If you buy your next smartphone in a Proximus store, you can include an additional criterion in the choice of your device. Indeed, as announced on Monday April 4, the operator is implementing a new label on these products in order to better inform the consumer: the Eco Rating. This index assesses the environmental impact of the entire life cycle of raw materials, production, transport, use and recycling of mobile phones.
In concrete terms, this is a score out of 100 calculated on the basis of information provided by the manufacturers and a methodology analyzing 19 criteria. This label summarizes the five points of analysis of each appliance: its durability, recyclability, repairability, climate efficiency and resource efficiency.
The Eco Rating is already in place in 26 countries and already has 16 supportive suppliers and today already more than 120 mobile phone models are rated. Proximus claims to have chosen the Eco Rating label because this index “provides a clear environmental score for mobile phones”. This is easily recognizable: it can be found in the webshop on the proximus.be website and via an information screen near the models evaluated in the Proximus shops.
“With the Eco Rating, Proximus has just taken a further step in offering services that allow its customers to reduce their ecological footprint. The Eco Rating contributes to our ambition to move towards ever more circularity alongside other initiatives such as the entry of fair trade or refurbished phones in our catalog, or the protection of smartphones, their repair and recycling process. This label will help us achieve our ambitions of being net zero by 2040. This will only be possible by fully integrating sustainability into the heart of all our business decisions,” said Jim Casteele, Chief Consumer Market. Officer at Proximus.