The International Data Corporation (IDC) has released the names of the top 5 ‘green’ mobile phone manufacturers as concerns over lack of mobile phone recycling grow.
It believes the phone manufacturers need to show corporate responsibility by working to create greener phones by simplifying them and planning proper disposal and reuse of them and the existing billions of phones that are already in the global market.
The five criteria that the IDC have used to create a green ranking are packaging, materials, energy, end of life programme and overall sustainability efforts. The aim of this ranking system is to get a better idea of where the mobile phone industry stands on sustainability issues. In terms of their sustainability policies and practices the top 5 manufacturers in alphabetic order, have been named as:
Apple, LG, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
Some of the reasons for these choices are:
- Apple recycles in 95% of the countries it sells it’s products in and leads the way in influencing its supply chain as well as advocating others to develop green technologies.
- Between 65-80% of any Nokia device can be recycled and the rest can be used to fuel the recycling process.
- Sony Ericsson has produced more environmentally friendly, lighter packaging leading to savings of 80% on CO2 emissions from transport compared to its standard packaging.