"Ericsson has put our entire production in 2000 into an environmental life cycle context. We’ve included things like the mining of iron ore, the coal burned to generate electricity needed to run production plant, our products in operation and the exhaust fumes from the trucks that transport used equipment to recycling facilities.

It is clear that factors outside Ericsson have by far the greatest environmental impact. But that does not mean that we are relieved of responsibility. We believe that it is part of our corporate responsibility to design, supply, produce and sell all our products with an in-built life-cycle policy.

The results show that most of our direct and indirect CO₂-emissions arise from energy expended on our products in use, and that the next most significant contributor is our suppliers’ manufacturing. So it becomes apparent that our most effective contribution to the environment lies in the way we design products and systems, and whom we select as suppliers of components and parts.

Base stations are the largest product category in Ericsson’s sales. The electricity consumed during the use phase generates approximately 85% of a base station’s life-cycle CO₂.

There is a marked difference between the environmental profiles for network equipment and those for consumer products such as mobile phones. For the mobile phone, the use phase is not as dominant: CO2-emissions in the supply chain are relatively larger. However, during the typical use phase, almost three fourths of the CO₂ emissions arise from stand-by consumption in the charger. As Ericsson introduces more energy-efficient chargers for all models, this percentage will decrease.

During 2000, about half of Ericsson’s mobile phone models were supplied with new energy-efficient chargers, and Ericsson plans to introduce this enhancement on all models. Of course, a mobile phone user could reduce CO₂ emissions simply by disconnecting the charger when not in use." (p. 23)

"Over the past decade or so, dematerialization and improvements in energy consumption in Ericsson’s mobile phones have been dramatic. Today’s Ericsson R520m is barely one-third the weight of our first GSM phones launched in the early 1990s. This improvement is even more spectacular when you consider the change in stand-by time (the time you can leave the phone switched on without charging it). Standby time is some ten times longer for today’s R520m than for typical mobile phones a decade ago. Back then, the mobile phone probably needed to be charged twice each day – whereas once a week would be typical for the R520m today.

Of course, consumer demand for lighter phones with more functionality was instrumental in bringing about these technological advances. But the need to achieve sustainable development and create opportunities for reduces resource and energy use was an equally important consideration." (p. 25)