Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 02/01/10 by Molly Kocour
Last week, we tweeted about a cellphone battery that would run on soda. While the idea of a soda-fueled cellphone is still highly conceptual, the New York Times highlights another environmentally-friendly method to charge the electronics in your life.
"The technology uses a photosenstive dye to start its energy production, much the way leaves use chlorophyll to begin photosynthesis. The dye-sensitized cells will be used to provide power for devices ranging from e-book readers to cellphones."
The cells are incorporated into panels that are sewn to a variety of accessories including: covers for e-readers, backpacks and sports bags, and will enable consumers to charge their electronics via a USB cord. You can read more of the article here.
Posted: 12/24/09 by Mobile Future Team
If you're in need of a holiday gift for that environmentally conscious mobile user who just got back from the summit in Copenhagen, here's a thought: a carbon-neutral phone from Motorola. According to the company, the plastic case of the Renew is made entirely of recycled water bottles and its packaging is made from 100 percent recycled material. Moreover, according to the CNet reviewers, it's actually a pretty decent phone.
Posted: 10/30/09 by Molly Kocour
Are you the kind that stresses because you occasionally leave your PDA plugged in all night and you're worried about the waste of electricity? Well, rest easy because it turns out that the impact on the environment is pretty minimal.
A recent WashPo
Green Lantern column, cites figures from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to suggest that if you leave a typical mobile phone plugged in for eight unnecessary hours every night for a year, you'll waste about 6.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
That's about .15 percent of the average household's annual electricity usage. By comparison, swapping an incandescent light for a compact fluorescent could save about 125 kilowatt-hours.
So if you occasionally forget to unplug your phone when Conan comes on, don't sweat it. Your phone's energy usage is so low that it won't make much difference.
Posted: 02/19/09 by Molly Kocour
We're making progress: "Until now, there have been few models available of so-called green, or environmentally friendly, mobile phones.... That is slowly changing, as the mobile phone industry looks for ways to appeal to a growing segment of consumers who want to reduce their carbon footprints."
According to The Times, there won't be any completely "green" phones unveiled at the Mobile Word Congress this week in Barcelona. That's still a couple of years away, at least for affordable ones. But look at other innovations:
- A light sensor that detects natural light, allowing phones to save energy.
- A phone made from recycled water bottles which can itself be recycled when it's no longer used.
- A charger that draws a fraction of the power of most chargers when plugged into an outlet, but not to a phone. (It's still better to unplug your charger when it's not in use.)
So progress is coming and the additional cost of being green keeps dropping. Call it a hunch but that's a trend certain to continue.
Posted: 01/12/09 by Allison Remsen
We're back from CES and as Alex Pham and Michelle Maltais
write in today's Los Angeles Times, mobile wireless technology is one of the top trends of the year. (The others are "green" electronics, better Internet access and new ways to interact with your tech devices.) Among the highlights we saw during our trip:
- Lost the owners manual for your new Ford F-150? No prob. Use the in-dash computer to access it wirelessly.
- Palm's new Pre phone and Web OS platform show that competition in the "smartphone" arena is vibrant and giving consumers more options.
- A new generation of fast wireless chargers like the Powermat promise to free us from untangling that power cord snakepit in our desk drawer.
After a long day at the show, these products might not have the allure of the
frozen icebar at Red Square but they're still pretty cool.
Posted: 01/07/09 by Mobile Future Team
A tip of the hat to The Louisville Zoo, which has the Number 1 phone recycling program in the nation according to the green group, ECO-CELL.
More than 100 zoos in North America participate in the group’s recycling program and in 2008, ECO-CELL claims these efforts have diverted 4,000 pounds of toxic cell phone batteries, 35,000 cell phones and 6,000 pounds of cell phone accessories from landfills. The Louisville Zoo collected more than 4,400 old cell phones.
For more on phone recycling, including links to drop-off bins, click here.
Posted: 11/11/08 by Jo-Anne Basile
Want to help a military family that can't afford a mobile phone? Or a domestic abuse victim? Then donate that old phone that's been sitting unused for the past six months. You're not only doing a good deed but as Rachel King wrote in Business Week last week, you're also helping the environment:
"The EPA estimates that if the 100 million U.S. mobile devices eligible for refurbishing were actually recycled this year, we could save enough to power more than 194,000 U.S. households with electricity for one year."
Some may be concerned about exposing their personal data. After all, there was the sales director for a major Japanese firm who gave away a Blackberry with unencrypted sensitive information, including a business plan.
