Nokia first mobile phone maker to introduce energy saving alerts to handsets

Nokia has announced that it has begun to build in alerts to its mobile phone handsets encouraging people to unplug the charger unit from the mains once their phone has fully charged.

The Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208, and Nokia 1650 will be the first handsets to get the environmentally-friendly treatment, with the entire Nokia product range following in due course.

Kirsi Sormunen, Vice-President of Environmental Affairs at Nokia said, “Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket. We want to reduce this waste and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers.”

It’s not clear what form these alerts will take, but I’d take a guess that it will simply be a message appearing on the screen when the phone is unplugged.

Nokia has invested in a number of energy saving initiatives, including developing more energy efficient chargers that use 50-70% less energy than the Energy Star requirement, and also meet EU standards, as well as setting ambitious goals to further reduce the energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010 it aims to have reduced by an additional 50% the amount of electricity a charger consumes whilst still plugged into the mains but not the phone.

More ethical consumerism over at Hippyshopper