While direct consumption of
business energy is one topic that continues to make headlines, there are other areas where the total power consumption caused by a firm might be reduced.
For instance, the equipment procured by an organisation must first be manufactured, with an associated footprint both in terms of business energy used and carbon emissions produced.
One area where many companies might be investing is in mobile phones, which can add flexibility to a workforce and allow roaming workers - such as executives or sales staff - to keep in touch while they are out of the office.
However, analyst IDC has found that the environmental impact of the handsets themselves is often overlooked, citing a lack of remedial efforts to counteract the production process involved.
Even the best recycling schemes only collect one out of every ten mobile phones, the research organisation claims.
Stephen Drake, programme vice-president for mobility and telecom at IDC, reveals that the analyst has worked directly with vendors and with industry watchdog bodies to learn more about the efforts being made to overcome these obstacles.
For instance, Nokia is working towards closed-loop recycling of handsets, with up to 80 per cent of the materials in its phones able to be reused; the remainder can provide the fuel needed for this processing to take place.
Apple also makes commitments to the environment, both in its own company profile and in 95 per cent of its markets, where recycling initiatives are conducted by the firm to collect and reprocess its handsets at the end of their usable life.
Motorola is a third manufacturer to take steps to incorporate sustainability into its designs, with a plastic developed in its laboratories over four years.
The material includes recycled water bottles, which constitute a quarter of the resources required for the fascias of Motorola's two green handset models, while energy consumption relating to the manufacture of the phones is cut by 20 per cent as a result.
