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Profiting from doing the right thing
Rating technology by environmental and ethical performance delivers big returns for a global network operator and their customers.
Profiting from doing the right thing
Rating technology by environmental and ethical performance delivers big returns for a global network operator and their customers.
OVerview
Doing what is profitable and what is right is often seen as contradictory. This global network operator takes its responsibilities to the environment seriously and was the first UK mobile network to rate handsets by environmental and ethical performance. Their mobile recycling scheme lets customers trade in old phones for cash or other incentives. The telecoms brand partnered with Genuine Solutions to more effectively manage and measure the impact of recycling handsets and accessories that were returned by customers or dead on arrival.
What was the challenge?
Customers often received a smartphone but changed their minds, either prompting an exchange to a different device or a return of the goods to store for a refund. These devices were effectively classed as “as new” but could not be resold until they had been checked, cleaned of personal information and refurbished. Genuine Solutions role was to ensure that these devices were recycled or reused in the most ethical and profitable way.
“GENUINE SOLUTIONS EXPERTISE AND PROCESSES ALLOWED IT TO SUPPORT LEADING TELECOMS BRAND’S SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA.”
How did we overcome it?
We collected the stock from the telecoms brand’s logistics partner. The stock was then segregated, catalogued, graded according to its physical state, then tested to determine whether it could be repaired and reused, or recycled.
Used products that contained customer data were data-wiped and certificates were generated for all devices that power on. With everything else, Genuine Solutions provided full evidence of secure destruction of non-reusable products and motherboards.
Critically, Genuine Solutions was able to provide the telecoms brand with weekly reports and detailed monthly business insight that helped the company manage not only its sustainability reporting but also accurately measure revenues being generated by recycling.
What were the results?
264,000 accessories and 52,600 handsets were recovered, reloved and redistributed in the 24 months.
Devices were processed within 10 days and accessories within 15, resulting in the telecoms brand turning unwanted goods into revenue much faster than had previously been possible. 74 per cent of e-waste parts had been reused, meaning rare and toxic materials found in these devices avoided ending up in landfill and damaging the environment.
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of e-waste
parts reused
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data wiped
+ certified
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of recovered revenue
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donated to NSPCC
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of e-waste
parts reused
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data wiped
+ certified
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of recovered revenue
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donated to NSPCC
Recovering + reusing non-cellular technology
Genuine Solutions ventured into new non-cellular recovery with a leading TV & broadband provider Virgin to set the industry standard.
