Corporate Responsibility
ENVIRONMENT

MOTO™ W233 Renew: From recycled water bottles ...

In 2009, we launched the MOTO™ W233 Renew, our greenest phone yet, and the latest development in our commitment to keep people connected with less environmental impact.

Protecting the environment is integral to the way we work. "Motorola is an innovation company. As well as inventing breakthrough products, this spirit of innovation extends to making our business leaner and greener, and to helping our customers shrink their footprint," explains Bill Olson, director, Office of Sustainability and Stewardship, Motorola Mobile Devices.

The MOTO™ W233 Renew is the world's first mobile phone made using plastics comprised of recycled water bottles. The recycled plastics for the housing contain 25 percent post-consumer recycled polycarbonate plastic water cooler bottles. This saves 20 percent of the energy needed to make the phone compared to standard plastic. It also means less landfill waste and encourages more recycling by creating a market for used materials. In addition to benefiting the environment, this is a significant technical achievement. "The Renew was six years in the making and it took four years of research to get the recycled plastic just right. we needed to make sure the material met our rigorous quality and durability tests while looking good," says Olson.

Renew helps consumers reduce their carbon footprint. Up to nine hours talk time means less charging and energy use. We also ship the phone with our most energy-efficient charger yet, which uses 0.1 watts in standby (when most energy for mobile phones is wasted). The phone earned CarbonFree® Product Certification, the first on the market, after an extensive product life-cycle assessment.

Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org™, Motorola offsets the amount of carbon dioxide generated to make, distribute and use the phone, through investments in renewable energy and reforestation. For each phone bought, we help fund a project which uses waste methane gas from landfill sites to generate electricity. This stops the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, while providing renewable power to the Massachusetts area. Renew sales also help fund the restoration of native hardwood forests in Louisiana, a Carbonfund.org project that will absorb over 600,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over the life of the project. When mature, the forest will provide a refuge for wildlife including the Louisiana Black Bear, the Florida Panther and many species of songbirds.

Renew contains no PVC or nickel. The phone can be disassembled into separate battery, housing, mother board and display in less than 10 seconds, so it can be easily recycled. The housing is unpainted, which means that it is 100 percent recyclable. In addition, a postage-paid recycling envelope in box makes it easy to return your previous mobile phone for recycling at no cost.

We extended environmental thinking through to the product packaging. We reduced packaging size by 22 percent and printed the in-box information on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. We saved even more paper by only making the manual available online.

Renew was designed for eco-conscious consumers as well as the millions of people who primarily use mobile phones to make calls. With nine hours of talk time, CrystalTalk™ technology for clear conversations, messaging capabilities and a music player, Renew makes environmental responsibility affordable for consumers everywhere.

As consumers become more environmentally aware, Olson hopes the demand for green phones will increase: "We have designed this phone to have low impact on the environment and high impact with consumers. As concerns about the environment grow, we expect the market will ask for more green phones."