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Telefónica launches eco rating for phones
25 August 2010
65 phones in O2 stores to be given environmental sustainability score, with Sony Ericsson getting highest rating
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Telefónica O2 has launched an environmental rating for mobile handsets which it will start to use in its UK shops and on its website.
The rating — designed by a development consultancy, Forum for the Future — is calculated on the basis of factors from raw materials and packaging to charger efficiency and ease of recycling.
“We will display the rating at the point of sale in store and online,” said Steve Alder, Telefónica O2’s general manager for devices in the UK.
The project is being tried out in the UK operation at the moment, but Alder is keen that it will be extended to other Telefónica operations and — through the GSM Association — to other operators. “When the time is right we’ll go open source,” he told Global Telecoms Business.
Each handset is given a rating from zero to five, designed to show the phone’s environmental impact over its lifespan. In the first listing of 65 phones, Sony Ericsson’s Elm handset rates highest with a score of 4.3.
Apple has refused to take part in the project, telling Telefónica that it “has its own environmental policy”, Alder told GTB. Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, will join the scheme at a later date, he said: “RIM is wanting to support us but is not ready to get on board just yet.” GTB