ITU experts brainstorm on consumers’ device purchase decisions

Anthony Nwakaegho/DigitalSENSE Business News

Experts working in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Standardization sector have brainstormed at the ITU Green Standards Week on the proposed eco-rating scheme that would extend across networks, manufacturers and national boundaries and empower consumers to make informed purchasing decisions based on a standardized assessment of a mobile phone’s environmental impact.

Findings by DigitalSENSE Business News revealed that the organizations working with ITU’s Standardization Sector on the new scheme with the theme “Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities”  include device makers Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, BlackBerry, Fujitsu, Huawei, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung, operators AT&T, Orange, KPN, Telefónica and Vodafone, and industry partners including the GSMA.

To the industry watchers, the new scheme will mark a simplification of the process of gathering and processing eco-efficiency information, while at the same time providing the consumers an easy-to-understand and credible rating that allows them to choose mobile devices with a lower environmental impact using the principles such as lifecycle assessment, simplicity, transparency, feasibility and verifiability of carbon footprint; battery life; the use of certain chemicals and rare metals; packaging; and recyclability, among others.

 “Consumers are increasingly looking to make sustainable purchasing decisions. A key problem has been a bewildering array of eco-rating schemes. I applaud this initiative that will drive green innovation and allow us all to make informed decisions when we purchase mobile devices,” Secretary-General, ITU, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré said.

Global Director of Devices, Telefónica Francisco Montalvo said “Telefónica uses environmental criteria including energy consumption, CO2 emissions and recyclability to evaluate and select devices, but we have found great difficulty with the absence of a common methodology for each manufacturer to report details on their devices. There is clearly a strong need for a common framework to enable industrial implementation.”

Green Standards Week which is an annual event was sponsored by Telefonica during which Belarusian Andrey Sryvkov was declared winner of the first prize in the third Green ICT Application Challenge for his application ‘Greenyplay’. Sryvkov’s USD 5,000 winning idea uses ‘gamification’ to encourage recycling with a system of achievements and rewards.

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