Technology

updated 11:46 am June 8, 2010

Going Green: Green to Gold

To minimise the environmental footprint, Nokia uses recyclable materials, low energy consumption, avoids substances of concern and practices compact packaging with reusable and recycled materials.

Nokia plays a part to save the environment.

Do you know that it takes 500,000 phones to be recycled into a 1kg gold bar worth approximately RM1 million? A mobile phone is composed of 20% copper, 45% plastic, 10% ceramics, 5% of other non metals and 20% metals such as aluminium and gold and all of it can be recovered through recycling and be used as everyday products.

Nokia, one of the largest phone producers, has partnered with Tess-Amm, a global electronics waste management company headquartered in Singapore, to recycle phones as part of Nokia’s green initiative.

Nokia idealises a world where everyone being connected contributes to sustainable development. To support that vision, the company incorporates its green initiatives into its offices, way of design and end of life for its products.

“The responsibility is everyone’s business, not only us, but also the consumer,” says Francis Cheong, Nokia’s Regional Environmental Manager of SEAP.

“Being green is in our way of working. We always walk the talk and encourage our own staff to reduce carbon emissions with 200 video conferencing around the globe to replace travel as there is no need for face-to-face meetings,” he adds.

Winning Green Ways

To minimise the environmental footprint, Nokia uses recyclable materials, low energy consumption, avoids substances of concern and practices compact packaging with reusable and recycled materials.

For this, the cellular giant won accolades for its contribution to Mother Nature such as the most sustainable tech company globally by Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Global Mobile Awards 2009, GreenPeace Guide to Greener Electronics and 2008 Green Awards.

Nokia introduced an eco-software, Green Explorer, to help people live in a more eco-friendly way. Users can access the Green Explorer via the web, a mobi site or a widget that can be downloaded to a number of Nokia devices. Mobile Internet reduces carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes of CO2.

Since 2006, Nokia has resized the packaging for its phones with smaller ones, the company is able to save up to 100,000 tonnes of packaging material and reduce hundreds of tonnes of CO2 released into the environment because it cuts down half the amount of trucks used to deliver the products, saving 500 million Euros from 2006 to 2009.

Taking its commitment to the environment further, Nokia was the first mobile company to introduce a RoHS compliant product in 2005, restricting the use of certain substances. The Nokia 5140i was introduced over a year before the actual law came into force.

According to Nokia, research shows that less than 3% of people recycle their phones with three out of four people do not even think about recycling. To encourage recycling, people need to be informed. Now only 50% know about the possibilities of recycling and most of the time, convenience is a factor in encouraging recycling.

If each of the 1.3 billion Nokia users recycle one phone, this will result in saving more than 80,000 tonnes of raw materials from being mined, produced and distributed, hence reducing carbon emissions to the same effect as taking 1.3 million cars off the road.

Getting People On Board

The Nokia Take Back and Recycling Programmes are operated in more than 5,000 Nokia Care Service Points at 85 countries with more than 200 Nokia Care Service Points in SEAP. The programme works via Nokia Care Centres, nationwide campaigns and collaborations with NGOs, government agencies, companies and learning institutions.

In Malaysia, the ‘Recycle A Phone & Adopt a Tree’ programme is available at Nokia Recycling Kiosks located in KLCC, the Curve and The Gardens. Here you can play your part by depositing your old, unused phone of any make into the kiosks, key-in your personal details and Nokia will plant a tree on your behalf in Indonesia. You can monitor the growth of your tree using geotags via Google Earth. If you have no access to the Nokia Recycling Kiosks, all Nokia Care Centre do participate in this recycling programme by providing wooden recycling bins so you can still deposit your phone there.

Nokia’s recycling partner, Tes Amm in Singapore, collects the old phones from the kiosks all over SEAP to the plant in Benoi Sector, Singapore, for the recycling process.

“Reasons why we recycle are to reclaim the base materials such as gold, copper, lithium and re-use them, sustain our environment; we aim for zero landfill and also the standards to sustain our environment have been raised locally and internationally like Basel Convention, WEEE Directives and RoHS,” shares Cheryl Tan, Tes Amm Regional Key Account Manager.

Cheong explains that for Nokia, sustainability is treated as a triple bottomline for company – the environmental, social and economic bottomline. He says that it makes sense to take into account the environment in everything Nokia does as it benefits the environment, the company and everybody.

“At the end of the day, we hope that the general public will see us as a green company. The greenest company! And next time they buy a mobile phone they will see that Nokia is a green phone. If you want to do something for the environment, buy a Nokia phone,” Cheong concludes.