Environmental protection has become an irreversible trend and need in China. Ericsson has been delivering innovative and green mobile solutions to support sustainable social, economic and environmental development in China and was granted the “2008 China Green Benchmark Company” Award at a ceremony as part of the Second Annual Summit of China Green Companies on April 23, 2009 in Beijing, the second time Ericsson has won the award since its inception in 2007.
Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson Greater China, says: "We are proud of being honored with this title for a second consecutive time. Ericsson has always spared no efforts in driving China's harmonious and sustainable development through our green mobile communication technologies. We will provide more efficient and cost-effective green solutions to our customers to create more significant social, economic and environmental benefits for the Chinese operators."
In 2008, to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation over the “Green Initiative” signed between the two parties, Ericsson provided China Mobile for the first time with the power-saving feature for base stations that allows the network to enter standby mode during the non-peak periods to help China Mobile cut down on the energy consumption of its network, therefore making active contribution to CO2 emission reduction. The function, once applied in all operators’ networks in which Ericsson’s GSM base stations are installed, can help reduce CO2 emissions by 1 million tons annually. Ericsson also launched the concept of its wind-powered Tower Tube last year, which was given the 2008 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, enabling the “good attempt at making cell towers less obtrusive” to take a great stride along the path of energy-saving, and therefore assisting areas lack of power supply to achieve the objective of “communication for all” with sustainable and low-cost solutions.
Ericsson believes that mobile communication is not only the engine to achieve basic communication, but also the basis for providing impoverished areas with medical, education, small enterprise startup and security services. To this end, Ericsson signed a three-year partnership agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2008. Under this agreement, Ericsson and the UNDP will work together to explore how to improve the medical and healthcare, government, education and financial services in rural China and raise the living standards of low-income rural areas using mobile phones and the internet.
