Motorola Makes History with The Renew Phone

Motorola has made history by creating the first CarbonFree certified phone. The Renew phone (MOTO W233) is green, slick, and thin, and set to be released in the first quarter of 2009. Motorola put the Renew phone through Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree Product Certification process that included a rigorous life-cycle assessment to determine each phone's carbon footprint. Motorola then took Carbonfund.org's slogan to heart, "Reduce what you can, offset what you can't."

Each phone's housing is made from plastics comprised of recycled water bottles and is 100 percent recyclable. Motorola designed the packaging for the phones to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The size of the packaging for the phones was reduced by 22% to eliminate tons of potential landfill waste. And when you're done with the phone, you can send it back to Motorola to be recycled in a free postage-paid envelope.

Motorola is offsetting the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources, including Carbonfund.org's New Bedford Landfill Methane project, and reforestation.

The New York Times has reported that cell phones make up a large part of e-waste and its share is growing. 1.2 billion phones were sold in 2007. By greening the cell phone industry and encouraging people to recycle their cell phones, we can make a huge dent in the amount of e-waste and carbon emissions the industry produces.