Red Loves Green – Vodafone’s new eco-friendly initiative
Vodafone is helping the environment by replacing its usual credit card-sized SIM holder with a newly-developed half-sized format that halves the amount of plastic used to produce SIMs. The project is part of a wider initiative to decrease the company’s use of non-essential plastics.
Available from January, Vodafone stores will offer customers a variety of eco-friendly accessories under the label ‘Red Loves Green’. These will include fully biodegradable or recycled phone cases made up of, reused ocean plastic, charging banks and docks made from sustainable materials, that all come with plastic-free packaging. Vodafone plans to increase their range of ‘Red Loves Green’ products during the course of 2020.
The Fairphone 3, a more ethical, reliable and sustainable smartphone is also available in 5 Vodafone markets – Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and Ireland – as part of a strategic collaboration between the two companies. Fairphone 3, comes with reusable and sustainable packaging and is made from ethically sourced, conflict-free tin and tungsten, recycled copper, plastic and also gold, sourced by Fairtrade.
Vodafone Director of External Affairs, Joakim Reiter said:
“Halving our environmental impact means not only tackling material issues such as our carbon footprint and e-waste, but also taking action in other areas where we have an impact, such as the non-essential or disposable plastics we use in our retail stores and offices.
Building on many of the initiatives launched across Vodafone’s markets, we want a consistent approach everywhere we operate. This begins with the roll out of half-sized SIMs, tackling unnecessary plastics in our offices and offering our customers eco-friendly accessories.”
These initiatives support and align with Vodafone’s social responsibility plans to improve the quality of life of 1 billion people, whilst reducing its environmental impact by at least 50% by 2025. Such a commitment by Vodafone includes, halving its carbon footprint and purchasing all electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Vodafone has also committed to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of all its produced waste and to help customers extend the lives of the devices they possess already.
The new smaller SIM cards will be given to customers in multiple European markets from the beginning of 2020 and will eventually replace the use of full-sized card holders across all Vodafone’s 24 markets, internationally. This initiative alone, will decrease Vodafone’s plastic waste by more than 340 tons per annum, and will save up to 15 tons of the CO2e released during production and transportation for every ton of plastic reduced – a reduction of more than 5,000 tons of C02e every year.
