Sony Ericsson's work on RoHS and REACH

Daniel Paska, Sony Ericsson's environmental expert, described the successful environmental work of the company during a recent seminar which evertiq attended.

OEM"Sony Ericsson employs the same environmental standards across its entire global footprint. The company has divided the environmental requirements for its products into three levels: basic requirements (legislative requirements) - additional requirements (customer requirements) - and top-level requirements (our own requirements)", he describes during the Swerea-IVF:s seminar which evertiq participated.

In order to have control over what goes into its products, Sony Ericsson requires full material declarations from their suppliers and spends a lot of money per product line on just that - approximately US-$100 000 on verifying subcontractor data only. Bromine was already phased out before the merger with Sony and RoHS was implemented in 2005 (two years before it became a legislative requirement). "This year, the company is targeting all halogens (the last 0.1%)", explains Daniel Paska. Sony Ericsson has also taken the decision to not use tantalum from Central Afrika, this - however - for ethical reasons.

Additional to that, Sony Ericsson has established its own environmental standard "Green Hart"- which states for instance that the manual should be available through the mobile phone's software or that the chargers are energy-efficient. If talking about carbon dioxide emissions, the - by far - biggest CO2 source in any mobile phone are the integrated circuits, followed by the LCD display.