Whether mandated by a formal ESG policy or merely prompted by a desire to ‘do their bit’, organisations are ramping up their sustainability and environmental action plans. The race is very much on to reduce their carbon footprint and minimise the operational, financial and eco impacts of their everyday activities.
But for all the headline grabbing net zero initiatives or zero waste campaigns, there is a significant green opportunity hiding in plain sight, largely untapped and yet absolutely feasible, effective and achievable right now: eliminate the business mobile phone.
Let’s just pause for a few stats first.
According to researcher and writer Mike Berners-Lee, the average mobile phone creates 55 kilograms of carbon emissions through the manufacturing process.
In 2018, there were 1.9 billion mobile phones manufactured, equating to 104.5 million megatons of carbon. If mobile phone manufacturing were a country, it would be ranked 39 out of 209 for carbon emissions. And as phones get smaller, requiring more carbon intensive manufacturing, the problem just gets bigger.
The more you change your phone, the more it costs you, and the planet: if everyone kept their mobile phone for just one-third longer it’s calculated that we would save the same amount of emissions as the entire annual carbon output of Ireland.
As it stands we have about a third of the 32 million adult workforce using a phone or tablet for business, sometimes their own, sometimes company issue. It’s estimated that around 12 million additional devices are ultimately supplied by business to employees, resulting in the pain of carrying two handsets and the penalty of twice the carbon footprint.
If those 12 million handsets are renewed every year that’s in excess of 600 million kg of carbon produced in the manufacturing process – and so it goes on. When looked at in the raw like this, it is very sobering. Given the low recycling rates on many of the precious metals that go into phone production, it also seems very cavalier and unconscionably irresponsible: how is this a sustainable approach?
It isn’t, of course, but the good news is that while technology has given us this problem it has also given us the solution. The answer is actually quite simple – or should we say eSIMple?
Most people are familiar with the SIM card concept – the small chip device that loads all of your network plan information onto the phone and gets you connected. Over the years SIMs have morphed, first into micro SIMs and then as of 2016 into a virtual software-based replacement for physical cards, the eSIM.
The eSIM is a reprogrammable chip that is embedded inside a device; the information on the eSIM is rewritable and can be updated instantly over the air. Critically, you can run multiple eSIMs on one device; you can even run a physical SIM and an eSIM together.
Here at Redcentric, our Unity on a SIM service already lets you extend your company’s PBX into your employee’s mobile devices – just insert and go. But with eSIM technology, there’s no friction – it’s deployed instantly over the air, and best of all, there is no need to supply a separate work device. The eSIM takes a personal phone and automatically turns it into that familiar, fully featured business extension: secure, controllable, updatable.
Count the wins. Big savings on costs and time; greater convenience for employees in just having the one phone to manage; huge reductions in carbon; and demonstrably greener credentials. eSIMs get you BYOD ready, in the most reliable, responsible, and resource-conscious way possible. eSIMples!
Contact us for more information on how Redcentric can help you take advantage of eSIMs.
