Biodiversity and clean water

Elisa protects biodiversity and clean water availability in several ways 

We are all directly and indirectly dependent on biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Overexploitation of natural resources is right now the biggest threat to biological diversity. Elisa does not have manufacturing operations of its own, but we can address environmental issues with our supply chain partners. This way we can identify impacts and seek opportunities to avoid, reduce, and correct possible problems. We see short-term actions in related procurement of materials and manufacturing operations, while combating climate change has a longer-term effect. 

Biodiversity and ecosystems directly affect local livelihoods and well-being of communities. Elisa can best protect biodiversity and clean water availability through its supply chain, through circular economy, and by combating climate change. Regulation mechanisms and stakeholder expectations also evolve in this area.  

Biodiversity has in the service industry not always been prioritized on the same level as climate change, as for example negative effects on biodiversity often seem indirect, complex, and relatively minor. This can sometimes make it difficult to gauge expectations and measure performance. Services enabled by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) have both positive and negative effects, but we see that they will have a key role in tackling environmental sustainability related challenges in society. Building and maintaining networks have mainly indirect effects on biodiversity, as for example use of land area usually is small, compared to many other industries. 

By promoting material efficiency through circular economy initiatives, we can indirectly impact biodiversity in a positive way. Elisa for instance provides services for repair, refurbishing, and recycling of mobile phones and other devices. Also, in our climate change related emission compensations, we prefer projects that hold also biodiversity and societal aspects. 

Industrial processes of many companies have significant impact on clean water, which makes it a vital area of their corporate environmental responsibility. Elisa does not have such manufacturing operations, underlined by the fact that 97 per cent of its employees are office workers. Our operations are predominantly located in the Nordics and Baltics, which do not have water scarcity problems similar to many other regions globally. This means that water-related impacts from our data centres and offices are small. Elisa follows the standards of the local water supply networks and discloses water usage on a level of granularity relevant for the operations. With an increasing number of international offices, we nevertheless stay alert about our policies and actions on water. 

We see that the biggest portion of our water consumption comes through indirect water usage from our supply chain related to manufacturing of products. Therefore, water risk aspects are increasingly a part of our continuous supply chain dialogue. 

Elisa can use its capabilities to lessen the environmental footprint of its customers that operate in water-intensive industries, for example through use of AI and machine learning solutions by Elisa IndustrIQ for semiconductor manufacturing.