On 21 September 2006, Environment Commissioner Dimas presented two pilot projects set up under the leadership of Finnish mobile phone producer Nokia and French retailer Carrefour. With the help of other companies in the same industry sector, both manufacturers will reduce the environmental impacts of their products. The coalition led by Nokia (including companies such as Motorola, Panasonic, Intel but also WWF and BEUC) will look at the life-cycle of mobile phones and take action such as reducing hazardous materials, develop improved take-back systems or mimimising energy consumption when charging batteries.
Carrefour (together with others such as CEI-Bois, WWF and BEUC) committed itself to use only sustainably produced wood for its garden chairs and to improve the design of their products by making the materials used more environmentally friendly and making them easier to transport.
The two pilot projects are also good examples of how industry and NGOs are starting to work more closely together to tackle sustainability issues.
