2015 winner: O2, Sustainable Consumption - case study

O2 are very proud of their 24million customers and their connectivity that helps bring their technology to life.

However, they are also aware of the environmental impact of the consumption of this technology, recognising that electronics are the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

O2 don’t manufacture the hardware themselves; however they wanted to change the consumption behaviour of their customers to make better choices for the environment and through this, influence O2's wider industry to improve its practices.

To do this they worked collaboratively across our industry including with handset manufacturers. O2 disrupted product definitions and pricing models and built Europe’s biggest mobile network recycling programme.

They enabled their customers to make better choices to reduce their environmental impact whilst generating value for them and O2 throughout. O2 have changed the way people do business in their sector to reduce their collective impact on the environment.

To do this, O2 empowered their customers to make informed choices throughout the product lifecycle:

• Pre-Purchase: Eco-rating provides clear ethical and environmental information to enable customers to make informed choices.

• 70% of O2's customers now say they actively seek out products with good ratings

• At Purchase: Charger-out-of-the-box allows customers to choose to consume less

• 85% made this choice when it was offered, saving 160,000 unnecessary chargers from being on the market

• In life: Re-establishing the material worth of devices through O2‘Refresh’

• 3 million customers have now signed up for the Refresh tariff

• End of product life: Creating value in devices at the end of theirfirst life to encourage re-use

• 1.4 million devices recycled and £100million paid to our customers so far

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(Please note: parts of this case study may have been redacted for confidentiality purposes.)