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Green Mobile link up with the Environmental Investigation Agency 31.05.07

Green Mobile

Green Mobile, the UK’s first environmentally friendly phone service, has teamed up with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to offer a mobile service that raises funds for the EIA.

Green Mobile, who already has a marketing and fundraising alliance with the Woodland Trust, the World Wildlife Fund and Friends of the Earth, will plant five trees and give 5% of all customer’s bills to the Environmental Investigations Agency campaign against deforestation.

According to the Woodland Trust the five trees planted by Green Mobile, should absorb roughly one tonne of CO2 per year.

In addition, Adrian Potter, Managing Director of Green Mobile, said “the benefits of joining also include a £25 cashback and a free solar mobile charger if you keep your old mobile or opt a refurbished handset” he adds “New handsets are available but Green Mobile asks you to assess the environmental impact of throwing away your old mobile first”. And it’s not just your mobiles that can go green, Adrian says “If you sign over your BT landlines to us we will plant a tree and donate 5% of your bill to the EIA” he adds “the other good news for customers is that we charge 13% less than BT for monthly line rental”

According to the Financial Times 87% of Europe’s population have a mobile, the pink one also says that Cadmium from one discarded mobile battery is enough to contaminate 600,000 litres of water. Of the one billion new phones are manufactured globally each year, only 15% are recycled, 100 million mobiles thrown away in Europe each year, and 11,250 tonnes of unused mobile phones sit in drawers across the UK (Recycling appeal 2006).

Mobile handsets are designed to last a minimum of five years, my Nokia 6210 chugging on for 8 before finally collapsing, yet 100 million people in Europe replace their phones annually, the average iuser replaces their handset every 18 months. Mobile phone companies usually positively encourage their clients to up date to the latest mobile phone offering heavy discounts in return for signing up for more and more services. Green Mobile positively encourage their clients to hold onto their old mobiles for as long as possible, as well as offering re-furbished handsets option.

The Environmental Investigation Agency’s Forests for the World Campaign

EIA has been working to protect the world’s forests, and the wildlife and people dependent on their resources, since the early 1990’s.

“International negotiations to bring the largely uncontrolled timber trade under regulation have been thwarted by the powerful logging companies and countries that support them.” argues the EIA,

The EIA has spearheaded new strategies and timber consuming and producing countries are starting to come together to tackle forest crime. Since 1997 EIA has worked in partnership with an Indonesian organisation called Telapak. Together, they have exposed rampant illegal logging in National Parks, worked with other organisations and communities throughout Indonesia and promoted ideas and information to improve forest policy in Indonesia and throughout the world.

“This is a problem with hundreds of different elements. With Telapak EIA have chosen to concentrate on forest crimes such as illegal logging, which are devastating the forests, people and wildlife of Indonesia as well as many other parts of the world. We’re looking at the whole problem from producer to consumer, combining hard-hitting investigations in Indonesia and in other countries which launder illegal timber, principally Malaysia and Singapore, with pressure on consumer markets in Europe, the US and Japan.”

“By switching to green mobile and the great services that they provide you will be making a small but important personal choice to help reduce your carbon footprint. Through helping EIA combat deforestation in Indonesia, the world’s third largest emitter of climate changing CO2, green mobile and their customers can help preserve tropical rain forests as the lungs of the planet.” says the EIA

Green Mobile service packages start at £15 a month for 50 minutes free and 75 text messages. They also offer fixed lines and Broadband services.

Peter Shield