Saving Resources

We give preference to environmentally friendly products with the longest possible life-cycles, and environmental requirements are anchored in our purchasing policy. We call upon our suppliers to confirm that they comply with legal requirements regarding packaging and batteries, that they use environmentally-compatible materials and substances that are low in emissions and which do not pose a hazard to health, and also that they guarantee resource-optimizing use of materials and energy. In the course of monitoring our suppliers, their environmental performance is checked and evaluated.

A major part of the work processes in our company is carried out without paper.  In addition, all emails automatically end with an environmental signature that points out that the message should not be printed out unless necessary. Paper consumption in the fixed net segment was reduced by 755 tons in the past three years, which is comparable to 3 hectares of forest. In the area of mobile communications, besides an environmental signature for emails, recycling paper was also introduced and printing settings were adjusted for two-sided printing.

By packaging mobile phones in smaller cardboard boxes, since spring 2008 approximately 48 tons of packaging material could be saved per year. This corresponds to 66 full truckloads for delivery alone, waste disposal not included.

At company headquarters at Lassallestrasse a service water supply system was installed to provide the toilets with well water. This reduces the consumption of drinking water by 10,000 m3 to 12,000 m3 per year.

In regular collection drives customers are called upon to hand in their old mobile phones. Collection boxes are available in all of our shops. The mobile phones collected are recycled, and with each mobile phone the company makes a donation to “Doctors without Borders”. To enhance our product range we have included an environmentally friendly mobile phone. In a first step 1,000 field personnel have been equipped with “Naite GreenHeart” phones from Sony Ericsson. Through the use of recyclable materials, the energy-saving charging device, and the assurance that all the materials used can be recycled at the end of the product life cycle, the new GreenHeart series fulfills all the requirements of an ecologically sustainable mobile phone.