Member Article

Mobile phones for social good

Two mobile phone companies have been recognised for their contributions to sustainability in the past week. Fairphone, the world’s first ‘ethical smart phone’ was named as one of the ‘most inspiring global social innovations using digital technology’ by UK charity Nominet Trust. Meanwhile, UK Company Mazuma Mobile were named as one of the ‘top ten sustainable solutions in the world’ at the annual Sustainia awards.

Fairphone, which launched in Europe earlier this year, aims to clean up the whole supply chain in mobile phone manufacturing. Their smart phones are produced using conflict free resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo and they ensure fair wages to the workers producing them. The Dutch company launched the phone in the UK in September and have plans to sell them in shops as well as online in the near future.

Roos Van de Weerd of Fairphone said they were ‘very humbled’ to be included on the list which the Nominet Trust said represented ‘an authoritative global list of the most inspiring applications of digital technology for social good’. Speaking after the list was announced Roos said

‘Our values-based approach to production wants to disrupt the focus on technology-centred improvement and it’s great to see that so many people are investing in change.

We are showing that collectively we can open up complex supply chains and change the way products are made.’

Recognised for cleaning up the other end of a mobile phone’s lifespan was British Company Mazuma Mobile. The Sustainia Award headed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and chair of UN’s panel on climate change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri selected ten global ‘solutions, technologies or projects with significant potential to help build a more sustainable future.’

Mazuma Mobile, the only UK Company to make it into the final ten, were nominated in recognition of their work recycling and re-homing old mobile phones. The company buys back used mobile phones from consumers, then re-homes the working and repairable ones and recycles any which are non-repairable. Mazuma Mobile’s Managing Director and co-founder Charlo Carabott said it was ‘fantastic’ to be included in the final ten ‘among such a prestigious list of fellow nominees from around the globe.’

Mr Carabott said ’When we launched Mazuma Mobile in 2006, mobile phone recycling and reuse was a little known concept among UK consumers. Since then, we have paid out over £185million to consumers and re-homed over 4.8 million mobile phones both here in the UK and overseas.

We are proud that this nomination recognises our achievements in helping to turn mobile phone reuse into a regular practice in many households.’

With six out of seven billion people in the world now owning a mobile phone sustainability is more important than ever and consumers are increasingly looking for green and ethical credentials when choosing what they buy.

Charlo Carabott said he hoped the nomination would serve ‘as an example to other businesses of how a sustainability ethos can be successfully integrated into a commercial business model.’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Natalie Leal .