Workers’ paradise

NOKIA’s presence in the world’s most populous country is not confined to its mobile phones. Its manufacturing facilities employ thousands of people, and as such contribute to the nation’s economy.

The Finnish company has two factories in China, in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and the Xing Wang Industrial Park in Beijing. Nokia’s China headquarters, test centre and its suppliers are also located in the industrial park.

Established in 1995, the Beijing factory is one of Finnish company’s largest manufacturing bases in the world, employing 8,000 people. Within 1km of this factory are 20 of its suppliers and logistics providers. Such close proximity allows Nokia and its partners to save on shipping and transportation costs, for within the park grounds most of the materials and products are transported by gas-powered “trains”. This also means a green-friendly reduction of CO2 transport emissions and packaging materials.


In fact, Nokia’s headquarters is called the Nokia Green Building. The 70,000sq m building holds not only the headquarters but the R&D base, too.

The structure received the US LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in 2008 for, among other things:

·Having more than 50% of its parking spaces underground (large expanses of asphalt in the open are environmentally unfriendly).

·Encouraging the use of environmentally friendly vehicles by providing reserved parking for them as well as car-pooling vehicles.

·Ensuring that more than three-quarters of the construction waste was diverted from landfill during construction of the building.

·Constructing a roof that is sloped to the south to make better use of daylight (Beijing is in the northern hemisphere) and, hence, use less energy for interior lighting – 77.4% of the office area benefits from natural sunlight.

·Erecting a double glazed glass curtain wall that results in 14% energy savings.

·Instituting a building management system that shuts down air conditioning, lighting and projectors automatically 15 minutes after entering stand-by mode.

·Using a centralised grey water supply for flushing, irrigation and cleaning, as well as installing touch taps and native plant species with reduced water requirements to gain 37% savings in water used.

The green claim to fame aside, the headquarters was designed with a five-star hotel in mind, so the literature says: The building has a business centre, a luggage room and lockers for travellers, ATM machines, a mail room, lobby convenience store, an auditorium that can seat 200 people, as well as a gym and three cafeterias.

“There is also a massage and beauty salon that offers employees a free 15 minute massage, with longer massages available for a small fee. The campus also has entertainment areas where employees can play dart boards, snooker and foosball.

“And there is the Gadget Lounge that displays Nokia’s full range of devices and services so that employees can check out the products they are producing.”