Environment Support

Sony Ericsson – a Green Conglomerate

Sony originated back in a decrepit building in World War II Tokyo. It began as a radio shop that was set up by co-founder Masaru Ibuka. Akio Morita then joined Ibuka and the two formed a company they named as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. The company’s success came with Bell Lab’s invention of the transistor. Acquiring license to the technology, the company produced the first commercially viable transistor radio in August 1955. Two years after, they manufactured the first portable transistor radio and in 1958 renamed the company "Sony," which is a fusion of the Latin word for sound and Sonny-boys, the Japanese slang for “whiz kids."

Ericsson goes as far back as 1876 when repairman Lars Magnus Ericsson put up a mechanical workshop in central Stockholm. In 1878, Ericsson was able to produce cheaper, superior telephones which were used by emerging companies. By the late 1800s, Ericsson helped make Stockholm the world's most telephone-dense city. From being a telephone and switchboard supplier in Sweden, Ericsson grew to become a worldwide telecomm supplier.

In March 2000, a Philips plant in New Mexico, which was Ericsson’s major supplier of semiconductor components for its cellular phones sector, was damaged extensively by fire. Due to this major setback, the company ceased operations in the cellular phone industry and decided to merge with Sony. This merger proved to be beneficial to both companies. In the year 2006’s third quarter, the company was the fourth largest cellular phone supplier and held a 9% share of the global market.

Green Drives

Being a global giant has equally tremendous pressure from the public and environmental sectors to produce environment-friendly products and practice green policies. Sony Ericsson has not been lacking in such efforts. Among the many practices the company employs in its drive for a cleaner environment are:

  1. Environment-conscious product design – The company always monitors current and new analyses about new and existing chemical components. Sony Ericsson routinely scans new product designs for restricted or proscribed substances. With their existing product lines, they modify or take out ones that have been deemed hazardous to consumers and the environment by new reports. The company also employs environment coordinators in designing new cellular phones to ensure adherence to environment standards.
  2. The company was the first one to remove brominated flame retardants --- which cause long term damage to aquatic ecosystems and their organisms --- from is devices and in fact, the first mobile phone it manufactured was free from bromine.
  3. Sony Ericsson was the first company to faithfully adhere to the policies laid out by the EC Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and has even implemented additional policies to bolster the already strict guidelines of the RoHS.
  4. Sony Ericsson products are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) free, except for the housing of the electrical connections of some old models and these are already in the process of being taken out of the production lines. (Dioxin, a byproduct of vinyl chloride, causes reproductive disorders, a variety of cancers, endometriosis, and immune system suppression.
  5. Energy efficiency – Due to the fact that power dissipation in consumer products mostly occurs when they are idle, the company has gone through the laborious work of creating innovations that minimize the power consumption of its cellular phone chargers. This drive has paved the way for Sony Ericsson chargers that are actually 30% more efficient than the ones required by the European Code of Conduct (CoC).
  6. Management of the company’s suppliers – The company continually monitors and works only with other companies that meet rigid environment-friendly requirements. Sony Ericsson works closely with Sony in conducting bi-annual checks on their logistics lines to ensure not only their products, but also the elemental components that power them, comply with the latest guidelines.
  7. Recycling – The company cooperates with international environment advocacy groups in formulating guidelines for correct utilization of products for recycling. It has also conducted voluntary and compulsory recycling plans around the world.
  8. Declarations – The company provides comprehensive details about the composition of its products and their components, down to their energy consumption rating, type of batteries, material content, recommended recycling means, and packaging.

In March 2008, the Sony Ericsson T650i mobile phone, Sony Vaio TZ11 laptop, and the Sony Ericsson P1i PDA won the top spots in Greenpeace’s first survey of environment-friendly electronic products; a sure measure of how the company’s hard work in ensuring the safety of the environment has paid out.

Environmental Resources for Sony Ericsson