Environment
Entertaining a sustainable future
Sony Ericsson considers sustainable development and production to be one of the most important challenges for the future and one that demands immediate action from responsible manufacturers. At Sony Ericsson we have implemented a life cycle approach to product development that takes into account design, supply chain, manufacturing, product use (operation), and end of life treatment of all our products. Our objective is to develop and deliver solutions that help to reduce global resource consumption and emissions to air, land and water. Our customers demand environmentally adapted products and services and we are committed to fulfill that demand.
Sony Ericsson is committed to tackle issues causing climate changes and believes that all parties in our industry need to work together towards a sustainable future. In November 2007, Sony Ericsson signed up in support of the Bali Communiqué, a comprehensive United Nations framework to tackle climate change.
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Setting the standard for the industry was something Sony Ericsson set out to do from the very beginning of our business in 2001. Leading in environmental considerations is fundamental in the way we design and manufacture our products. No matter in which market our products are sold, all Sony Ericsson products meet the same stringent environmental requirements.
Phasing out environmentally unwanted substances from the products
Sony Ericsson strives to produce the best products from environmental point of view and to lead the way in phasing out unwanted substances. We are therefore constantly monitoring reports and new evidence on chemical substances that might be harmful for human health and the environment. We endeavour to substitute potentially harmful chemicals with safer alternatives and that is why our starting point is the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle was defined in the UN Rio declaration as “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” We believe we all have to act preventatively to reach a sustainable use of natural resources and a sound environment.
This strive towards better products is clearly manifested through our products; for example Sony Ericsson was the first company to remove brominated flame retardants from its devices. In fact, our very first phone, launched in October 2001 was bromine free. Sony Ericsson is the first manufacturer to offer a full range of products, including accessories, which are also bromine free (free from brominated flame retardants in boards, cables and casings).
In addition, Sony Ericsson was also the first company to ensure that every device in its range was fully compliant with the EC directive on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS). Every product manufactured by us globally since the beginning of 2006 has been fully compliant and Sony Ericsson has applied this standard globally to all products it manufactures. We do not only follow the RoHS directive, but we have also taken action against a number of substances that are unwanted from an environmental perspective, and go beyond current regulations by banning or restricting them in our products. Currently we are working with phasing out of antimony, beryllium and phthalates from our products.
All Sony Ericsson products are already PVC free - except for cables in a few of our earlier chargers and accessories; these are currently being phased out.
Before any Sony Ericsson product is launched, it goes through a complete design review including material analysis of most assemblies and parts. The environmental design review process checks for the presence of any restricted or banned substances in the device. Further, each Sony Ericsson mobile phone development unit has an environmental coordinator who builds good environmental practice into the design of our products from the start. This ensures that finished products meet the stringent environmental requirements of Sony Ericsson and surpass all relevant environmental regulation.
Our products are governed through the Sony Ericsson lists of banned & restricted substances that ensures we are working with environmentally, the best possible materials.
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During the use of a mobile phone the environmental impact of the product comes from energy use. Most of the energy used for many consumer electronic products comes from products in idle mode and not when the product is used. All the small chargers and power converters connected to grid are draining small amounts of power; and the drain from many sources leads to substantial amount of energy wasted. This is the reason why Sony Ericsson focus on the phone and accessory charger to minimise this energy waste and also why we recommend our users to un-plug the charger from the socket after the product is fully charged.
We have also gone through extensive work to minimise the power loss in standby. Sony Ericsson is proud to deliver most efficient chargers from standby power point of view. These chargers are sold together with all products all over the globe as accessories. All new models after 2005 meet EU voluntary Code of Conduct (CoC) for power supplies as well as the requirements on Energy Star. In fact they are 67% better than the EU CoC power requirements. The standby power is not more than 0.1 W for all new charger models after 2005.
Sony Ericsson is also making continuous efforts to reduce energy consumption from all our activities. For our own manufacturing site, the electricity consumption per manufactured unit was significantly reduced by 24% in 2007 compared to 2005 while the number of units produced has increased by 77%. Our goal is to reduce the carbon footprint from our own activities by 15% per produced unit by 2009 and 20% by 2011 based on the 2007 figures.
