Why buy a highly-rated phone?
Eco Rating – At Vodafone, we aim to build a digital society. One that enhances socio-economic progress, embraces everyone and does not come at the cost of our planet.
To empower our customers to make more environmentally conscious choices together with other operators in Europe
We are introducing Eco Rating, a harmonized scoring system for mobile devices when shopping online or in-store. This is to empower our customers to make more environmentally conscious choices.
How does it work?
Eco Rating evaluates the impact mobile phones make on our environment throughout their entire lifecycle. There will be an overall score that is easily accessible and shows the impact the device has on the environment and society. Products with the highest score (from 1-100) are particularly sustainable and environmentally friendly. The overall score sub-categories are:
- Durability,Â
- Repairability
- Recyclability
- Climate efficiency
- Resource efficiency
DurabilityÂ
The expected guaranteed lifetime of the device and the components, the battery life as well as the device robustness.
Reparability
The possibility of simple repairs as well as the time span for software updates from the manufacturer.
Climate & resources
The production of the device including the use of recycled plastics, minerals and metals, and the transportation.
Frequently asked questions
Who is behind the Eco Rating initiative?
Five of Europe’s leading mobile operators have joined forces to develop and launch the new pan-industry Eco Rating labelling scheme - Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica (operating under the O2 and Movistar brands), Telia Company and Vodafone. The consortium is open to other mobile operators and expect more to join.
More than 16 phone manufacturers have contributed to Eco Rating by providing data for their devices, with others expected to be announced in the future.
How do I interpret the scoring?
Each mobile phone handset is given an overall Eco Rating score out of a maximum of 100 to signal the environmental performance of the device across its entire life cycle.
Eco Rating also highlights five key aspects of mobile device sustainability, providing additional information about durability, repairability, recyclability, climate efficiency and resource efficiency. Â
The higher the score, the better the sustainability performance of the device.
Is it possible to achieve a score of 100?
The methodology has been established so that the highest possible score - 100 out of 100 - is very challenging for manufacturers to achieve. Â
There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ scores – but by applying the Eco Rating methodology consistently and bringing it to market, it will help consumers identify and compare the most sustainable mobile phones and, over time, encourage suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of their devices.
How do I compare a phone with an Eco Rating to one without it?
Is there a dependency between the overall score out of 100, and the five sub-scores - durability, repairability, recyclability, climate efficiency and resource efficiency?
The overall Eco Rating score (1-100) is based on the evaluation of the environmental impact of the entire life cycle of the analysed device and its material efficiency scores. In addition, some additional sub-scores are also shown, providing more detailed guidance on the performance for specific key aspects.
The Rating Eco Rating applies a consistent evaluation methodology equally and objectively across 13 different environmental impacts and 6 circular economy criteria. The final score includes assessments that are not reflected in the sub-scores.
Devices that achieve higher sub-scores will usually achieve a higher overall Eco Rating, but the overall score is not directly dependent on the sub-scores and isn’t calculated as an average of the sub-scores. However, all the sub-scores have a relative impact on the overall result, depending on their relevance towards the life cycle of the specific device being assessed.Â
