It may not seem like a big deal, after all, with all the green house gas emissions that are visibly seen rising from smokestacks, car exhausts and other typical icons for pollution, the mobile phone is the last piece of technology that people would attribute CO2 emissions with.
But that is why the mobile phone is such a dangerous culprit –it is so deceptively innocent that nobody wants to do anything about it. Sony Ericsson has already started calling some shots by opening up the Green Heart program and creating phones from recycled material, using energy efficient hardware and also, making use of better packaging.
The green innovation does not stop there for Sony, but that does not account for the rest of the several other mobile phone companies. Even if Nokia already has the green approval from Greenpeace –they even scored higher than Sony Ericsson, the fact of the matter is that many other phone makers need to follow suit.
For a basic example of why phone energy usage needs to be streamlined, a basic math conversion goes like this: for every two minutes of phone usage each day, a mobile phone leaves a carbon footprint of about 42 kilograms of carbon dioxide each year. And that is just for two minutes. With the use of mobile phones now extended to being used as cameras, instant messaging, web browsing, media playback and more, the average usage time of a mobile phone has been extended up to an hour on average –and that actually beats the carbon footprint of flying from London to New York.
It will certainly be a while before the smart phone industry is able to catch up with ecological demands. But in the meantime, it is important for consumers to be aware of the actual effects of mobile phone usage and how crucial it is for people to start supporting green devices.
Tags: eco-friendly, Greenpeace, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson-Greenheart