2Sustain

Communications conglomerate AT&T, in collaboration with global sustainability consultancy Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), is continuing its march on environmentally-conscious business practices with the release of a new eco-rating system for its products.

In just a few months, consumers will find AT&T eco-ratings on simple, easy-to-read-and-understand labels included with AT&T-branded mobile devices.

As a recent Deloitte study showed, sustainability is becoming increasingly important for consumer purchasing decisions. In fact, more than half (54 percent) of surveyed shoppers said they consider sustainability to be one of their top decision-making factors.

To provide consumers with information so they can make more educated and environmental decisions, AT&T’s new eco-rating system will cover attributes such as: (more…)

Earlier this month, Sprint announced it is joining the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Climate Savers program.

As one of only 28 companies in the Climate Savers program, Sprint joins IBM, The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson and others that have agreed to take aggressive measures to scale up climate protection efforts.

Even among these sustainability leaders, however, Sprint’s commitment is particularly noteworthy. It is now one of only two companies in the Climate Savers program to address all scopes of GHG emissions through the WWF agreement. Sprint is the only US company to do so, and it joins KPN, a Dutch telecommunications company, as the only other partner in the Climate Savers program to commit to such a multifaceted GHG emissions reduction strategy for its own operations, suppliers and consumers.

Sprint’s commitments include: (more…)

In March of 2010, AT&T launched an initiative to slim down its accessory packaging, and since then, the company has succeeded in eliminating more than 500 tons of paper and plastic used for packaging device chargers, cases, batteries and data cables.

Now, AT&T is ratcheting up its commitment to sustainable packaging one more notch. Last week, AT&T announced that it will become the first US telecom company to use new plant-based plastic in its accessory packaging.

The new plastic is composed of up to 30 percent plant-based materials sourced from natural sugarcane. According to AT&T, the sugarcane used is a rapidly renewable agricultural crop and replaces nearly a third of the fossil fuels traditionally used in this particular packaging. (more…)

Sprint, the third-largest wireless provider in the US, has finished at the top of the class in ForestEthics’ 2011 Green Grades Report Card.

In its fifth annual report card, ForestEthics gave Sprint the highest score, an “A,” in recognition of the company’s work to reduce the impact that its paper consumption has on the world’s forests.

This year, ForestEthics rated 12 large companies in the telecommunications, insurance and credit card sectors.  What’s the common denominator among these three sectors?  They all are noted for their heavy consumption of paper, especially those direct marketing offers that end up in our mailboxes.

Sprint received the highest grade for the following reasons: (more…)

AT&T has released it 2008 Citizenship and Sustainability Report, titled “Connecting for a Sustainable Future.”

For the first time, the report is aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3 Guidelines, and in it AT&T announces that the company has made progress on measuring corporate-wide CO2 emissions and determining base lines. As a result, AT&T plans to disclose its domestic carbon footprint by the end of 2009.

AT&T’s sustainability report is broken down into six strategic focus areas:

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