In 2007, CO2 emissions from our own manufacturing and product transportation processes were 15 200 tonnes and 228 800 tonnes respectively. Based on 103,4 million units we produced globally in 2007, our goal is to reduce these emissions by 0,35 kg per unit by 2009 and further 0,12 kg per unit by 2010.
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Sony Ericsson insists we only work with suppliers who meet our stringent requirements. Influencing product improvement and development from environmental point of view in the full supply chain is a key factor in achieving industry leadership as well as compliance to our requirements. All Sony Ericsson suppliers must undergo assessment to ensure compliance with our environmental requirements. The assessments verify that suppliers have procedures within place to control unwanted substances in their own supply chain. Sony Ericsson cooperates with one of our parent company; Sony on their green partner program that includes audits at factory and supplier sites across the world.
Sony Ericsson recognizes the importance of product ‘take-back’ and recycling. The idea of taking responsibility for our own products is a concept we believe in – for ourselves as well as in partnership with our industry. Above all, the collection and recycling systems used must be efficient and effective. Sony Ericsson participates in both voluntary and required collection and recycling schemes in many countries around the world.
We also work together with international organizations, such as the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program), to set up guidelines for proper management of products for recycling and re-use. In addition, we subscribe to the EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The mobile phone industry had already begun voluntary collection and recycling of its products when the WEEE directive was being formed.
In order to measure our effectiveness – as manufacturers and as members of society in general – in influencing our consumers to return their old products, Sony Ericsson has looked into research on mobile phone users and their attitude towards product ‘take-back’.
In research conducted in parallel to the set-up of first voluntary collection and recycling programmes, it was found that users were willing to give back their old products. However, they also revealed a need to re-use their old products. As many as 50% of the users who buy a new phone keep their old one to use as a spare or for other, similar reasons, around 25% sell it on or give to a friend, family or someone else. These studies were also conducted in US with very similar results. The research shows that people do not need an incentive to return their old phone when they no longer have a need to use it for personal reasons.
Several organizations collect mobile phones for refurbishment and re-selling. Often these products move from one market to another – (from western Europe to Africa or eastern Europe or from north America to south America). While most companies working with this system do not provide numbers on how many are collected and exported out of EU or US, studies and reports from mobile phone operators clearly reveal that there are more phones collected for re-use than by the WEEE systems in those countries. 75%-85% of the phones collected by these companies are re-used and the remaining sent for recycling.
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Sony Ericsson is a proud supporter of Plug-In To eCycling with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). |
Plug-In To eCycling with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a partnership between US EPA and consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers offering consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle used electronics. For more information, please visit the EPA website. (in English only) |
The EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been in operation since August 2005. Sony Ericsson is fully compliant with the national legislation resulting from this directive. Sony Ericsson is a paying subscriber to the WEEE programme in all countries where we are allowed to register.
We have joint collection and recycling systems for disposed electrical and electronic products. Our preferred partner is the european recycling platform (ERP). Established by Braun GmbH, Electrolux AB, Hewlett Packard and Sony in December 2002; ERP aims to create the most efficient pan-European collection and recycling scheme for consumers, industry and the environment.
The EU WEEE directive places mobile phones in category 3 – together with monitors, IT, and telecom products. For most of the countries where the WEEE directive is included in national law, reporting is conducted for the category as a whole, with mobile phone collection not reported separately. However, for the sake of assessing how many phones are collected through the WEEE systems in the EU, we have analysed numbers from those countries where mobile phones are collected or reported separately – i.e. Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Based on these numbers, we have estimated that 5 - 6 million phones were collected during 2006 via the WEEE programmes in western Europe. When the figure is added to the higher number of collections for re-use; the total amount of phones collected can be estimated to exceed 10 million in 2006.
For Sony Ericsson, over 1 million phones were collected in 2006 in western Europe; with collection rates differing between 2% - 13% based on sales volume and between 1% - 5% based on the number of subscribers.
Environmental Product Declarations
Through our environmental declarations we invite any interested parties to obtain factual information from us. This is a service that Sony Ericsson launched several years ago and gives information on the most relevant environmental aspects of each product such as material content, energy consumption, batteries, packaging and recycling.
To read the declaration for a specific product, go to the Environmental declarations page on one of our local sites and select your product.
