AT&T Blog: Taking our Commitment to Sustainability to the Next Level

 By:  Beth Shiroishi

Vice President,  Sustainability & Philanthropy, AT&T Inc.

Today, we announced our first consumer-focused eco-rating system: a simple way customers can see sustainable impacts of mobile handsets before they buy them.

But, as with many sustainability initiatives, we knew we shouldn’t go this alone. The easy-to-read eco-rating labels, which will be affixed to the packages of AT&T-branded post-paid handset devices later this year, are the result of months of work at AT&T with BSR , a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability. And we hope it doesn’t stop with us alone – what a great movement it would be if all carriers joined in to provide an easy to understand system for consumers across a multitude of devices and carriers. For more information, I invite you to watch this brief video.

Our rating system will be simple and intuitive. Devices will get a rating based on a tiered scale. This overall rating represents the composite score of key environmental characteristics focused on issues such as:

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Environmentally preferable materials

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Energy efficiency

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Environmentally responsible manufacturing

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Responsible end-of-life treatment

The launch of this consumer-focused rating system builds on our overall philosophy at AT&T of shared value—creating value for our customers and value for us as a business. One of the things I love best about my job is that technology continues to help our world operate more and more sustainably.   And it’s a double win when we’re minimizing the environmental impact of our business while enabling our customers to reduce theirs.  For more information on our efforts and overall philosophy I invite you to check out www.att.com/csr.

Innovation that’s good for business, good for the environment and good for communities: that’s what we hope to achieve with the eco-rating system – to make it easier on consumers to make informed decisions, while elevating business practices across our supply chain and industry that will contribute to a better environment for all.   

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