When I was using Nokia’s flagship device ‘3310’, which I still admire for its simplicity, what I didn’t know about the device was its environmental impact. In simple terms the device or accessory’s environmental impact includes its energy usage & green house gas emission throughout the device life cycle. But come this May, the largest handset maker in world will be releasing Device (& Accessories) ‘Eco Profiles’ (in PDF Format), which not only includes the devices Eco Declaration, but also the estimated environmental impact of the device.
Nokia uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for calculating the device environmental impact. These include entire mobile device life cycle, from raw material acquisition to the end of product life. According to Nokia:-
“The environmental impact of a device varies according to its weight and the functionalities it offers. The mobile phones with just basic functionalities have typically smaller environmental impact than the devices with wide range of features. However, more capable devices (with, for example, an excellent camera, music player, navigation, web browser and other features) provide you with the opportunity to reduce your personal environmental footprint. Instead of buying, using and charging multiple devices for different purposes, you can have all these functionalities in one Nokia device. Making sustainable choices in your daily life will further reduce your personal footprint: with your Nokia mobile device.”
Eco Profile isn’t new concept at Nokia. Since 2001, Nokia has provided with device Eco Declaration, which included the device material use, energy efficiency, packaging, assembly and recycling. The latest Nokia Eco Profile offering will not only include the device Eco Declarations but also its estimated environmental impact based on LCA, as mentioned above.
According to Nokia Conversation, who first published the latest Nokia Green initiative,
Currently, 100 percent of the materials in your Nokia phone can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy, so nothing goes to waste; since 2006 all new devices, chargers and headsets have been free of PVC and since 2009, brominated and chlorinated compounds and antimony trioxide have been phased out. All new smartphones already have a power-saving mode and many also have ambient light sensors, as well as high-efficiency chargers that have reduced the no-load energy consumption by 80-95 per cent.
Take a look at it! It’s worthwhile to replicate elsewhere!
