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Universal charger for mobile phones three years away

The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers have responded to concerns about e-waste by announcing plans to introduce a universal charger for mobile phones by January 1, 2012.

It is hoped that the introduction of a common format for mobile phone chargers will remove the need to give consumers a new charger with each phone upgrade, helping the industry to eliminate up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

The GSMA predicts that with 50% fewer chargers being manufactured each year (assuming 50% of phones are replacement devices), the industry can expect to cut greenhouse gases from the manufacture and transport of replacement chargers by 13.6 million tonnes to 21.8 million tonnes a year.

Another benefit is an estimated 50% reduction in standby energy consumption, as the universal chargers will have a 4-star or higher efficiency rating and be up to three times more energy-efficient than an un-rated charger.

The GSM hopes that by January 1, 2012 a mojority of new mobile phones will support the universal charging connector.

www.gsmworld.com

Credit crunch drives demand for remanufactured MFPs

Ricoh has officially launched its R series of recycled multifunction products (MFPs), just as Océ reports a surge in demand for its remanufactured printing systems as a result of the credit crunch.

Built to be as good as new, Ricoh R series MFPs cost 25% less and have a 40% lower carbon footprint than a newly manufactured device. The pre-owned MFPs are re-manufactured at Ricoh’s facility in Telford, where workers strip each machine to its chassis, replace all ‘lifetime’ parts, fit modifications or firmware upgrades, re-spray all external panels and re-set counters to zero. The devices are then re-badged and re-branded to identify them as Ricoh-approved recycled machines.

The range comes with full warranties and includes both mono and colour devices. The former offer print speeds from 22 (R222) to 75 (R175) ppm and

the latter 8-10 ppm in colour and 24 (R024c) to 32 (R032c) ppm in mono. Last year Océ increased sales of remanufactured devices by 66%, from 3,000 in 2007 to 5,000 in 2008.

Océ Prémia Class printers are re-manufactured at Océ’s Asset Recovery plants in Venlo, Chicago, Munich and Prague. In addition to renovated printing systems, the plants recovered 130,000 components and modules that Océ re-uses.

www.oce.com www.ricoh.co.uk

Oce services go green

Following a successful trial with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Océ UK has launched a range of eco-friendly print and mailroom management services for medium and large companies that want to reduce their environmental footprint.

An add-on to Oce’s managed on-site document services, Océ Green Services is currently available for the printroom, office fleet printers, mailroom, records management, creative services and

print management.

Under the scheme, Oce conducts an energy audit, including the calculation of CO

2 emissions; recommends sustainable improvements; implements instruments to enhance energy efficiency; and supplies environmentally friendly consumables.

The Océ Green Services package also includes the option to offset carbon emissions through Shining Earth, the sustainability division of environmental consultants Delta-Simons. www.oce.com

• Software downloads are eight times more carbon efficient than producing, shipping and selling a DVD through traditional retail distribution channels, according to a new study byWSP Environment and Energy and Accenture. The study commissioned by Microsoft following its introduction of digital downloads for Microsoft Office 2007 compares the carbon footprint of a digital download with that of a fully packaged software product sold through traditional retail stores.

Researchers compared carbon emissions from the raw materials, production, distribution, customer purchase and end of life processes for 10 million off-the-shelf retail units to those from the online delivery of 10 million downloads, taking into account the datacentres used for hosting downloads, the transfer of the software through the web and the energy used by a customer’s PC.

When all these factors are taken into account, digital software delivery reduces total carbon emissions by 88%. The biggest sources of carbon emissions from packaged software are packaging and transport. The former is the largest contributor (almost 10,000 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent emissions for 10 million products) until the customer’s journey to and from the retail store was included. This increases CO 2 equivalent emissions from distribution to more than 60,000 tonnes.

www.wspenvironmental.com/usa

• Google has refuted the recent suggestion that a typical Google search produces 7 grams of CO

2 and uses half as much energy as boiling a kettle of water. According to its calculation, an average Google search query consumes 0.0003 kWh of energy. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it claims that each search produces the equivalent of 0.2 grams of CO

2 , the same as driving 1 metre in an average car.