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Shortly after our materiality assessment process was completed in late 2007, Sprint decided to explore the development of a “greener” phone. This was a challenging task as there were no “green” standards in place for mobile phones, and there was very little research defining what “green” meant for a wireless device. We collected what information was available, conducted some of our own research, and then moved forward planning our first “eco-device.” It was the start of a meaningful journey that resulted in the creation of a Sprint vision for environmentally responsible products, a set of environmental specifications for our vendors to use in device design, development and production, a vendor scorecard that assesses our vendors’ performance against our minimum environmental requirements on a quarterly basis, and the creation of a Sprint Eco-Logo to designate wireless devices that score above the qualifying threshold on the Sprint eco-criteria, a robust set of criteria to evaluate a device’s environmental performance.
This section will provide detail on our vision for environmentally responsible products, the environmental specifications we’ve given to our product manufacturing partners, and an overview of our vendor scorecard process.
In August 2009, Sprint outlined its plans for a new environmental product and accessory development process. Sprint’s goal is to move toward devices and accessories that:
Because Sprint does not complete any direct manufacturing, we must advance this effort through our manufacturing partners. Just prior to announcing the launch of Samsung Reclaim™, our first environmentally responsible device, Sprint shared its environmental vision with each of its device manufacturing partners and told them to expect a draft set of environmental specifications for review. Over the next few months, the specifications were developed collaboratively, and then released to the vendors in December 2009.
Sprint has a standard set of requirements documents that our vendors use when developing new devices for Sprint. We felt that in order to achieve our environmental objectives, we needed to develop a new set of requirements for the manufacturers, focused specifically on advancing our environmental goals. The requirements were based on our environmental vision as well as various industry reference materials such as Restriction of the use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS), the Energy Star guidelines, Forest Stewardship Council certification, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), Greenpeace Green Electronics Guide, and others. The result was a comprehensive set of environmental specifications that outlined our requirements and preferred practices for environmentally responsible products. As industry expertise and processes evolve, we expect to modify the specifications to keep them current.
Sprint’s requirements cover the following areas:
Within each area, we provide detailed requirements that they must comply with or seek waivers. As the requirements are aggressive, we expect many waiver requests initially, but that they will decrease over time as vendors improve their manufacturing processes. Sprint has been pleased with the positive support its vendors have shown for this process and the requirements. It is clear that these changes are needed within the industry and Sprint is proud to be leading in this effort.
Sprint evaluates its vendors on a quarterly basis through a scorecard covering key performance expectations. Sprint executives and vendor management meet on a quarterly basis to review performance against expectations and discuss strengths and improvement needs. Sprint is adding an environmental component to the scorecard process, some of which will be shared publicly once the vendors are fully apprised of the additional performance expectations.