Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Telia Company, five of Europe's leading mobile phone operators have launched a new eco-rating system, called Eco Ratings, aimed at helping consumers to choose more sustainable mobile phones and encouraging suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of devices.
Eco Rating will provide information on the environmental impact production, use, transport and disposal of smartphones and telephone sets at the retail level from June 2021 and will be active in 24 European countries. The initiative will also allow operators and users to make a more in-depth assessment of telephony products and demonstrate the demand for more sustainable electronic devices.
In the first instance, the eco-rating will evaluate a range of new cellphones of 12 brands, to which others will be added in the future. Launch partners include Bullitt Group – Home of CAT and Motorola rugged phones, Doro, HMD Global – Home of Nokia Phones, Huawei, MobiWire, Motorola/Lenovo, OnePlus, OPPO, Samsung Electronics, TCL/Alcatel, Xiaomi and ZTE.
Each mobile phone will be assigned an overall Eco Rating score on a 100-point scale to assess the environmental performance of the device over its entire life cycle. The Eco Rating label will also highlight five key aspects of sustainability: durability, repairability, recyclability, climate efficiency and resource efficiency. “Building a more sustainable future is our shared responsibility. This is why we believe the time has come to promote at the sector level a harmonic system of ecological evaluation (Eco Rating) which increases transparency and helps raise awareness of the environmental impact of the phones our customers choose”, comment the managing directors of the 5 companies in a joint note.
