By SE Sustainability team
30th November 2011.
12:00
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Two weeks ago UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) hosted a SAICM*-meeting in the historic city of Belgrade, Serbia. SAICM stands for Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management and is part of UNEP. The meeting was held in preparation for next year’s International Conference of Chemicals Management (ICCM-3) which will address toxic substances. Read more
Today Greenpeace released the 17th version of its Guide to Greener Electronics. In the guide they have ranked 15 manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones and TVs according to the following categories; Energy and Climate, Greener Products and Sustainable Operations. Sony Ericsson was ranked 6th place, scoring 4.2 out of 10, placing us at the top amongst the Android™ smartphone players.
In this edition, Greenpeace has changed the scoring system, introduced tougher requirements and updated many criteria. New criteria were also added, raising the bar for the manufacturers. Overall, the new ranking has stronger focus on energy and climate issues. Read more
As we wrote in our earlier blog post, Sony Ericsson China invited 10 students from the Sony Ericsson Hope Schools to visit Beijing and participate in the Beijing Marathon.
At 9 o’clock in the morning on the day of the Marathon, the ten students and Sony Ericsson employees including Magnus Ahlqvist, President of Sony Ericsson Greater China, set off in the race. Many Sony Ericsson employees had gathered to cheer for the runners and held up banners for them on both sides of the road. Read more
The sustainability work of Sony Ericsson does not only revolve around substance control and reducing our environmental impact, it also includes community engagement. That is why we thought it was about time to post something a bit less “technical”.
As you may know, Sony Ericsson is involved in the development of education in China through the Hope School project. In 2009 and 2010, Sony Ericsson funded the building of two Hope Primary Schools, one in the Sichuan Province and one in the Shanxi Province. In 2011, we continue to support the Hope School project by funding another Hope School! This time in the Hebei Province. Read more
Did you know that by replacing the paper manual in a million of our phones with an electronic version we saved 350 tonnes of paper, which is the equivalent of 13,000 trees and 75,000 cubic meters of water?
In our recently published Sony Ericsson 2010 Sustainability Report you can find out more about what we are doing to lower carbon emissions, drive forward GreenHeart™ and improve our supply chain CSR.
Greenbang, the sustainable business consulting and research organisation, recently announced the winners of ‘The 2010 Greenbang Awards’. The awards were launched this year to identify the most forward-thinking, and innovative companies that are helping to create a sustainable business future.
We are proud to tell you that Sony Ericsson won in the Best cross-organisation sustainability effort category for our GreenHeart initiative! Especially since it is such a cross organisational effort behind the products. All the small steps intergrated across the portfolio makes a much bigger difference than a single feature in a niche product that very few people are interested in.
We were commended for our drive to eliminate paper phone manuals, significantly reduce packaging, phase out hazardous substances in our products and recycle phones to recover valuable resources all as part of the initiative.
GreenHeart has had a tremendous year. In addition to this award, we have also been recognised in the GreenPeace Guide to Greener Electronics, and topped the O2 Eco Ratings with the Sony Ericsson Elm™ being named as the most sustainable handset. We know we are on the right track and now more and more people outside our organization also learn about it. We hope to continue the momentum into 2011 and beyond!
Yesterday the European Parliament voted for a compromise with the European Commission and the Council of Ministers regarding the review of the RoHS directive. The RoHS review include a new methodology for identification of substances for future restrictions. However, EU was not ready to take the step to include BFR (Brominated Flame Retardants) and PVC.
The new method for inclusion of substances is a step forward because from now it is stated that considerations also shall include the waste and end-of-life phase.
According to a recent statement from 150 scientists BFR and PVC produce hazardous dioxins and furans when they are incinerated at insufficiently high temperatures e.g. in sub standard recycling conditions. This was also one of the reasons for us to start the now concluded phase out of BFR and PVC from our products.
As far as I can understand this will inevitably will lead to inclusion of BFR and PVC into restrictions under RoHS the question is only when…..
Last week, GreenPeace released the 16th version of their Guide to Greener Electronics, where they rank the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. GreenPeace’s three goals with the ranking is to get companies to:
- Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances.
- Take back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
- Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.
We are proud that Sony Ericsson stays in second place in the rank, with praise from GreenPeace regarding our work on the phase out of unwanted substances and our investments in green energy. But we also take the weaknesses pointed out by GreenPeace seriously and promise to focus extra hard to improve those scores for the next update of the ranking in three months time. Off course we aim for nothing short of that top position, and to be the first company to score 10 points!
If you want to read the full GreenPeace rank, please follow this link:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up/
Had the pleasure to participate in the presentation of the O2 report “tomorrows workspace” in the House of Commons this morning. My key take out was that by working with people and attitudes O2 managed to show that telecom and IT can improve the work environment, reduce environmental impact and improve work life balance for the people embracing flexible working.
Get inspired by the report and start to influence your own company to become a true 21st century office. Interesting enough on this web page (not linked to O2) there is a community where you can download an app to measure your own work impact, share results and good ideas.
Sony Ericsson in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Netherlands is currently running (October 11 – 18) a “GreenHeart Week” on Facebook and Twitter to coincide with the launch of Cedar in the countries (for anyone understanding German language). The activity includes tips and tricks on ecological topics as well as the GreenHeart application.
The GreenHeart week is hosted on Facebook and Twitter in German speaking countries. Users can click on our Green Heart and, during GreenHeart Week for each click we will donate €1.00 to Plant for the Planet. Founded by nine year old German Felix Finkbeiner in 2007, Plant for the Planet has the goal “Let’s plant million trees worldwide – a million in each country!” Felix has recently become a United Nations Environment Programme junior board member and the program has been rolled out all over the world with great success.