But no need to worry. Here's a place with free instructions on erasing your data.
So since you don't have to worry about your data anymore, go ahead and donate. By the holidays, someone in need will thank you.
Posted: 09/10/08 by Jonathan Spalter
As national governments increasingly are developing policies to curb and manage greenhouse gas emissions, mobile innovators are deploying sophisticated mobile-based software platforms to help industries, states, municipalities and the federal government to track, manage, report and analyze their greenhouse gas footprints, and comply with policy mandates.
Such is the assessment of one mobile innovator, Larry Goldenhersh, CEO of the California-based company Enviance, whose company, along with other companies like ESS, have been developing and deploying mobile applications for their core software platforms to allow industries, governments, and organizations to gather, enter and share data, facilitate bar coding and data logging in order to efficiently comply with new energy efficiency reporting requirement, taxation mandates, and trading regimes.
I met with Larry recently to learn more about the emerging field of "green" applications for mobile. Now, he said, engineers and project managers in the field, equipped with mobile devices, can gather and analyze complex data sets for their companies, organizations, or governments to facilitate compliance with voluntary greenhouse gas reduction programs, populate GHG registries, facilitate participation in "cap and trade" programs, and collaborate in sectoral, scientific, and governmental GHG programs and initiatives.
The use of mobile and wireless technologies as a core component in measuring and managing the environmental footprint of companies and governmental assets is more than merely a moral or a PR posture; Larry said, it is a bottom-line best practice. Indeed, one market research firm , in its recent survey "Communicating Green", has modeled future economic benefits of using mobile and wireless, along with other communications platforms, in designing and deploying mobile communications and data services for environmental management, and concludes that the future marketplace for green mobile innovation is highly attractive globally.
That is one of the reasons that an increasing number of innovators, including companies like Enviance, and others are pioneering this path to a greener future, and an increasingly mobile future.
Posted: 05/29/08 by Chris Parandian
I read with great interest a story in the Times Online about Apple’s recent patent filing and a solar powered iPhone. This isn’t the first time a manufacturer has thought about a “green phone” but Apple may be in the best positionto get it done. These developments are great news for the industry andfurther demonstrates the innovation occurring in this sector.
On a related note, last year at this time,I pondered why the wireless industry hasn’t highlighted more of itseffort in this space. All four major carriers participate in recyclingefforts.As we have seen in the car industry, a green reputation can beextremely powerful. For instance, Toyota has captured the hearts andminds of consumers with its Prius.
Thereis still a huge opportunity for the wireless industry here.Accordingly, I’m psyched that Mobile Future is making this a majorinitiative and we will be hosting a panel in June (on Capitol Hill) onrecycling.
Stay tuned for more information on that event…
Posted: 05/05/08 by Jo-Anne Basile
In the spirit of going green, especially with regard to all things electronic, I would like to highlight Recycling for Charities. Recycling for Charities is a non-profit organization (501(c)3, which takes the spirit of recycling to the next level by donating a portion of the proceeds from recycled cell phones and other electronics to the recycler's charity of choice.
How it works: first, you gather all the old cell phones, pda's, iPods and digital cameras that you no longer use or need. On the web site for Recycling for Charities, you select the charity or charities that you would like to benefit from your recycling donation. The website lists nearly 200 charities, but if you want to donate to one not listed have your charity sign up online so they can be placed in the system.
Finally, you print out the shipping label and tax donation form from the Recycling for Charities Web site (i.e. a receipt that acknowledges your donation) and ship the electronics to Recycling for Charities. Recycling for Charities makes a donation based on the amount of your recycled items.
Remember the more items you collect, the greater the donation to your charity of choice, so consider a fundraiser where you can collect many old or no longer used cellphones and other electronics. Because Recycling for Charities is a non-profit and the proceeds go to charities and recycling efforts, the donations are tax deductible. Additionally, Recycling for Charities is committed to ensuring that no items donated to the organization ever end up in a landfill, either in the U.S. or abroad.
Due to the market fluctuations, the amount of the donations varies, but the organization donates a percentage of the market value of each item that can be refurbished, as well as a flat amount for each recycled item.
While there are a number of companies out there getting into the electronics recycling space, Recycling for Charities is currently the only non-profit recycling program for other non-profits. When considering your electronics recycling options, keep in mind the one that benefits the environment and the charity of your choice.
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Tags: e-reading, Environment, Green Mobile, Investment/Competition