Sprint's Environmentally Responsible Business Practices Earn it Top Honors from Frost & Sullivan for the Fourth Straight Year
The company's efforts to ensure long-term sustainability have helped set a new standard for corporate environmental responsibility
Apr 27, 2015, 09:00 ET
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the mobile and wireless industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Sprint with the 2015 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Green Excellence. Sprint's focus on reducing its carbon footprint and consumption of natural resources, encouraging phone recycling and reuse, and establishing processes that enable a more environmentally sound ecosystem has influenced the entire wireless industry, other market participants and the community at large. Its unmatched efforts to advance long-term sustainability through greener devices, award-winning phone buy-back program, and industry-wide influence have set it apart from its peers.
By the end of 2013, Sprint had met half of its 2017 goals, namely:
- Reduced GHG emissions by an absolute 20 percent (at 29.36 percent through 2013)
- Improved carbon efficiency by 75 percent (at 84.77 percent through 2013)
- Lowered paper volume by 40 percent (at 71.63 percent through 2013)
- Ensured 70 percent of devices launched met Sprint's environmental criteria (at 71.4 percent through 2013)
- Decreased purchased water by 30 percent (at 30.33 percent through 2013)
"Sprint has already met half of its environmental goals three years ahead of schedule," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Jennifer Knox. "Importantly, achieving its GHG emissions and paper consumption targets is having a direct business impact that has already saved the company more than $110 million annually."
Additionally, in response to the high volumes of e-waste that affect the wireless industry, Sprint established a trend-setting Electronics Stewardship policy to handle e-waste from inception to end of life. It innovated substantially in this area to limit risk when introducing a product and educated manufacturers regarding the environmental impact of each product. It even drove the development of UL 110, the first environmental standard for wireless devices, which stipulates material use, energy consumption, end-of-life management, packaging, and other criteria. Today, the company has more UL-certified phones than any other carrier, and 90 percent of its phones launched in the first half of 2014 were UL 110-certified, of which 50 percent were certified "Platinum"—the highest for any carrier.
The company is also enabling suppliers to reduce their own environmental footprint by establishing clear supplier criteria. It offers a supplier guide to assist vendors in better meeting sustainability goals, thereby continuing to drive change through suppliers in the mobile and wireless industry.
Sprint's award-winning Sprint Buyback program has put more than $250 million back in customers' pockets, and the program has focused not just on recycling, but on reuse. Today, nine of every 10 phones that come back through the program are reused and given a second life.
"Sprint has emerged as the clear leader with respect to environmental responsibility and influence based on its proactive actions to preserve natural resources, reduce waste, and strengthen a green supply chain," noted Knox. "Further, through paperless billing and 2-in-1 envelopes, m-payments, SmartGrid initiatives, fleet management solutions, machine-to-machine communications, and green applications, Sprint customers are able to significantly enhance their productivity, while also reducing costs."
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated superior technological advancement, which is aligned with a sustainable and environmentally conscious objective within its industry sector. This Award signifies the company's identification of a unique and revolutionary solution with sizeable environmental benefits, while presenting tremendous market potential. Moreover, the Award also signifies that the company's overall business strategy is sound and poised for success.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served nearly 56 million connections as of Dec. 31, 2014, and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands, including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the past four years. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
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