An interesting white paper from Ericsson, about how to achieve energy-efficient, sustainable mobile communications through network optimization, site optimization and alternative energy sources.

Ericsson projects regarding sustainability includes the use of renewable energy for both network equipment and also some other small projects as solar power mobile chargers.

One example is with China Mobile, running 252 wind and solar sites in Inner Mongolia. Photo from Ericsson.

Solar powered mobile charger. Photo from Ericsson.

In my opinion, this type of work is a good example of the relation between ICT and Sustainable Development, both by:

+ ICTD: Providing connectivity in developing rural areas, closing the digital divide.

+ Green IT: Reducing the environmental impact of  ICT infrastructure.

Photo from Sony Ericsson

Via Mobilkoll (mobile side) and Treehugger (green life side) I have seen that Sony Ericsson has released a new concept phone with environmental goodies:

• bio-plastic housings
• recycled plastic keypads
• zero charger with 3.5mW standby power
• HTML based e-manuals
• game style educational application ‘Ecomate’
• environmentally conscious packaging.

Not bad, not bad. I like the packaging and the owl thing ^_^

But most important is the environmental warranty, that states: “when any Sony Ericsson product is taken to a designated collection point, Sony Ericsson will recycle this product in an environmentally sound way. This warranty is valid globally, regardless of where the product was originally purchased”.They have already 500 collection points.

Awesome, that is some fact and more than just words or concepts.

More info at Sony Ericsson press release.

Photo from Nokia

This reminds me of the Nokia 3110 Evolve. that it was announced December last year, that is quite a big time advantage. It is supposed to be for sell already, but I haven’t find it yet. The environmental carachteristics are a bit similar:

• 50 percent of it’s bio-covers come from renewable sources.
• It’s presented in small packaging made of 60 percent recycled content.
• And it comes with Nokia’s most energy efficient charger yet, the AC-8.

Nokia has also its recycling plan.

I remember also that NEC had a bioplastic based phone back in 2005.

Interesting to see how this will keep developing, let’s hope this kind of innovations reach mainstream and are a natural part of the products and not just a marketing thing. Make the green look normal, not the normal look green (From the green marketing manifesto book).

Photo from Ericsson.

I found an interesting programme called The Green Power for Mobile that wants to promote the use of renewable energy for mobile networks. The plan is both to increase connectivity to people lacking access to regular electricity and to substitute diesel in those places where there is off-grid infrastructure based on fossil fuels.

That is such a great project! I will keep a look about how it is developing.

Photo from Ericsson.

From the time in Ericsson I remember their projects about using renewable energy powered mobile systems. From the base stations, to mobile solar chargers as shown in the picture. Now they have a nice specific site presenting their projects with videos and links to several white papers.

One thought. Shouldn’t this idea be extended to normal base stations? For instances retroffiting network equipment in sunny south spain with solar panels. Even if you keep it on the grid without batteries, it would reduce the total energy consumption of the site and probably resell energy on the grid in the sunniest times.

I would keep an eye about this. A sustainable pervasive information cloud.