Green Telecom Part XII: NSN aims high on green effort

Nokia Siemens Networks didn’t just start out trying to reduce its carbon footprint – the goal was much higher.

“We want to have a net positive impact on environment – not being less bad but actually doing something good,” said Anne Larilahti, head of Environmentally Sustainable Business at Nokia Siemens Networks, which was nominated for the Green Mobile Award in GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards 2009.

The effort was three-pronged, Larilahti said. NSN wanted to minimize its own footprint, maximize the help its efforts can give other industries in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, and also help make the business case for NSN customers to be more environmentally friendly.

“We don’t need to apologize if we are making money as we are saving the environment,” Larilahti said. “So we are making a business case for our customers to be more efficient.”

What NSN realized from the outset, however, was that the greatest opportunity to become net positive in environmental impact was in making efficient mobile network equipment.

“If you look at the mobile operators, our customers’ energy usage, about 86% of energy is consumed in the network – where our equipment is,” Larilahti said. “Their [energy consumption by] offices and travel is minor compared with the network energy usage. We put a lot of focus on making that as small as possible. We stated publicly our energy consumption figures for base station equipment – they are undisputed, so we are pretty confident we have the lead.”

The NSN Flexi Base Station is about the size of “a refrigerator – but not an American refrigerator, yours are much bigger -- more like a European refrigerator,” Larilahti said. “It is 80% smaller than the typical base station, and that translates into reduced logistical costs, which translates into reduced CO2 emissions.”

For example, rooftop installation does not require a crane, as the Flexi Base Station can be carried up to the top of a building, Larilahti said.

“The technology used is more energy efficient – we are at 850 watts for GSM equipment, and our 3G or WCDMA base station is at 500 watts,” Larilahti said. “We know the competition is bound to catch up to us, so our targets for 2010 are 650 watts and 300 watts [for GSM and 3G/WCDMA], respectively.”