By Dominic Chopping 
 

STOCKHOLM--Swedish telecommunications operator Telia Co. said Tuesday that it has joined forces with Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, Telefonica SA and Vodafone Group PLC to launch a new European Eco Rating labeling scheme to rate the sustainability of mobile phones.

Telia said the initiative was created to provide consistent, accurate information at the point of retail on the environmental impact of producing, using, transporting and disposing of smartphones and feature phones.

A range of new consumer phones from 12 mobile-phone brands will be assessed by the rating, with others expected to be announced in the future, it added.

Launch partners include Bullitt Group--home of CAT and Motorola rugged phones--Doro, HMD Global--home of Nokia phones--Huawei Technologies Co., MobiWire, Lenovo Group Ltd. and Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Samsung Electronics Co., TCL Technology Group Corp. and Alcatel, Xiaomi Corp. and ZTE Corp.

Starting from June 2021, the mobile operators will begin to introduce the Eco Rating at points of sale across 24 countries in Europe where they are present.

Each mobile-phone handset will be evaluated across 19 different criteria, culminating in a single Eco Rating score out of 100 for each device.

The Eco Rating label will also highlight five key aspects of mobile-device sustainability, providing additional information about durability, repairability, recyclability, climate efficiency and resource efficiency.

Telia said the rating was developed with technical support from Spanish economic development, sustainability and environmental agency Ihobe, and with the participation of device suppliers using the latest EU guidelines, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization.

The rating will be rolled out in Albania, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the U.K.

 

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 25, 2021 06:16 ET (10:16 GMT)

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