AT&T: Connecting for a Sustainable Future

CTIA continues to focus on “green” initiatives this month, and today we’re featuring an update from AT&T. 

AT&T strives to minimize their environmental impact in ways that are relevant to their business and important to the communities they serve.

As part of AT&T’s deep commitment to environmental sustainability, they have recently:

• Introduced the AT&T ZERO Charger, the first mobile phone charger that does not waste power when left plugged in while a phone isn’t charging. This device helps our customers save the energy wasted by conventional chargers, which can draw five to 20 times more energy than is stored in the phone battery itself when left idle. It took first place in the “Green Solutions” category at the 2010 CTIA E-Tech Awards. 
• Challenged our customers to sign up for paperless billing. With the help of the Arbor Day Foundation, AT&T will have a tree planted in honor of each customer who opts into paperless billing — up to one million trees in 2010. 
• Slimmed down our phone accessory packaging, and worked with our manufacturers to develop new eco-friendly standards for wireless phones. These standards include requirements for smaller packaging, restriction of hazardous materials, easier recycling of phones at the end of their lives and more efficient chargers. 
• Rolled out our 1,000th alternative-fuel vehicle. This deployment is part of a $565 million planned investment to replace more than 15,000 vehicles with more fuel-efficient models through 2018. 
• Joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now LEADER initiative, which asks that companies pledge to reduce their energy intensity by 25 percent or more over a 10-year period. We also hired our first Director of Energy to drive comprehensive programs for reducing energy consumption and direct our energy-purchasing strategies. 
• Turned up the volume on cell phone recycling in our stores and online, an effort we estimate will help us bring in 14 million phones for recycling by the end of 2011. We also committed to supporting Cell Phones for Soldiers, a charity that uses proceeds from phone recycling to buy phone cards for military families, through 2010.

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