved today.
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