Sustainability

The big phone charger question revisited – energy star ratings and solidarity

By Mike on 20 November 2008

GLOBAL – Only last week I posed the big phone charger question, and it was great to see so many of you get involved in the debate and post a heap of interesting and extremely well considered points.

So, it came as a genuinely exciting (and timely) surprise when yesterday Nokia announced a new energy star rating system that is being developed and supported by other major mobile manufacturers, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung and LG.

Read on to find out more about how it’s being implemented.

As Nokia’s announcement explains, the new star rating system “indicates how much energy each charger uses when left plugged into the wall socket after charging is completed. The ratings covers all chargers currently sold by the five companies, and range from five stars for the most efficient chargers down to zero stars for the ones consuming the most energy.”

This marks a significant and evolutionary leap forward for accelerating the improvement of eco efficiency in mobile phone chargers, and raising awareness surrounding the subject, wouldn’t you agree? Granted, this is just the first step, but it’s certainly an encouraging start and certainly addresses some of the points raised in our last big charger question debate.

Nokia has released the following chart, displaying the energy ratings of its chargers, which shows the AC-8 coming out top as a 5-star mobile charger. New chargers will be labelled with this rating (see the green label pictured beneath the ‘No-load consumption score chart’ above’.

But what next. What do you believe is the most important follow-up step to this? Is it simply Nokia and other manufacturers working to improve the efficiency of all chargers so they’re 5-star rated? Or does the charger/no charger option still hold weight? Or is it something else entirely? Let us know, by posting your thoughts below.

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Alberto Says:
November 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

I don’t know if this is the most important thing but it’s important.
A lot of charger are plugged h24 365 days per year but they are really used only few hours per week.

CHAPLIN Says:
November 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Of course this is important. We’re living real changes in our eco-system, so every setps forward to avoid this it will be good! And mobile phone chargers are something who spends a lot of energy.. even because people let their phones charging and charging, even if the battery chargement is already full.. This is just one of the examples, so Whoa! Nokia!