A green mobile plan tackles telecom carbon emissions

The new mobile service provider will let users calculate and offset the emissions caused by their phone

Spotted: Consumers are increasingly choosing to make their daily lives more sustainable. While many of their choices relate to regular purchases such as food and clothes, there is something else integral to our day-to-day existence that also has a significant environmental impact: our phones. In fact, the telecom industry is on a par with the airline industry when it comes to waste. It is also responsible for nearly three per cent of all global greenhouse gases.

To address this, Danish startup Worthmore is on a mission to be the world’s most sustainable telecom provider. The company is developing a phone plan that allows users to offset the environmental impact of their phone. Ten per cent of the cost of the subscription goes towards offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the phone, while a further 15 per cent goes towards impact projects led by the company. In addition, Worthmore has pledged to allocate 25 per cent of its monthly profits to impact initiatives.

Donating money is not the only way that Worthmore is helping to clean up telecoms. The startup only sells second-hand devices and offers a service where users can donate old phones in exchange for credits that can be allocated to impact projects of their choice. Users enter their device into an ‘impact calculator’ which shows them how many ‘credits’ their phone is worth.

With a monthly subscription price of 149kr (around €20), Worthmore’s plan comes at a premium compared to low-cost providers such as Lyca mobile. However, unlike such providers, Worthmore offers 5G, and its plan is comparable in cost to other 5G providers such as Telia and 3.dk.

Worthmore’s mobile plan is set to launch soon, and customers can already sign up to the company’s wait list.

Other telecoms innovations spotted by Springwise include ethical, repairable, and recyclable phones, and a carbon-friendly battery that can power a smartphone for days.

Written By: Matthew Hempstead