Johan Thomsen, affinity manager at Green Mobile, says it is frightening how few mobile phones get recycled.

“The problem today is that people upgrade their mobile phones every year and only a small percentage of these phones are disposed of safely,” he says. “We are therefore asking people to hold onto their phones a bit longer by offering them mobile tariffs starting at just GBP 10 (USD 20.6) per month as an incentive for choosing not to upgrade their mobile phones. And by joining us, they will also be donating to some of the greenest charities in the UK.”

Green Mobile, launched earlier this year, is an offshoot of Resource Utilities, a UK telephone company that has a long history of fundraising for charities. A few years ago, Resource Utilities started to look into how it could become more “green” and approached the Woodland Trust and Friends of the Earth. Green Mobile was formed as a result.

For each new mobile subscription, Green Mobile donates GBP 25 (USD 51.6) and 6 percent of all ongoing bills to the customer’s choice of charity partner (at no cost to them). It also offers ‘green’ landline and broadband services by donating 6 percent of all ongoing bills to its charity partners. The other benefit is the cheap subscription rates: GBP 10 a month for 75 minutes of calls and 75 texts. The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, asked earlier this year: What’s the catch? But it said it could not find one.

Thomsen says the low rates are a way for Green Mobile to attract subscribers, but are mostly to make a difference for the environment. “We try to keep our services as competitive as possible while still giving as much as we can to charities,” he says.

As well as the Woodland Trust and Friends of the Earth, Green Mobile has also teamed up with the WWF and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

“The money we donate to the EIA goes towards investigating deforestation in Indonesia, and we are also going to support its campaign to help save the tiger,” Thomsen says.

Since its official launch in April, Green Mobile has been gaining about 50 new customers every month. Most who sign up are involved in the charities the operator is supporting, but Thomsen believes it will see a real mix of subscribers in the future.

“People are really starting to worry about the impact their actions have on the environment, so if they know that they can help the environment by just changing their phone subscription, I think they will take notice of that,” he says.

Green Mobile is also encouraging businesses to go green. For every new mobile subscription, it plants five trees with the Woodland Trust and donates 4 percent of all on going bills to the business’ charity of choice.

“One way to get people more aware of Green Mobile is to promote the business side of what we are doing,” Thomsen says. “So if you have a company, you can now make your phones go ‘green,’ which is a very good thing from a corporate social responsibility point of view and for your image.”

Thomsen believes that ‘green’ companies are here to stay, saying Green Mobile is far from a fad. “There are green electricity and insurance companies, and a lot of the larger companies, such as our charities’ commercial partners, are taking note and starting to move in our direction,” he says. “We also recently won the Green Business Award from the Wandsworth Guardian, a local London newspaper, which shows that the idea of green phones is starting to gain support.”

Torunn Hansen-Tangen
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