Unfiltered

In moves seemingly timed to catch a little “green” glow for the company, AT&T this week announced a new paperless billing initiative – targeting 1 million new customers – as well as a new more energy efficient cell phone charger . These high-profile consumer-facing green initiatives – including an earlier move to cut down on cell phone packaging waste – should be taken for what they are: well-intentioned efforts that draw good mainstream media attention to eco-issues facing our industry. But the real action at an operator like AT&T happens in the network and data center reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions and more on a grand scale.

Still, putting on a more outward green face (no St. Patrick’s day pun intended) can pay dividends too. More on this story from the environment press:

If a million customers switch to paperless billing, as the PayItGreen initiative seeks, 400,000 pounds of paper would be saved and up to 6 million pounds of greenhouse gases would be averted. AT&T also says that it could prevent 4 million gallons of wastewater from being discharged into waterways per year. Citing EPA statistics, AT&T says that planting 1 million trees would absorb more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide.

With regards to its cellular device business, AT&T has a new wireless charger that has a so-called “automatic zero draw,” meaning that if a device is not plugged into a charger, it would not draw power from the outlet. Device chargers have gained notoriety for their ability to suck “phantom power” from the grid, i.e., they continue to consume electricity whether they are charging a device or not.

The Connected Planet take, Sarah Reedy:

Mobile phone chargers really suck – power that is. Consumers tend to leave them plugged in all day wasting energy through vampire power, and they are also typically one of eight external power adapters that every individual owns. That’s why AT&T’s announced Zero Charger is great news from the power-saving front, but it’s only a small step. First off, consumers will have to buy it separate from a phone purchase. Those that do are likely those who were already green-minded enough to unplug their eight chargers when they leave home. What will really make a difference is when the industry adopts a universal charger and includes only that with every device they sell. AT&T’s Zero Charger works as a USB port, letting you charge other devices as well, so it comes close. But, it will still be a few years before device makers and carriers move away from proprietary ports and default to a universal USB for each of their devices.

I tend to be skeptical of any ‘green’-related announcements in general (unless they refer to yesterday’s holiday), including AT&T’s other announcements today around planting trees and paper reduction. It is one of those ‘we’ll believe it when we see it’ type of things, and it is also only a small portion of a much larger problem. I’m sure AT&T’s intentions are genuine – it even hired an energy director and established a sustainability advisory council to help reduce its carbon footprint. But positioning itself as a tree-hugging, vampire-killing force of good is only a first step. Hopefully more steps will follow.

That’s our take on this, let us know what you think in the comments below:

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