Apple snubs cell phone service provider’s eco-list

Consumers are increasingly aware of how products get into their hands. Whether they’re checking to see if their eggs are on a recall list or their handbag was made with sustainable materials, green ideas can certainly influence a purchase. That’s why one of the UK’s biggest cell phone providers, O2, has created an eco-index based on sustainability. The program is volunteer based and caught the attention of Samsung and LG, but Apple did not submit the iPhone for evaluation.

O2 conducted a survey that found 44% percent of customers thought that environmental factors would influence their next cell phone purchase. Like any other business that wants to sell more products, O2 got going on a plan to highlight the environmental aspects of each phone they sell.

Developed through a partnership with a sustainable development non-profit called Forum for the Future, O2’s Eco rating system is available online and in-stores. The rating aims to encourage competition for the green cell phone market by evaluating the phones on categories like functionality. If the phone has a MP3 player or GPS features, that’s one less item you need to purchase.

Manufacturers that wanted to participate in the program had to answer sixty three questions about each phone in order to start the evaluation process. The results were calculated into seven weighted categories:

• Corporate impacts: 11%
• Raw materials and manufacturing impacts: 26%
• Substance impacts: 7.5%
• Packaging and delivery: 7.5%
• Use impacts: 19%
• Disposal impacts: 4%
• Functionality: 25%

Each phone is given a score of 0-5, with Sony Ericsson’s Elm topping the list with a score of 4.3 while LG took many of the bottom slots.

Apple’s decision to opt out of O2’s program isn’t a complete shock. They have taken hits before for their use of PVCs and odd packaging choices like the Mobile Me shipment that had more cardboard than documentation. The iPhone 4’s packaging is an improvement, but it contains so many parts that it could be compared to a Russian nesting doll.

Another problem for Apple could be the category of “corporate impacts” with the rash of suicides at iPhone assembly plants in China. Thirteen workers have committed suicide this year, causing many factories to install suicide prevention nets and organize morale boosting rallies.

Apple may have ducked O2’s new program but Research In Motion (RIM) and their Blackberry devices also took a pass on the rating system. However, RIM will join the program in 2011.

While O2’s reasoning behind the program may be to educate consumers, it’s also a quiet way to sell a lot of phones via a questionnaire that’s shorter than many high school final exams. Instead of getting the lowdown from a multinational corporation like O2’s parent company Telefónica, there needs to be a different rating system for cell phones that’s more akin to the Energy Star program.