Circular Mobility: Orange Business’ Comprehensive Solution to Reduce Telecom Carbon Impact

Circular Mobility: Orange Business’ Comprehensive Solution to Reduce Telecom Carbon Impact

(IN BRIEF) Orange Business has launched “Circular Mobility,” an initiative aimed at reducing the carbon footprint associated with telecom usage. This offering covers various aspects of the mobile fleet lifecycle, including equipment, connectivity, and services, and incorporates sustainable mobile phones, fleet leasing, collection, recycling, flexible data plans, and a carbon footprint assessment. Circular Mobility allows businesses to extend investments, adopt eco-friendly consumption practices, and reduce mobile phone carbon footprints by 26% to 40%. It aligns with Orange Business’s commitment to collect 30% of mobile phones for reuse or recycling by 2025 and promote the circular economy.

(PRESS RELEASE) PARIS, 5-Feb-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Orange S.A. (EPA: ORA), a French multinational telecommunications group, announces that Orange Business is taking a significant step in its commitment to sustainability by launching “Circular Mobility,” an innovative solution designed to minimize the carbon footprint associated with telecom usage while addressing evolving consumer and citizen expectations. This initiative is part of the “Re” program, emphasizing Recycling, Reconditioning, and Reclamation, aligning with Orange Group’s CSR commitment¹.

Circular Mobility is a comprehensive offering that covers all aspects of the mobile fleet lifecycle, including manufacturing, logistics, usage, and second-life return. It includes:

1. Sustainable mobile phones selection, featuring refurbished and new terminals with reduced carbon emissions.
2. Mobile fleet leasing with a circular economy approach, allowing returns after 24 or 36 months.
3. Collection and recycling of old mobile fleets through Orange Reprise service.
4. Flexible data plans with the Orange Business Performance Major Customers Package.
5. Carbon footprint assessment based on a validated calculation method by AFNOR Certification.

This initiative enables businesses to extend investments over time, preserve cash flow, adopt eco-friendly consumption practices, and achieve annual reductions in mobile phone carbon footprints ranging from 26% to 40%. Orange Business has evaluated this by assessing the carbon footprint based on several use cases². Circular Mobility aligns with Orange Business’s commitment to collect 30% of mobile phones for reuse or recycling by 2025 and championing the circular economy.

Two alternative use cases are:

• The Classic scenario (24 months), with a combination of new and leased refurbished terminals, consuming 8GB of data per month and collected at the end of use. The carbon footprint is estimated at 19.43kg per year and per terminal.
• The Serenity scenario (36 months), with the same usage characteristics as the 24-month Classic scenario, but with a longer holding period. The carbon footprint is estimated at 15.83 kg per year and per terminal.

Béatrice Poirier, Head of the Ecological Transition Division at AFNOR Certification, emphasized the importance of robust guarantees in ecological transition, including validating calculation methods and database support. “Circular Mobility aligns with the ecological transition of organizations, necessitating robust guarantees by validating the calculation method, supporting databases, and the output data format. This validation is based on reference standards and other key texts related to life cycle analysis, carbon footprint calculation, communication, etc..”

Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO of Orange Business, highlighted their commitment to sustainable production and consumption as strategic imperatives, focusing on eco-design, collection, refurbishment, repair, recycling, and product lifespan extension. “Today more than ever, sustainable production and consumption have become strategic imperatives for everyone. The CSR policy at Orange is at the core of this issue. Orange Business is working with the entire Orange Group toward the goal of collecting 30% of mobile phones for reuse or recycling by 2025. Our overarching objective is to champion the circular economy through eco-design, collection, refurbishing, repair, recycling, and increasing the overall lifespan of our products.”

To find out more, consult the Circular Mobility study report validated by AFNOR Certification: https://showroom-mobile.orange.fr/circular-mobility/

¹Orange is committed to collecting 30% of mobiles sold in each European country (Reprise). In addition, Orange has set up the ‘Collecte citoyenne et solidaire’, in partnership with Emmaüs International. https://www.orange.com/fr/engagements/orange-s-engage/pour-l-environnement

²The figures for the reduction in the carbon impact of the Circular Mobility offer are based on the results of the study conducted by Orange Innovation, with a confidence index of 1.84, i.e. a “good” confidence index. These figures will be reassessed in the future to reflect the reality of the market.

Media contacts:

Caroline Cellier
Séverine Belhomme

SOURCE: Orange