You can we can

We’re now all very dependent on our mobiles, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all follow a few simple suggestions. The more people follow them, the more chance we’ll have of lessening our impact on the environment. Although they might seem like an effort at the time, these small, easy steps really can help reduce the environmental impact of our mobile phones.

1) Unplug your chargers. We’ve all heard this, but how many of us actually do it? Phone chargers use electricity even when they’re not connected to a mobile phone. It’s estimated that if all mobile users in the country unplugged or switched off their chargers after use it would save 50,000 tonnes of CO2 each year in the UK alone.

2) Delay upgrading your handset. We know it sounds drastic! But think about it. Last year roughly 1 billion new handsets were sold across the world, each of them containing between 500 and 1,000 different components. Not only that, a huge amount of energy gets used up during the extraction of resources, the production and the transport of new phones.

3) Recycle your unwanted handsets. What seems a little battered and old to you might actually seem cutting-edge to someone else in a different part of the world. The good thing about old mobile phones is that they can mostly be repaired and sent abroad to be cared for by new owners in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, where the cost of a new phone is expensive, and landlines are not always available.

If your old phone can’t be re-used then you can pass it to us and we’ll make sure it’s recycled and that all its components will be taken out to begin a new life again as something else.

You can hand in an unwanted phone at any O2 retail store. And for every phone we recycle, we give £5 to the O2 Energy Saver Fund.

We're in this Together

We're proud to be a founding partner of 'We're in this Together' - a campaign which works with some of Britain's best known brands to promote easy, affordable things you can do to help tackle climate change. Join in now at www.together.com to find lots of easy things you can do.

The money raised through the O2 Energy Saver options will be used to help O2 and the Energy Saving Trust create the O2 Energy Saver fund that will help to turn communities green by ensuring they use less energy, pollute less, create less waste and have a reduced contribution to climate change.

The donations* to the O2 Energy Saver fund will be used to help local communities reduce carbon emissions.   The fund will pay for hit squads to deliver improvements to households which are unable to keep their homes warm because of energy inefficiencies.   Not only will successful bidders receive expert advice on how to save energy from the Energy Saving Trust, but each property will benefit from a choice of free wall cavity and loft insulation; draught proofing; energy-efficient light bulbs; and other energy-saving products.  The fund will be administered by the Energy Saving Trust, a not-for profit body that fights climate change and promotes energy saving and the use of renewable energy. 

1. Renew your contract and keep your handset  
2. O2 Energy Saver - SIM only tariff

Delay your handset upgrade, but make the world last longer

We know many of our customers love having the latest handset. But every new phone has an environmental cost. So that’s why we want to give you the choice. When it comes to renewing your contract, you can choose between having the latest handset or sticking with your existing one for another 12/18 months (dependant on the tariff you choose), to help reduce your CO2 footprint. We’ll also give you a nice incentive for doing a good thing:

If you’re an existing O2 pay monthly customer and you decide to renew your contract without changing your phone, we’ll offer you a choice. Either

• £100 credit on your bill, or
• £95 credit on your bill, with £5 going to the O2 Energy Saver fund. If you go for this option, we’ll match your donation, bringing the total donation to £10. To renew your contract just call the number on your bill.

Online simplicity Tariffs

Not only do you get O2's best ever pay monthly rate, but with all online simplicity tariffs where we are helping the environment by not sending out paper bills, O2 will donate on your behalf £5 towards the Energy Saving Trust. And, by not taking a handset you are further reducing CO2 emissions by 7.5kgs. That's over 34 beach balls worth! Available online at https://shop.o2.co.uk/tariffs/simonly 

* The O2 Energy Saver - SIM Only Tariff will be available from 28^th April.